رصافة هشام ١_a .. كتاب العمارة العربية الاسلامية

Rusafa Hisham

Rusafa Hisham is the name given to the Umayyad houses and facilities attributed to Caliph Hisham bin Abdul Malik, which were built around the walls of “Sergiopolis,” the Byzantine city that was established in the fifth and sixth centuries. Today, the site is called Rusafa. Perhaps this name was given by the Arabs to the Byzantine city as well, because Al-Tabari says: Al-Rusafa is a Roman city built by the Romans. Dosso believes that the name of the place was like this in the Assyrian era.

It was natural for the Caliph not to live inside the old city, which apparently remained the headquarters of a Christian sect. Rather, he built, as Al-Tabari said, two palaces, and he resided in Rusafa for most of his days after he died there, and his entourage, employees, treasury, prison, etc. were by his side.

So far, an Umayyad palace has been discovered to the south of the Byzantine city walls by the German archaeological mission, as we mentioned. The palace has the shape of a side with a length of 80 metres. It is equipped with circular towers at the corners and sides, and has one door between two towers. Inside, it is a courtyard with a square plan without a portico.

This layout is similar to some of the Umayyad palaces, such as the Tuba Palace (Jordan) and the Khirbat al-Minya Palace (Tiberias).

As for the plan of the palace and the architectural and decorative elements found among the ruins, which consist of wall drawings and plaster inscriptions, confirm, as the mission believes, that it is an Umayyad palace from the era of Hisham bin Abdul Malik.

The mission expects to find another palace in the hills and similar ruins surrounding the walls of the Byzantine city.

Al-Rusafa remained inhabited for centuries after the Umayyads. It was mentioned among the houses of the Umayyads in the news of Al-Rashid’s feast, which began in Raqqa, as previously mentioned in the hadith about Al-Zaytouna. It was also mentioned in incidents in the year 1164/560 that it belonged to the owner of a castle. It was mentioned in the Al-Bustan Al-Jami’ manuscript (1) “the following:

In it, the people of Rusafa rebelled against Malik al-Uqaili (Shihab al-Din), the owner of Jaabar Castle, and their leader was Suleiman bin Qatan. The final destruction of Rusafa occurred as a result of the Mongolian invasions in the thirteenth century AD, as I mentioned among the houses of the Umayyads (2) in the report on Al-Rashid’s feast, the beginning of which was in Raqqa, as mentioned above.