Islamic Sites Research Articles

Dating Early Islamic Sites through Architectural Elements: A Case Study from Central Israel

The development of the chronology of the Early Islamic period (7th-11th centuries) has largely been based on coins and pottery, but both have pitfalls. In addition to the problem of mobility, both coins and pottery were used for extended periods of time. As a result, the dating of pottery can seldom be refined to less than a 200-300-year range, while coins in Israel are often found in contexts hundreds of years after the intial production of the coin itself. This article explores an alternative method for dating based on construction techniques and installation designs. To that end, this paper analyzes one excavation area in central Israel between Tel-Aviv, Ashdod and Ramla. The data used in the study is from excavations and survey of early Islamic remains. Installation and construction techniques were categorized by type and then ordered chronologically through a common stratigraphy from related sites. The results were mapped to determine possible phases of change at the site, with six phases being established and dated. This analysis led to the re-dating of the Pool of the Arches in Ramla from 172 AH/789 CE to 272 AH/886 CE, which is different from the date that appears on the building inscription. The attempted reconstruction of Ramla involved several scattered sites attributed to the 7th and the 8th centuries which grew into clusters by the 9th century and unified into one main cluster with the White Mosque at its center by the 10th-11th centuries. This dating method chiefly utilizes terminus post quem dates and index fossils to differentiate between the 9th and 10th centuries. This article emphasizes the potential of archaeology as an alternative to written sources in the dating of sites and offers a fresh perspective on the history of this region.

A Tale of Two Façades: Archaeology and the Secularization of an Islamic Past

This article examines how certain forms of preservation work to recast the past in rigid terms of secular and religious. Focusing on a series of early Islamic period sites in the Levant, collectively known as the Umayyad qusūr (sometimes referred to as “desert palaces”), this essay traces the ways in which scholars signal the realms of the secular through interpretation of architectonics and iconography. This process of secularization is then further advanced through practices of preservation and display within colonial and nationalist museum contexts on a grand scale. At stake are ethical claims about the value of religion, specifically Islam, in larger discourses of culture and civilization. The paper explores the role played by these approaches to the material past of the early Islamic world for how they perform and police the boundaries of religious and secular materiality.

The Characteristics of al-Qur'an Interpretation in Radical Islamic Sites in Indonesia

The issue of radicalism has become a serious topic in recent years. The issue of radicalism is not only studied at the national level, but also receives a lot of attention at the global level. Radicalism seems to be considered as a virus endangering humanity. Printed and electronic media are allegedly one of the most effective methods of disseminating the understanding of radicalism. The study examines the characteristics of the interpretation of the verses of the Qur'an in Islamic sites which are indicated to adhere to radicalism. The study also examines the extent of the implications of interpreting the verses of the Qur'an in Islamic sites against the spread of the thoughts of radical Islam in Indonesia. The study is included in the library research category with a media analysis approach. The study focuses on interpreting the verses of the Qur'an embraced in Islamic sites in Indonesia. The research is qualitative in nature. From the analysis carried out on five Islamic sites in Indonesia, four interpretive criteria have been found, namely: interpretation as a mean of ideological legitimacy; loss of contextualization of verses; jihadist interpretations campaign; and the typology of revivalist subjectivists in the typology of interpretation. Thie study concludes that media, both printed and electronic, can influence and change the paradigm of thinking that it can move certain people or groups of people to act or behave in a certain way. Thus, it is obvious that the interpretations of the Qur'an in the Islamic sites indicated as radical can have an influence on the spread of radical Islam.

Las iglesias de época bizantina en Nablus (Neapolis), Palestina

Our aim is to research and catalogue archaeological and historical information on all the churches in Nablus from the Byzantine period, built from the beginning the fourth century ad to 638 ad –16 ah– and discovered from the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. We also aimed to provide a description of each building in terms of usage and form. We have extracted information from Byzantine literary and historical sources and Samaritan religious sources, as well as from reports on archaeological excavations, for analysing and drawing conclusions. In our study, we discuss the reuse of former Samaritan, Christian or Islamic sites, for reconstruction or conversion of the buildings to adapt them for use by the religion of the conquerors, whether it be Samaritan, Christian or Islamic. The churches have never been the subject of a comprehensive archaeological study due to the biblical focus of archaeological projects in Palestine. We examine each church individually looking at the cross-over or integration of architectural periods and models. Our review leads to the discovery that all the churches built in Nablus during the Byzantine period were of four architecturally distinct types, these being the Latin cross, octagonal central-plan, basilica-plan and rectangular plan. We also found that Christian churches were allowed to remain in use during Islamic rule.

Dakwah di Media Siber

The Internet gives a new universal space for sharing information, and interacting. The use of the Internet network, in the context of da’wah is a breakthrough for the efficiency and effectiveness of da’wah. The birth of Islamic sites is a must for today’s adult da’wah activists. However, da’wah should evolve and adapt to the ever-changing character of society, so da’wah can be well received. One of the sites containing Islamic values is juguransyafaat.com. The method used in this study is semiotics, where this theory is used to interpret the meaning of the text, whether in the form of words or images. The result of this research explains that through the writings or articles it is seen that the discourse presented in juguransyafaat.com gives the characteristics of the propagation material, which when classified into three major parts, which in cludes aqidah, life, and morals to create innovative thinking which is expected to change the establishment of the understanding of religion from a closed understanding to an open religious understanding.

A Petrographic Analysis of Ancient Jordanian Ceramic Building Materials

Although ceramic building materials (CBM) such as brick, pipe and roof-tiles were commonly used in the classical world, these types of artifacts have received only cursory study by modern scholars. Past studies have focused almost entirely on the inscriptions or decorations displayed on a small subset of CBM while ignoring the more crucial questions such as their composition and fabric. The goal of this research project was to decipher the similarities and differences in ancient Jordanian CBM using both a historical and scientific approach. This study was a continuation on the typology created by Humayma Excavation Project archaeologists (Reeves and Harvey) based on samples of CBM from Humayma and other Jordanian sites. The Humayma archaeologists have been developing typologies for each class of ceramic building material based on macroscopic differences in form and fabric. In order to test and refine the typologies created, a chemical and petrographic evaluation of these ceramic buildings materials was undergone. Geological laboratory evaluations were conducted in order to investigate whether these typologies were differentiable on a scientific level. The principal purpose of this project was to analyze ancient bricks and tiles in order to refine a diagnostic tool for dating the phases of occupation of the Nabataean to Early Islamic site of Humayma. Additionally, this research project examined CBM from other Jordanian in order to address questions of production and distribution.

Quantifying the effects of erosion on archaeological sites with low-altitude aerial photography, structure from motion, and GIS: A case study from southern Jordan

Cutting-edge photogrammetric techniques combined with traditional methods are a boon for archaeologists interested in performing spatial analyses. Low-altitude aerial photography (LAAP) combined with photogrammetric Image Based Modeling (IBM) comprise a workflow that allows for precise and accurate recording of both photographic and elevation data of archaeological sites with a great deal of speed and efficiency. Through these techniques, the researcher can create spatially-referenced orthophotos and digital elevation models (DEMs), which can serve as the basis for investigations into site formation processes. Due to the rapidity of the creation of these datasets, analysis of site formation processes can be completed over the course of hours or days. The results of such site formation studies can inform and guide further archaeological investigations of sites. This paper presents the application of a combined LAAP-IBM method to acquire GIS data, which serves as the basis for a case study of a new model of the effects of erosion on archaeological sites – a key factor in understanding site formation processes. These methods are applied to Khirbat Nuqayb al-Asaymir, a Middle Islamic site in southern Jordan, as a case study.

Fit for an Umayyad Prince: An Eighth-Century Map or the Earliest Mimetic Painting of the Moon?

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: THE UNESCO WORLD Heritage site of Qusayr 'Amra is one of the most famous places for early Islamic art (Figure 2.1). This lavishly illustrated bathhouse, dated firmly to the period of 723–743, contains a treasure trove of mural images that have been described as capturing "a men's locker-room view of the world." With the possible exception of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, another Umayyad construction, more has been written on Qusayr 'Amra than on any other early Islamic art historical site. But unlike its flashy rival in Jerusalem, Qusayr 'Amra emerges out of the sands of the Syro-Arabian desert (Badiyat ash-Sham) like a hidden set of burnished pearls. Tucked away in the depression of Jordan's Wadi Butum, the valley of the Terebinth Pistachio trees that extends to the oasis of Azraq, it lies about 100 km east of Amman in an area known for its Umayyad desert castles.

The abstract of critical discourse analysis of radicalism labeling by BNPT to Islamic site

The development of radicalism issues is begun by a radical group movement and its spread in social media is labeled as a radical element by, The Agency of National Counter Terrorism (BNPT). This research issues radicalism through the language because there is an element of the radical language becoming criteria of radical in social media. Pursuant to factual logical data, views from readers, this research aims at; 1) describing the criteria of the language use labelled radical by BNPT in Islamic pages; 2) investigating the ideology of radicalism views in Islamic pages; 3) describing how BNPT views Islamic pages; 4) finding the relevant result toward the discourse analysis learning in universities. The approach used in this study is the Critical Discourse Study approach belonging to descriptive qualitative. This study is based on the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as the main theories and supported by the use of Social Semiotic Theory proposed by Halliday to analyze criteria of radical language.

Media treatment of the problems of the environment in the Islamic sites across the Internet Network "Alukah" site model -An analytical study-

This study aims to address the media treatment of the problems ofthe environment in the Islamic sites across the Internet the way, and wasselected for that network, "Alalokh" site model, and for this purpose ithas been the adoption of content analysis method for analyzing a sampleof the research community, and has led the study analytical to the set ofresults The most important are: Interesting site all the data of environmental problems and the predominance of Islamic discourse inaddressing these problems, what gives the impression that the environment is an important angle in the Islamic system, and with all that he could not site at addressing the problems of the environment can benefit from the online features in openness to other cultures on the grounds that the treatment language added a shadow on the Arabic language making it locked in the community where I was born.

Perencanaan Taman Islam pada Lansekap Islamic Center Provinsi NTB

ABSTRACTIslamic Garden Planning at West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Islamic CenterWest Nusa Tenggara (NTB) is one of province in Indonesia with majority of Muslim population. In consequence, it required to provide facility such as Islamic center. NTB Islamic Center was built as a center of Islamic studies and support the halal tourism in NTB. Currently, NTB Islamic Center is under construction and the landscape need to be planned in order to complete the overall construction. The aims of this study were to identify character of the landscape, to analyze any potential and obstruction at the site, and to plan the landscape of NTB Islamic Center with the Islamic garden concept. The method used in this research were literature study and field survey. Literature study was applied to get the formulation of the Islamic garden concept from Al-Qur’an and Hadith and the other literature related to Islamic garden. Furthermore, field survey was applied to determine some obstacles and the potentials of the site to support the NTB Islamic Center planning. The synthesis of study was applied as a concept to develop NTB Islamic Center. The concept of Islamic gardens was selected as a model of beauty of paradise as described in the Al-Qur’an and Hadith. Some adjustment were implemented in the site to conform its character and condition. The final result of this research was NTB Islamic Center site plan with emphasized on Islamic religion and culture.Keywords: Islamic garden, Islamic center, landscape planning, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB)

Size Estimation of Kingsoldier Bream (Argyrops spinifer) and Evidence of Fishing Strategies

AbstractThis paper provides regression formulae for size estimation of kingsoldier bream (Argyrops spinifer) from measurements taken on bones enabling the reconstruction of the size of fish present in archaeological samples. Bones of Sparidae are commonly recovered from archaeological sites bordering the Arabian Gulf, and, of the species within this family, kingsoldier bream are relatively abundant with the bones also easily identifiable. The marine environment where this fish occurs varies throughout its life cycle, and therefore the reconstructed size of the fish can be used to infer the types of location where past fishing activities took place. Comparison of the estimated size of fish caught from two Late Islamic sites on the northwest coast of Qatar, in combination with other evidence, has been used to indicate differing frequencies of fishing methods at the two sites. This variation in fishing is caused by the topography of the coast in the immediate vicinity of the sites with shallow waters providing a wide tidal zone at the northern of the two with an environment suitable for fishing with stone‐built intertidal fish traps (known in Arabic as al maskar). The topography of the coast at the southern of the two sites is steeper, and the settlement was an important trading port so the coast was utilised primarily as a harbour rather than a fishing ground. The supply of fish at this settlement was provided by fishermen more commonly using basket traps (gargoor) and handlines with fishing taking place from boats. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Other Muslimah

Websites like Altmuslimah, which are run by women and focused on issues of salience to women’s lives, can offer a perspective that differs greatly from the discourse found on widely visited Islamic information sites. Online counter-narratives produced by women instead of about women call for a fresh look at orthodox traditions and interpretations of religious texts that limit the acceptable experiences of the diverse Muslim women worldwide, especially concerning converts and those living in non-Arab communities. As one of the most frequently contested issues for Muslim women, the hijab offers a way into how the dominant Muslim narrative frames what it means to be a believing woman in Islam and how counter-narratives provide women with ways to create their own meaning.

Book Review: Media Framing of the Muslim World: Conflicts, Crises and Contexts, by Halim Rane, Jacqui Ewart, and John Martinkus

Media Framing of the Muslim World: Conflicts, Crises and Contexts. Halim Rane, Jacqui Ewart, and John Martinkus. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 216 pp. $28 pbk.The recent Islamist assassination of Charlie Hebdo staffmembers in Paris to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, whom the weekly satirizes frequently in cartoons, incited reprisals against mosques and other Islamic sites across France and stoked Islamophobia in social media, including a Facebook post from Australia that said, free world needs to wake up to the fact that we are at war with the Muslim religion. They are using our hospitality and free immigration to conduct this war under our noses. These predictable responses exhibit not only anger and frustration over relentless Islamist violence, but, according to Australian researchers Halim Rane (Griffith University), Jacqui Ewart (Griffith University), and John Martinkus (University of Tasmania), they also reflect Western news media reports that portray the Muslim world as a violent, fanatical, and misogynist enemy of Western freedom and civilization.The reports of Islamist atrocities from 9/11 on are, of course, true. Islamists have beheaded journalists, gunned down children in school, and massacred entire villages. But according to Rane, Ewart, and Martinkus, what gets lost in these stories is the fact thatan overwhelming majority of Muslims reject suicide bombing and other attacks against civilians; they regard such actions as unjustifiable even in the defense of Islam. The majority of Muslims also regard other acts of violence, such as honor killings, as never justified in Islam.The authors cite Gallup and Pew polls that show that most Muslims also uphold the religious freedom of non-Muslims, believe that Islamic law applies only to Muslims, and favor democracy over authoritarian rule. The episodic reporting of Islamist terrorism, however factual, creates the misimpression that extremists are the norm in Islam.One effect of this misimpression has been the obstruction of Muslims seeking asylum in the West from the danger and persecution in their home countries. The authors report that such hindrance takes place in Australia, which has discouraged Muslim asylum seekers by preventing boats carrying asylum seekers from landing on Australian shores, managing asylum requests in detention centers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea to restrict access to Australian legal processes, and detaining asylum seekers in substandard, remote facilities. As a result, Australia receives less than 3% of the world's applications for asylum. According to the authors, news reports seldom challenge politicians who pander to public anxiety by characterizing Muslim asylum seekers as illegals, boat people, and queue jumpers whose presence undermines traditional culture, drains the economy, and threatens national security. …

Introduction: Vandalism

Introduction: Vandalism Rosa Lowinger (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Detail of graffiti on the mural of the Virgin Mary (1160), Monastery of St. Benedict. Subiaco, Italy, 2009 (Photo by Rosa Lowinger) [End Page 2] Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place. —Banksy, Wall and Piece (2007) July, 2014: The world watches in horror as once again a jihadist group—in this case, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant/Syria, known alternatively as ISIS or ISIL—wages the latest version of ideologically driven cultural vandalism against the region’s monuments and historic sites. Though clearly not as shocking as the acts of murder and torture the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate is inflicting on the residents of the region at the time of this writing, the annihilation of those centuries-old monuments characterizes vandalism in its most extreme and ugly form. The list of sites includes not only dozens of churches, but also venerated Islamic sites such as the seventh-century Imam Yahya Abul Qasim Mosque, the thirteenth-century Mashad Yahya Abul Kassem Mosque, the eighth-century Mosque of the Prophet Yunnus (considered the burial place of the Old Testament Jonah), and landscape-defining statues of the Abbasid poet Abu Tammam (788–845) and the Iraqi musician and poet Osman al-Mawsali (1854–1923). Yet this particular brand of cultural barbarism also underscores the symbolic power of heritage itself. After all, why go to the trouble of bombing synagogues and burning Jewish books, as the Nazis did in World War II, or leveling Cambodia’s Buddhist Temples and libraries, as the Khmer Rouge did during its atrocious 1975 “Return to Year Zero” campaign, for any reason other than to “deeply and irreversibly alter” the identity of a people by means of “brutal and intensive cultural mutilation”?1 The vandalism of an artwork, monument, or site is therefore also a perverted form of veneration. Art that is damaged or destroyed is art that is valuable. This holds true whether the act in question is perpetrated by a Nazi, a criminal, or a psychotic. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines vandalism as both “an action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property,” and as “a deliberate, unauthorized act that is intentional and done in order to alter, make a mark in, or purposely damage art, architecture, or public places.” As this issue of Change Over Time will demonstrate, the history of art and architecture is intricately enmeshed with both of these [End Page 3] definitions. Vandalism’s range of activities and intentions—though traditionally associated with harmful or misguided impulses, aggressive or deranged perpetrators, and results whose effect on built heritage is nearly always unwanted—sometimes augments our knowledge and consideration of heritage’s intrinsic value. By ravaging the monuments of the vanquished and demolishing the sculptures that they consider blasphemous, conquering armies and iconoclasts of all persuasions draw attention to those very works. Artworks as different as Michelangelo’s fifteenth-century Pieta, Barnett Newman’s 1967 Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue, and Diego Velasquez’s seventeenth-century Rokeby Venus (which was slashed by British suffragettes in 1914) are highlighted in art history because of, and not in spite of, their smashing and slashing. More benignly, the centuries-old scratches made by pilgrims on the 1160 mural of the Virgin Mary at the Subiaco Monastery in Italy is part greeting and part devotional in character. The same holds true for the graffiti that covers the Paris tomb of Jim Morrison. As preservationists, we tend to eschew unauthorized interventions to art and monuments. Indeed, more than one peer reviewer for this issue expressed an unconditional disdain for graffiti. Yet the changes perpetrated by vandalism, and especially graffiti, are as old as art itself; such interventions often lend a layer of meaning that would otherwise not exist. For example, no one would argue that what we know about the ancient world is augmented by the graffiti on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum, or the Alexamanos graffito, a first-century...

Settlement Oscillations in the Negev Highlands Revisited: The Impact of Microarchaeological Methods

Microarchaeological methods, especially those focused on geoarchaeology and radiocarbon dating, have revolutionized the manner in which the Iron Age settlement peak in the Negev Highlands is interpreted. We review here results from field and laboratory studies conducted at two Iron Age sites (Atar Haroa and Nahal Boqer) compared to one Byzantine/Early Islamic site (Wadi el-Mustayer)—all located near Sede Boqer. We present our methodology, which is based on small-scale but detailed excavations, study of sediments, and identification of livestock dung remains and their utility as indicators of past subsistence practices. To this we add meticulous 14C dating, ceramic petrography, and identification of botanic and zoological remains. We conclude that subsistence during the Iron Age included tending livestock but did not include agriculture. We further propose that the long-distance trade of copper from the Arabah Valley under Egyptian auspices and possibly the trading of cinnamon, dates, and other Arabian/Indian commodities were the driving force in the initiation (and later decline) of the Iron Age settlement system. We hypothesize that the agricultural settlement peak during the Byzantine/Early Islamic period was also influenced by an imperial power from outside of the Negev and that large-scale agriculture was enabled due to the adoption of new agricultural techniques, including terracing of ephemeral streams along with water diversion systems and possibly water storage facilities such as advanced cisterns. Future studies are expected to shed additional light on the complexity of settlement oscillations in the Negev Highlands region in key periods such as the Early and Intermediate Bronze Ages.

BYZANTINE AND UMAYYAD PERIOD POTTERY AT BARSINIA (2006 SEASON OF EXCAVATION)

Until recent pottery studies of the ancient Classical and Early Islamic rural sites in northern Jordan were of less interest to archaeologists. This article focuses on the Byzantine and Umayyad period pottery that has been discovered during the first season of excavation at Barsinia in the north-western part of Jordan. Fifty-two indicative pottery sherds were sorted according to their date and function into two main groups: the early Byzantine pottery (fourth–sixth centuries) and the Late Byzantine–Umayyad pottery (sixth–eighth centuries). Since Barsinia is one of the small rural archaeological sites, and such sites were rarely mentioned in ancient literary sources, the study of material remains at such locations is essential for elucidating regional development and trade. It also sheds more light on the relation between the site and the surroundings through the comparative study of the pottery objects.

Subsistence economy in the Negev Highlands: the Iron Age and the Byzantine/Early Islamic period

The article reports results of a long-term geoarchaeological project in the Negev Highlands. Based on previous phytolith analysis from degraded livestock dung, we suggested that the inhabitants of an Iron IIA site in the region subsisted on animal husbandry, without practicing cereal cultivation (Shahack-Gross and Finkelstein 2008). Here we report on further investigations — on another Iron Age site, a Byzantine/Early Islamic site, and on a pre-modern Bedouin winter encampment. We seek to test the nature of the phytolith record in this arid environment. We establish that phytolith assemblages in the study area are generally well preserved; that phytolith concentrations in dung of pre-modern free-grazing livestock were originally low; and that in a Byzantine/Early Islamic site for which cereal cultivation is documented textually, livestock dung includes cereal phytoliths. These patterns enable a secure interpretation of the phytolith assemblages from the Iron IIA sites, fortifying our previous suggestion that the Iron Age inhabitants of the Negev Highlands subsisted mainly on herding and did not undertake dry farming.

Archaeozoological evidence for traditional consumption of spiny-tailed lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia) in Saudi Arabia

A total of 145 skeletal remains belonging to the Arabian spiny-tailed lizard, locally called ḍabb (Uromastyx aegyptia) were found in various archaeological levels of the Late Pre-Islamic/Early Islamic site of al-Yamâma, Saudi Arabia. All the skeletal parts of the lizard were identified—skull, trunk, forelimb and hindlimb—and represent a minimum of 22 individuals. The presence of lizard bones mixed with other bones considered mostly as food-waste, and the identification of a cut mark on a tibia made by a cutting tool, suggest an anthropogenic origin for some of this material. Their strong skin was a source of leather, while their meat was often considered as an alternative source of protein. This appears to be the first zooarchaeological confirmation of the consumption of lizards by the medieval Arab population of Central Arabia, a custom known in the written tradition.

Raqqa: The Forgotten Excavation of an Islamic Site in Syria by the Ottoman Imperial Museum in the Early Twentieth Century

Raqqa, in Syria, was the only Islamic site excavated by the Ottoman Imperial Museum during its existence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Although the Imperial Museum may not have been searching specifically for an Islamic site of the medieval period to excavate, its response to the plundering of Raqqa, which began as early as 1899, was to pursue an archaeological excavation in a systematic manner. Two campaigns were conducted, under the directorships of Macridy and Haydar Bey, in 1905–6 and 1908 respectively. Although not lasting more than a couple of months, they were relatively important from the perspective of the Imperial Museum and Islamic archaeology at that time. This article focuses on the history of these Raqqa excavations, namely, the reasons the Imperial Museum began excavating there, how it conducted its excavations, and, finally, the finds and the way they were displayed at the Museum. Existing archival documents on the excavation, along with the earliest inventories of the finds in the Imperial Museum and the personal letters of Macridy, all hitherto unpublished, are analyzed in order to shed light on these long forgotten excavations.