Ramla: City of Muslim Palestine, 715-1917: Studies in History, Archaeology and Architecture

Ramla presents a comprehensive overview of the history, archaeology and architecture of the city of Ramla from the time of its foundation as the capital of Umayyad Palestine around 715 until the end of Ottoman rule in 1917. It begins with a historical outline covering in turn the early Islamic (Robert Hoyland), Crusader (Peter Edbury), Ayyubid-Mamluk (Donald S. Richards) and Ottoman periods (Matthew Elliot). In the archaeological section, Gideon Avni’s synthesis of the results of excavations on the early Islamic city is followed by discussions of the Umayyad-period aqueduct (Amir Gorzalczany) and the historical interpretation of First World War aerial photographs (Benjamin Z. Kedar). Architectural studies include a complete corpus of the surviving Muslim buildings (Andrew Petersen), a reassessment of the remains of the White Mosque (Michael H. Burgoyne), an account of the Christian buildings (Denys Pringle), and an analysis of late Ottoman alterations to the Great Mosque (Katia Cytryn-Silverman). The final section on numismatics and epigraphy includes chapters on the coinage of Umayyad Ramla (Nikolaus Schindel), the Arabic inscriptions (Mehmet Tütüncü) and late medieval Christian pilgrims’ graffiti (Denys Pringle). The volume concludes with three appendices, including a hitherto unpublished report on the White Mosque (1919–20) by K.A.C. Creswell, a gazetteer of settlements in the Crusader lordships of Ramla, Lydda and Mirabel, and the endowment deed for a house dated 1713 (Maher Abu-Munshar).

Table of Contents:
List of Figures ; Notes on Contributors ; Preface ; Chapter 1: Early Islamic Ramla (715-1099) – Robert Hoyland ; Chapter 2: The Crusader Town and Lordship of Ramla (1099–1268) – Peter Edbury ; Chapter 3: Ramla in the Ayyubid and Mamluk Periods (1187–1516) – D. S. Richards ; Chapter 4: Ramla in the Ottoman Period (1516–1917) – Matthew Elliot ; Chapter 5: Excavations in Ramla, 1990–2018: Reconstructing the Early Islamic City – Gideon Avni ; Chapter 6: The Gezer Aqueduct to Umayyad Ramla – Amir Gorzalczany ; Chapter 7: World War I Aerial Photographs of Ramla – Benjamin Z. Kedar ; Chapter 8: Muslim Buildings – Andrew Petersen ; Chapter 9: The White Mosque – Michael H. Burgoyne ; Chapter 10: The Christian Buildings of Ramla – Denys Pringle ; Chapter 11: The West Door of the Great (al-ʿUmarī) Mosque of Ramla and its Late Ottoman Transformation – Katia Cytryn-Silverman ; Chapter 12: The Coinage of Umayyad Ramla – Nikolaus Schindel ; Chapter 13: Arabic Inscriptions in Ramla – Mehmet Tütüncü ; Chapter 14: Pilgrims’ Graffiti in the Franciscan Hospice in Ramla – Denys Pringle ; Appendix 1: K.A.C. Creswell’s Report on the White Mosque in Ramla ; (c.1919–20) ; Appendix 2: Sites in the Crusader Lordships of Ramla, Lydda and Mirabel – Denys Pringle ; Appendix 3: The Endowment Deed (waqfiyya) of Qaṣr Waqf Abūʾl-Huda, Ramla, July 1713 – Maher Abu Munshar ; Bibliography

About the Author :
Andrew Petersen is Professor and Director of Research in Islamic Archaeology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He is currently directing excavations at the eighteenth-century site of Ruwayda in northern Qatar. He has published many articles and several books on Islamic archaeology, including Bones of Contention: Muslim Shrines In Palestine (2018), The Medieval and Ottoman Hajj Route in Jordan; an Archaeological and Historical Study (2012), The Archaeology of Towns in Muslim Palestine (2005), Gazetteer of Medieval and Ottoman Buildings in Muslim Palestine (2001) and A Dictionary of Islamic Architecture (1998). ; Denys Pringle is Emeritus Professor in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University. In addition to his four-volume corpus, The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1993–2009), his recent publications include a volume of translated texts, Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291 (2012), and a volume of collected studies, Churches, Castles and Landscape in the Frankish East (2013). His detailed historical and archaeological study of the town walls of Byzantine, early Islamic and Crusader Ascalon has recently appeared in Ashkelon 8 (2019).

Review :
‘Avni offers a dense synthesis of the rich archaeological evidence traced through numerous excavations — these varying in scope and extension — conducted in Ramla over the last 30 years. The picture emerges of an outstanding Islamic city of the 8th–11th centuries, provided with well planned orthogonal streets, with central mosque, and comprising large-scale public infrastructures; residential neighbourhoods with courtyard houses lavishly decorated with mosaics; industrial quarters, especially centred on dyeing; and gardens and complex systems of water supply and storage.’ – Matteo Gioele Randazzo (2022): Medieval Archaeology, 66/1, 2022