QMI-INS-055s · 105 AH
Inscription of the Muwaqqar Capital
نقش تاج الموقر
Qaṣr al-Muwaqqar, south-east of Amman, Jordan
- بسم الله الرحمن الر
- حيم امر ببنيان
- هـذه البركة
- عبدالله يزيد أمير
- المؤمنين اصلحه الله
- وحفظه ومد له
- في العمر واليسر وأتم عليه
- نعمته وكرامته في الدنيا
- والآخرة بنيت على يدي
- عبدالله بن سليم
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Mer- ciful. Ordered the building of this pool the servant of God Yazīd, Commander of the Faithful — may God set him right and keep him, and extend for him in life and in ease, and complete upon him His favour and His honour in this world and the next. It was built at the hands of ʿAbdallāh ibn Sulaym.
A foundation inscription of the caliph Yazīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (Yazīd II, r. 101–105 AH), cut on a limestone capital decorated with acanthus leaves. The capital crowned the water-gauge column that stood in the reservoir of his palace at al-Muwaqqar, south-east of Amman, one of eighteen capitals in the reservoir. The text records that “the servant of God Yazīd, Commander of the Faithful” ordered the building of the pool (al-birkah), prays that God set him right, keep him, lengthen his life and ease and complete His favour and honour upon him in this world and the next, and names the builder, ʿAbdallāh ibn Sulaym. Like Muʿāwiyah at the Ṭāʾif Dam (no. 9), the caliph is styled “ʿAbdallāh”, the servant of God, before his name. The column was marked in cubits so that the depth of the water could be read, and the highest mark, “fifteen cubits” (khamsat ʿashar dhirāʿ), is cut in small letters on the capital itself, between the last lines of the text. One earlier Arabic reading restored these words as a year, “fifteen and [a hundred]”, but 115 AH falls ten years after Yazīd’s death in Shaʿbān 105 AH, and the words belong to the gauge rather than to the date. The text names no year of its own; it is placed here at 105 AH (723 CE), the last year of Yazīd’s reign. According to the Jordan Museum, a further line on the capital asks God to bless His servant Muḥammad, the Messenger of God. The capital is kept in Amman under no. J.5055 and is now displayed in the Jordan Museum.
Source: The Jordan Museum, Amman, gallery label for the al-Muwaqqar capital (inv. J.5055).