Publication Date
2nd century / mid-7th century
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;jo;Mon01;12;ar
Library Location
It is located in the city of Aqaba, about 375 km south of Amman, Ayla, Jordan
Date
2nd century / mid-7th century
Notes
Ayla Islamic City is located in the city of Aqaba, the port of Jordan at the northeastern end of the Gulf of Aqaba. In the Byzantine era, when Christianity was recognized as the official religion of the Eastern Roman Empire, the city (Ilana as it was then known) became a stop for pilgrims going to Mount Sinai, and its bishops attended the church councils in Nicaea in the year 325, Chalcedon in the year 451, and Constantinople in the year 536. There are also historical indications indicating that the architect who supervised the construction of the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai was named Stephen. From Ayla. Among the landmarks that were uncovered during archaeological excavations are the Byzantine city walls, which can be traced over a length of 125 metres, in addition to a building measuring 28 x 24 metres, constructed of unbaked bricks and dating back to the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century. The supervisors of the excavations inferred from the building plan and the pieces of glass that were found inside it that the building had been used as a church, and if this is true, it is considered one of the oldest known churches in the Levant and Egypt. Archaeological excavations that took place between 1986 and 1993 revealed the walled city, whose dimensions were 165 x 140 metres. The surrounding walls are 2.60 m thick, and in some areas they still rise to 4.50 m. Protruding from these walls, at regular intervals, are towers that take the shape of the Latin letter “U,” while in the middle of each wall there is an entrance surrounding a semicircular tower. Behind these entrances were straight streets that intersected at the center, dividing the city into four parts. Four perpendicular arches were erected at the intersection in the center. They were replaced in the second half of the 10th century AD by an important building whose walls were painted with fresco frescoes. As for the mosque, it occupied the quarter located on the northeastern side. The mosque takes a rectangular shape, measuring 55 x 35 metres. Inside it are two rows of columns, and its front courtyard is surrounded on three sides by porticoes. In the middle of the southeastern wall, a hollow niche was erected. The mosque was expanded after the middle of the 8th century AD, and a new market was built on the opposite side of the seashore. At the end of the 11th century AD, Ayla was on the decline. When Baldwin I, king of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, attacked it in the year 1116 AD, at the head of a force of two hundred knights, the city did not offer any resistance. The city was abandoned during the 12th century AD, and another settlement was established near the Mamluk citadel to the south of Ayla.
Sample Text
Ghazi Bisheh “Islamic Ayla” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;jo;Mon01;12;ar
