Beer Karkom Mosques

By the Editors of the Madain Project

Two open-type mosques were discovered at a large nomadic site in a wide valley, 500 meters east of Be'er Karkom. The discovery of two open-type mosques in this settlement can be explained by its size, it being one of the largest sites dating back to the sixth till eighth centuries CE in the southern Negev Highlands, and by its proximity to Be'er Karkom, one of the few water sources in the region. These mosques have no building on them. They are simply land cleared away and stones laid out, so that the faithful can pray.

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List of the Mosques
- Be'er Karkom Mosque (A)
- Be'er Karkom Mosque (B)
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List of the Mosques

circa 700 CE

Be'er Karkom Mosque (A)
The open-type mosque of Karkom is located in the middle of the site, near the edge of the wadi. Nearly rectangular in shape, measuring 3.4 x 5.2 meters, it was constructed of medium sized, roughly hewn fieldstones.

The mosque also has a mihrab niche at the midpoint on the southern side (depth 1 meter width 0.9 meter), with a large upright stone (width 0.5 meter, height 0.45 meter) in its interior wall.

circa 700 CE

Be'er Karkom Mosque (B)
This mosque is situated north-east of the settlement, on a hilltop. Alligned east-west, this mosque has an arc-shaped building line of large stones with a rounded southward-facing mihrab niche (depth 1 meter, width 0.8 meter).

Notes

Abstract from Early Mosques in the Negev Highlands: New Archaeological Evidence on Islamic Penetration of Southern Palestine
A number of early mosques associated with a widespread system of settlements that existed during the sixth to eighth centuries CE have been discovered in recent years throughout the Negev Highlands. Thus far, 12 mosques of different types have been recorded. These include mosques built either within urban settlements or adjacent to rural settlements, and mosques connected with nomadic populations in the southern Negev Highlands. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that the source of the open mosques constructed near rural and nomadic sites in the Negev Highlands is to be sought in the stele cult that was widely disseminated in Nabataean and Byzantine times. The chronological framework of the early mosques, their connection to dated settlements, and the formal relations between the stele cult and the mosques seem more consistent with a picture of gradual Islamic penetration into southern Palestine than with a swift adoption of canonical Islam in the wake of a single wave of conquest.

References

Avni, G. (1994). Early Mosques in the Negev Highlands: New Archaeological Evidence on Islamic Penetration of Southern Palestine. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, (294), 83-100. doi:10.2307/1357155
Haiman, M. (1995). Agriculture and Nomad-State Relations in the Negev Desert in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, (297), 29-53. doi:10.2307/1357388

Beer Karkom Mosques

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List of the Mosques

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