QṢAIR, MUDJḌAH, AND ‘AṬSHÂN
QṢAIR
Among gypsum hillocks, about an hour’s ride to the north-east of
Ukhaiḍir, lie the ruins of a village known to the Arabs as Qṣair.[33]
There have been here a number of small houses, possibly lodgings for the
gypsum workers, and I noticed several deep rectangular tanks, though
whether they were intended for the storage of water, or were connected
with the process of gypsum working, I do not know. Broken pottery was
scattered sparsely over the ruin heaps; most of it was unglazed, but
there were also fragments of blue glazed ware and a few pieces with a
black glaze on the inner side. Such sherds as these are to be found on
every site, mediaeval or modern, in Mesopotamia, and do not offer any
conclusive evidence as to date. One large building is standing in ruins
(Plate 5, Fig. 4). It lies approximately north-east by south-west and
has been enclosed by a wall of sun-dried brick, set with towers. On two
sides this wall was clearly visible; it lay thirty-two paces from the
central edifice on the north-east and one hundred and ten paces from it
on the south-west side. The ‘little castle’, from which Qṣair takes its
modern name, is a long narrow building 45·15 × 8·95 metres. The walls, 1
metre thick, are constructed of stones and gypsum mortar, but the
masonry is slightly different in character from that of Ukhaiḍir. The
stones, instead of being broken into thin slabs, are used in thicker
blocks, and the binding courses are of the same blocks, whereas at
Ukhaiḍir they are almost always composed of particularly thin slabs.
There are traces of plaster upon the walls, but window and niche angles
are finished with large blocks cut with a certain amount of care,
another feature which is not to be observed in the smaller materials of
Ukhaiḍir. The north-east end of the building was divided off by a wide
archway, of which only the returns in the walls remain. The chamber thus
formed (6·30 metres long by 5·95 metres wide) was finished by a niche
covered by a shallow ovoid calotte. The niche is rectangular in plan,
1·26 metres deep by 3·25 metres wide. The calotte was carried over the
angles by shallow squinches, of which the archivolt was decorated with a
zigzag ornament in plaster,[34] while at the base of the calotte there
has been a similar band of plaster ornament. The construction of this
niche recalls with fidelity the terminal semi-dome of a room in the
Umayyad castle of Kharâneh (see below, p. 114). Above the calotte there
is a small rectangular window (Plate 45, Figs. 1 and 2). The back wall
of the niche is exceedingly thin (·45 metre thick) and has in
consequence broken away. There is a window high up in each of the side
walls of the chamber, ·50 metre from the transverse arch.
The remainder of the building appears to have consisted of a single
chamber 33·10 metres long. The south-west end is very much ruined. There
are traces of five doors on either side, and of a door in the south-west
wall. The two doors in either side wall at the north-west end of the
chamber were flanked by windows--probably there were more windows,
though the ruined condition of the wall makes it difficult to speak with
certainty. As regards the roof, there are remains of the spring of a
vault in the north-east chamber and on the south-west side of the
southern return of the transverse arch. On the exterior, at the
north-east end, the wall is set back above the top of the calotte, and
immediately below that level the east corner is sliced off diagonally,
so as to form a triangular niche which has been partly covered by thin
slabs (Plate 45, Fig. 3). Above the level of the calotte the angles of
the building on either side appear to have been similarly sliced off.
The side windows of the north-east chamber are rounded at the top, but
the openings are so small that it was not necessary to construct these
arches with voussoirs, and they are merely cut out of the masonry of the
wall. The archivolt of the north-east niche is composed of a single row
of voussoirs laid horizontally, as is the case in some of the more
roughly built arches at Ukhaiḍir (for instance the door of passage 137,
Plate 24, Fig. 2). None of the doorways are preserved up to the height
of lintel or arch.
I am inclined to suppose that this building was connected in some way
with the working of the gypsum. It is possible that it may belong to the
same period as Ukhaiḍir.
MUDJḌAH
I sighted the tower of Mudjḍah from the top of the ṭâr east of
Ukhaiḍir[35] (Plate 46, Fig. 1). It stands in the level desert which
stretches east to the Hindiyyeh; there are no ruins in its vicinity, nor
any evidence of water storage (Plate 47, Fig. 2). The tower is built of
bricks measuring ·27 × ·27 × ·7 metre. It rests upon a base of 4·35
metres square and 2·85 metres high, each side of which is adorned with
three rectangular niches ·20 metre deep and ·36 metre wide. Each niche
is covered by a triply recessed arch, roughly constructed of half-bricks
set in rings, not as voussoirs (Plate 47, Fig. 3). Above the square
niched substructure the tower is circular, and for a height of about 2
metres the wall is plain. On the east side, above the central niche of
the substructure, is placed a door (Plate 47, Fig. 1). The arch of the
door, which is set in the second decorated zone of the tower, consists
of a double row of half-bricks laid vertically and an outer belt of
brick voussoirs laid horizontally. Each of the three members of the arch
is recessed behind the other, the outer voussoirs being flush with the
face of the wall. The door gives access to a winding stair, ·60 metre
wide, which leads to the top of the tower. The second decorated zone
consists of a band of rectangular flutings, forming a zigzag in plan.
Two courses above these flutings there is a course of bricks laid
corner-wise so as to constitute a dog-tooth motive. The wall is then
carried up for another six courses in plain masonry, above which lies a
second course of brick dog-tooths. The succeeding zone is adorned with
eight triply recessed niches with rectangular heads. After four more
courses of plain brickwork there is a third course of dog-tooths, and on
the west side of the tower five courses of plain brickwork are preserved
above the dog-tooths. That there was at least one other decorated zone
seems certain. If my theory is correct, that the tower was intended as a
landmark for caravans passing over this flat expanse from Nedjef to ‘Ain
al-Tamr, it is important to observe that at its present height it is not
visible from ‘Aṭshân, which is the nearest caravanserai to the east of
Mudjḍah.
For purposes of comparison, I will set beside the tower of Mudjḍah a
minaret, as yet unpublished, belonging to a ruined mosque at Ṭâûq, south
of Kerkûk (Plate 48, Fig. 1). This minaret stood upon a low square base
of which the surface of the brickwork is decayed. Upon this base was
placed an octagon divided into three decorated zones; the first and
third are furnished with eight small arched niches, the central zone
with eight larger niches, each one being recessed behind a rectangular
frame of masonry. The remainder of the minaret is round and is adorned
with broad alternating bands of brickwork, zigzags and diamonds, the
latter being slightly recessed. The door is placed high up above the
octagon and has no apparent means of access; probably it was approached
from the top of the mosque. The summit of the minaret has fallen; of the
mosque nothing remains but low mounds, and I know no record of its
construction. Ṭâûq is not mentioned by the earlier Arab geographers.[36]
Rich saw there a small gateway, the architecture of which he compares
with the Mustanṣiriyyeh at Baghdâd,[37] dated A.D. 1233, and the
brickwork zigzags of the minaret are not unlike the decoration of the
minaret in the Sûq al-Ghazl at Baghdâd, which may have been built about
the same time as the Mustanṣiriyyeh or a little earlier.[38] This is the
period to which I should assign the minaret of Ṭâûq, but the tower of
Mudjḍah must belong to an earlier age. Instead of the broad ogee of the
arches in the Ṭâûq niches, the arches in the lower zone of niches at
Mudjḍah are round, or as nearly round as their primitive construction
would permit. The rectangular flutings are characteristic of a group of
Persian monuments which are dated by Professor Sarre from the twelfth to
the fifteenth centuries,[39] but the prototype is to be found in two
minarets of an older period, the towers of Ghazni, one of which was
built by Maḥmûd of Ghazni (A.D. 947-1030) and the other by his immediate
successor.[40]
‘AṬSHÂN
Two hours’ ride to the south-east of Mudjḍah is the ruined caravanserai
which the Arabs call ‘Aṭshân, the Thirsty--the name is well deserved,
for there is no water nearer than the Hindiyyeh.[41] It is not exactly
oriented, but faces approximately north (Plate 46, Fig. 2). It is built
of brick tiles varying from ·31 × ·31 × ·7 metre to ·32 × ·32 × ·8 metre
and sometimes as large as ·34 metre square. The walls enclose an area 29
metres square; they are 1·80 metres thick, and are strengthened at the
angles by round towers, 4·10 metres in diameter, projecting 1·90 metres
from the face of the walls, as well as by smaller towers 2·75 metres in
diameter which are placed in the centre of the east, west, and south
walls. The small towers have the same projection as the angle towers. In
the centre of the north wall is the gate, which is pierced through a
double tower having a projection of 3·10 metres from the face of the
wall. The gate towers are preserved up to a considerably greater height
than the other towers (Plate 48, Fig. 2), but the systematic levelling
of the walls and towers is probably due to brick-robbers, and there is
nothing to indicate their original height. Even the gate-house towers
have been higher than they are at present (Plate 49, Fig. 1). The west
wall has fallen, carrying with it the south-west tower and all the
constructions in the interior which ran along this side. The whole
edifice looks as if it had been terribly shaken by earthquake; great
cracks have sprung open in the solid masonry; the north-east tower leans
outward and is on the point of falling.
The north doorway is set back ·75 metre within the segments of the
flanking towers.[42] The doorway is 1·35 metres wide and opens into a
small chamber, 2·40 metres square, which is covered by a barrel vault.
The inner doorway is set back within an arched niche (Plate 49, Fig. 2).
To the west, a small opening has been pierced through the wall (it can
be seen in Plate 49, Figs. 1 and 2), but it has been formed merely by
removing the bricks of the wall and bears no sign of having existed in
the original plan. The arches over the outer doorway and over the
interior niche are composed of a course and a half of tiles laid
vertically and an outer ring of brick voussoirs laid horizontally. The
gateway leads into an irregular courtyard which has been surrounded on
three sides by chambers. Near the centre of the court there is a brick
tank, 2·90 by 3·25 metres. This seems to have been the only provision
which was made for water. A row of chambers 3·50 metres wide lies along
the west wall. No. 1 is 5·80 metres long and has been roofed with a
barrel vault running north and south. No. 2 has a length of 3·75 metres
and was vaulted from east to west. No. 3 is 9·10 metres long and No. 4
is 4·15 metres long. There is no door between Nos. 3 and 4. In the
latter room a space of ·80 metre is left open upon the east side and the
remainder of the chamber is covered with a barrel vault lying east and
west. Judging from the analogy of similar rooms at Ukhaiḍir, No. 4 was
probably the kitchen. No. 3 seems to have communicated with the court by
a door in the north-west corner. Parallel to it lies the vaulted lîwân,
No. 5, 4·90 metres wide (Plate 50, Figs, 1 and 2). At its southern end a
door, placed in a wide and shallow niche, opens into No. 6. No. 6
communicates both with No. 4 and with the long, partially ruined hall,
No. 7. The doorway between 6 and 7, 2·05 metres wide (the arch has
broken away), is placed within a niche 1·45 metres deep which is covered
by the segment of a semi-dome (Plate 51, Fig. 2). The semi-dome is laid
across the angles by means of masonry brackets which must have borne a
very strong resemblance to pendentives. The horizontal courses are
carried up in the centre of the semi-dome for three courses, each
shorter than the one below, and round this pyramidal core the brickwork
of the semi-dome is laid concentrically.[43] To the south, the door
niche is carried back beyond the width of the semi-dome, forming a small
vaulted recess. No. 7 seems to have been provided with a door opening on
to the court, but the western end of the north wall is completely
ruined. A very narrow door under the semi-dome gave access to room 8,
which could also be approached from the court by an arched door in the
west wall (Plate 52, Fig. 1). No. 8, 2·90 by 5·75 metres, lies parallel
to No. 7, and is roofed with a barrel vault. In the west wall, north of
the door, there is an arched niche, ·54 metre deep, and a similar niche
is placed in the north wall. The main interest of No. 8 is the
decoration on the exterior. On the west wall a simple and effective
pattern is produced by laying a couple of rows of brick tiles face
outwards at intervals along the top of the wall, and below these, north
of the door, a rectangular tablet was formed, for purely decorative
purposes, by inserting 2 or 2½ rows of faced tiles into the wall. The
top of the north wall was ornamented with a row of four arched niches
(Plate 50, Fig. 2). Small engaged columns, without bases, carry imposts
formed of a single brick, from which spring round arches decorated with
three fillets in plaster. One of the niches is pierced by a narrow
window. The vault construction is very similar to that of Ukhaiḍir. All
the vaults oversail the walls by 4 centimetres. The lower part of the
vault is composed of from five to nine courses of bricks laid
horizontally, the upper of bricks laid vertically. Over the ovoid arch
thus formed (it is always a course and a half thick) are carried the
horizontal courses of the walls. I looked carefully for any trace of
tubes between the parallel vaults, but found none; the masonry seems to
be solid in every case. All the door arches, as far as can be determined
in their ruined state, were round and sprang flush with the jambs.
The fortress-like character of the khân of ‘Aṭshân, the plan of its
gateway, and the details of its construction and decoration incline me
to assign to it a date not far removed from that of Ukhaiḍir. The tower
of Mudjḍah must stand in intimate connexion with the khân, for I can
conceive of no reason for the erection of an isolated tower in the midst
of a waterless desert, unless it were intended to serve some purpose on
the caravan track from Kûfah to ‘Ain al-Tamr, of which the khân of
‘Aṭshan was the intermediate stage.[44] I would suggest that neither
khân nor tower can be dated much later than the ninth century; both are
valuable and interesting examples of early Mohammadan architecture of
the age, or at least of the school, to which Ukhaiḍir itself belongs.