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Maqam Al-Nabi Musa in the Early Mamluk Period

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Maqam Al-Nabi Musa in the Early Mamluk Period ARAM, 18-19 (2006-2007) 621-639. H.doi: TARAGAN 10.2143/ARAM.19.0.2020749 621 HOLY PLACE IN THE MAKING: MAQAM AL-NABI MUSA IN THE EARLY MAMLUK PERIOD Dr. HANA TARAGAN (Tel Aviv University) According to the inscription on the wall of Maqam al-Nabi Musa (the shrine of the prophet Moses),1 upon his return from pilgrimage (Ìajj) to Mecca in 1268-69/668, the Mamluk Sultan Baybars ordered the construction of a shrine (maqam)2 over the grave of Moses. The shrine was built in the Judean desert between Jerusalem and Jericho, some 1.5 km south of the Jerusalem-Jericho road and approximately 8 km south of Jericho.3 The tomb of a saint, a prophet, a martyr (shahid) etc., which functions as a place for pilgrimage, can be perceived as a conjunction of several elements I thank the chief local archeologist Yuval Peleg for joining me on my ‘pilgrimage' from Jeru- salem to Jericho; for his astute observations and generous comments. 1 Et. Combe, J. Sauvaget et G. Wiet, Repertoire chronologique d'epigraphie Arab, (RCEA) (Le Caire, 1943), no. 4612. See also: L.A. Mayer, “Two Inscriptions of Baybars”, The Quar- terly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine II (1933). pp. 27-33; J. Bloom, “The Mosque of Baybars al-Bunduqdari in Cairo”, Annales Islamologiques, 18(1982), pp. 75-76.; R. Amitai, “Some Remarks on the Inscription of Baybars at Maqam Nabi Musa” in (eds.) D. Wassertein and A. Ayalon, Mamluk and Ottoman Studies in Honour of Michael Winter (London, 2006), pp. 45-53. 2 Maqam: O Grabar is referring to the illusive or multiple “facets of memorial construction in the minds of the Muslims”. He sees maqam as a “place- when related to the emplacement of some event”. See “The Earliest Islamic Commemorative Structures, Notes and Documents”, Ars Orientalis VI (1966), p. 7. According to J. Sadan, maqam is “frequented funeral site” See, “On Tombs and Holy Writ” in (ed.) A. Ovadiah, Milestones in the Art and Culture of Egypt, (Tel-Aviv, 2000), p. 186. According to Josef Meri, “The maqam which is often rendered as ora- tory or station, is a place which does not ordinarily contain a tomb (qabr), but is invariably asso- ciated with a saint or some other holy person, usually a prophet”. Josef W. Meri, The Cults of Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (Oxford, 2002), pp. 269-270. Baybars' refer- ence to the term maqam, in this inscription, relates, in my opinion, to his desire to connect the place with a prophetic figure-Moses. It should be noted, however, that, upon his arrival, a tomb had already existed at that site. 3 Numerous scholars have partially researched the building in reference to either the inscrip- tion, to the medieval literary sources in which the structure is mentioned or to the different parts of the building according to its various historical periods. To date, however, no research has ad- dressed Baybars' Maqam, specifically from its architectonic and iconographic perspective. See: S. Tamari, “Maqam al-Nabi Musa (Jericho)” Revue des études islamiques XLIX/2 (1981), pp. 231-250; Also, S. Tamari, “Maqam Nabi Musa Shelyad Yeriho” Katedra 11 (1979), pp. 153-180. (Hebrew). Kamil jamil al-‘Asali, Mawasim al-Nabi Musa fi Filastin: Ta'rikh al- Mawsim wa 'l-Maqam (Amman,1990), idem, Watha¿iq Muqaddasiyya Ta'rikhiyya, 3 vols. (Am- man, 1983). Kh.M.M. Murrar, Maqam al-Nabi Musa, M.A. thesis (al-Quds Univ. Jerusalem 1997). See also: Zeev Vilnay, Holy Monuments in Eretz Israel, vol.1 (Jerusalem, 1985) (1st ed. 1951), pp. 233-238 (Hebrew). 06-8819_Aram 18-19_32_Taragan 621 06-26-2007, 18:41 622 MAQAM AL-NABI MUSA IN THE EARLY MAMLUK PERIOD that conduct a dialogue of sorts. The first is the narrative manifested in render- ing an event from the scriptures, a miracle recounted in the oral legends or a story mentioned in religious traditions; the second is the actual time of a struc- ture's construction as well as its past time or its ‘memory' that constitute the event, which is the reason for its construction; thirdly is the location: the geo- graphical location, the chosen landscape, a location associated with the event whether real or invented; and the fourth is the patron, whether a community or a ruler, and his motivation for initiating the construction. The physical expres- sion of the sum total of all these elements is the structure – the architectural space. Through the structural and the decorative vocabulary which is familiar to the observer or worshipper, the desired message is transferred. This article explores Maqam al-Nabi Musa as an architectural creation which focuses, binds and unites all the elements listed above. It examines how the various architectural elements, such as the dome, the entrance, the columns and their capitals and the miÌrab, combine to form the meaningful message that the patron of the building wished to convey; how a patron – in this case the first Mamluk Sultan, Baybars – dispenses propaganda by means of the construction of a maqam; how the inscription joins the array of interpretation and deciphering and finally how that message can be understood by a society that is both illiterate and avoids figurative images. All these are considered within the broader historical context in which Muslims and Crusaders met. The burial site is situated in the middle of a large complex resembling a khan (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2-x). The tomb is enclosed in a dome-covered room sup- ported by four squinches (Fig. 5) which embodying sculptured relief in the form of a shell. The room is approximately 10 meters in height, and almost square in size (5.60 x 5.45) comprising wide blind arches on all four walls. About eight windows surround the walls of the room through which the grave can be seen from the outside by the pilgrims (Fig. 3). The entrance to the room is from the prayer hall, which is a later Mamluk addition (Fig. 9). On either side of the entrance, Baybars provided a space for marble columns with Corinthian capitals.(Fig. 3 and 4). A long inscription was placed over a window to the left of the entrance, written in typical Mamluk script and set in a sigma-shaped frame (Fig. 3). Inside, on the south- eastern wall, Baybars had a mihrab constructed, flanked by two columns with Corinthian capitals (Fig. 6). The capitals bear floral friezes, set between the columns and the zigzagged miÌrab arch, which is topped by a modern plaque with the word Allah on it. In front of the miÌrab stands a huge cloth-covered construction of ashlar limestone (5 m. in length, see Fig. 5) encircled by a wooden lattice, in which the prophet Moses is supposedly entombed. Victor Guerin, who visited the place at the end of the 19th century, argues that in that era it was not unusual to build such big graves, although “it is noticeable that the shrines of major figures such as Moses or Samuel are larger than those of 06-8819_Aram 18-19_32_Taragan 622 06-26-2007, 18:41 H. TARAGAN 623 lesser saints.”4 Guerin also tells us that tombs are nearly always covered with a cloth, which is usually green, but can sometimes be black. The columns, capitals and friezes (which have not yet been published and studied), were collected as loot from Crusader structures and ruins found in the Holy Land, mainly in Jerusalem.5 The capitals are in the traditional Corinthian style, (Fig. 4) deriving from Classical art but are unique in char- acter, highly schematic and stylized. The spiky leaf, curling outward, the horn-shaped scroll volutes and the bulbous lower section of the capitals are all typical of this the local style, which can be found in most 12th century Cru- sader churches in the Holy Land.6 Among them are still in situ part of the capitals on the pillars of the nave of St. John's church in Ramla which was later converted into a mosque,7 and the capitals of the Cathedral of St. John in Sebaste, both of them are dated to the second half of the 12th century.8 The friezes, placed above the abacus of the capitals on both sides of the miÌrab, are long and not aligned with the top of the capital. They differ in de- sign, representing two types of leaf style, and include two continuous interlac- ing scrolls, often interspersed with acorns and pine cones (Fig. 7). The sharp contrasts between their smooth surfaces, the deep undercuts defining their con- tours and the shadowy surfaces achieved by drilling, imbue them with an al- most naturalistic quality. The carving is of the highest quality, the sculpted leaves form an elegant, dynamic movement that fuses naturalistic and abstract trends. In all probability the friezes were originally made in the 12th century by lo- cal Christian craftsmen of the Temple Mount workshop in Jerusalem, who were stylistically connected to the western traditions on one hand, and to ‘lo- cal signs and symbols' on the other.9 They are remarkably similar to the Cru- 4 Victor Guerin, Description de la Palestine, Samarie, Tome premier (deuxieme partie) (Am- sterdam, 1969), pp. 21-22. 5 D. Pringle mentions about 300 churches that were built in the Holy Land during the 12th and 13th centuries. See, D. Pringle, “Church-Building in Palestine Before the Crusades” in ed. J. Folda, Crusader Art in the Twelfth Century (London, 1982), pp. 5-6. 6 Z. Jacoby, “The Workshop of the Temple Area in Jerusalem in the Twelfth Century: its Origin, Evolution and Impact” Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte, 45 (1982/4), p.
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