Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir: A Study in Early Mohammadan Architecture

The fortified palace of Ukhaiḍir stands in the desert about three hours’ journey to the south-east of the oasis of Shethâthâ and some seven hours’ south-west of Kerbelâ. Its exact site has been fixed by Sir William Willcocks’s survey and it is upon his map that mine is based. Ukhaiḍir is not far from the south-west end of the low ground which Sir William Willcocks has called the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression. The southern part of this depression covers an area of 146 square kilometres at a level of 46 metres above the Persian Gulf; at its lower end it still contains a lake of brackish water, the lake of Abû Dibs, the water-level of which is 19 metres above the Persian Gulf. The northern part is occupied by the Ḥabbâniyyeh Lake. That the whole area was once filled with escape water from the Euphrates is shown by the fact that it is covered at a level of 25 metres above the Persian Gulf by a thick belt of Euphrates shells; at this level it extends over an area of 1,200 square kilometres. The oases of Raḥḥâliyyeh and Shethâthâ are situated upon the edge of this ancient reservoir. Between Shethâthâ and Ukhaiḍir a shallow valley, the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, makes its way up from the south-west to the lake of Abû Dibs. I have been told that after heavy winter rain a stream has been known to flow down the ghadîr, the water-course, which winds through the sand and stones of the valley bed. Whether this be true or no, a well of good sweet water exists in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ, fed, in all probability, by a spring, like the famous water of Muḥaiwir in the Wâdi Ḥaurân, or the wells of ‘Asîleh in the Wâdi Burdân. At no other point in the immediate vicinity of Ukhaiḍir is fresh water to be obtained; whether you dig within the palace walls, or without, the water, if water there be, is brackish and unfit to drink. To the north of the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ the ground opposite Ukhaiḍir, sloping gradually down to the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression, is intersected by gulleys, narrow and steep, cutting through hillocks of gypsum, and among these hillocks is the small ruin which the Arabs call Qṣair. Here, I take it, the gypsum was obtained for the mortar which binds the masonry of the palace, and its good qualities are attested by the excellent preservation of wall and vault until this day. I have not visited the quarries, but the Arabs told me that the stone had been brought from a distance of about an hour to the south of Ukhaiḍir, where there are traces of working ‘taḥt al-arḍ’, below the ground—not in a hill-side. Near the quarries there is said to be a well of good but not abundant water; Shakhârîz is the name of the well. It is built of stone. Behind it, some three hours’ journey from Ukhaiḍir, there is a low line of hills, the Djebel Ḍaba’. From the castle walls the long levels of the desert spread out invitingly to the hills, and I would gladly have gone thither, but I had not time to spare during either of my visits. Ukhaiḍir does not reckon security among its many charms. The plentiful sweet water of the well in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ makes it a trysting-place for raiding parties, and after four or five days’ sojourn it is best to be gone, lest the news that a foreigner is lodged within the palace walls should run too temptingly among the tribes. In 1911, the date of my last visit, I came to Ukhaiḍir from Shethâthâ, having ridden straight across the desert from Ramâdi, skirting the Ḥabbâniyyeh Lake and the east side of the Ḥabbâniyyeh depression. When I left I did not follow the usual way, by Abû Dibs to Kerbelâ, but rode almost due east, to the foot of a cliff of sand and rock, which is the western limit of a flat desert plateau that stretches eastward to the Hindiyyeh. An abrupt rise of this nature is called in colloquial Arabic a ṭâr. From Ukhaiḍir the ground dropped gradually. After two hours’ riding (about six miles) we reached the khabrâ of Wizikh. A khabrâ is a hollow bottom where rain water lies and stagnates till it evaporates. The khabrâ of Wizikh, which was dry and sandy, appeared to stretch along the foot of the ṭâr, northward to Abû Dibs, and also southwards. My Arab guide, a sheikh of the Zaqârît, which is a sub-tribe of the Shammar, informed me that there were wells of brackish water in the khabrâ further to the south, the Biyâr Slâm. The khabrâ was about a fifth of a mile wide. At the further side we rode up the sandy gulleys of the ṭâr and in ten minutes reached a well, the Bir Sbai’i, the water of which was brackish but drinkable. From here to the Hindiyyeh there is no water of any kind. Another ten minutes brought us to the summit of the ṭâr, whence we could see Ukhaiḍir on the one hand and the tower of Mudjḍah on the other. The bearings here were as follows: Ukhaiḍir (south-east angle of the castle) 300°, Mudjḍah 97°, central point of the Djebel Ḍaba’ 244°. Mudjḍah is a solitary tower without any provision for the storage of water, or any ruins round it. I think it can have served no other purpose than that of a landmark on the line of the caravan track, which must have passed this way from the great city of Kûfah to the oasis of Shethâthâ, or ‘Ain al-Tamr, to give it its earlier name. From the top of the ṭâr to the modern Kerbelâ-Nedjef road the desert is absolutely flat and featureless, and we ourselves came near to losing our way across it. The existence of a former caravan track across this waste is assured by the ruined khân of ‘Aṭshân, half-way between Mudjḍah and the modern Khân Ḥamâd.