Desert Castles

Scattered throughout the black basalt desert, east of Amman, the Desert Castles stand as a testament to the flourishing beginnings of Islamic-Arab civilization.

These seemingly isolated pavilions, caravan stations, secluded baths, and hunting lodges, were at one time integrated agricultural or trading complexes, built mostly under the Umayyads (661-750 AD), when Muslim Arabs had succeeded in transforming the fringes of the desert into well-watered settlements.

Apart from the wide consideration as the most spectacular and original monuments of early Islamic art, these complexes also served practical purposes: namely, as houses, caravanserais, and baths.

In the year 661, the capital of the newly founded Arab Muslim Empire moved from Medina and Kufa in the Hejaz and Iraq respectively, to Damascus, the seat of the Umayyad Dynasty. The years which immediately followed the death of the founder of the dynasty, Mu'awiya bin Abi Sufyan, overcoming rival claimants to the Caliphate.

The latter part of the reign of AbdulMalek bin Marwan (685-750) have been a favorable interlude for the Umayyads. Being more firmly on the saddle, one can detect a sudden release of talent and creativity, it's manifested by building the first major Islamic monument in Jerusalem, the majestic Dome of the Rock. The architectural program introduced by Caliph AbdulMalek, continued and expanded by his son, Al-Walid, who built the great mosques of Damascus, Jerusalem, and Medina.

Throughout the following decades, the Umayyads dotted the Jordanian steppe with luxurious buildings decorated with splendid mosaic pavements, fresco paintings, and carved stucco. All these indicate that the Umayyads had found a way of living with the Syrian civilization. Several of these buildings currently found in the Jordanian steppe points to the overriding importance of the area.

Indeed, the area's incorporation into the military district (Jund) of Damascus, whose governor was directly responsible to Damascus, witnesses to it's vitality.

The Umayyad Desert Castles regarded as desert retreats (Badiyas) for Umayyad princes who, being of nomadic origins, grew weary of city life with all it's rigors and congested atmosphere. Those castles allowed them to return to the desert, where their nomadic instincts best expressed, and where they could follow their pastimes away from watchful eyes of the pious minded.

This theory, however, challenged French scholar, Jean Sauvaget. These buildings found on extensive and elaborately irrigated farmlands, often with various hydraulic structures, and therefore, he argued, they were centers for agricultural exploitation, reflected by the Umayyad policy to expand the agricultural zone into small areas. Yet another and more recent explanation for as being of these buildings it's called the "Architecture of Diplomacy". That is, keeping close contacts with the tribes of the region who were powerful supporters of the Umayyads.

It is also possible that some of these structures, like Qusayr Amra, Kharaneh and Mshash, served as resting-places for high government officials on their way to Hejaz. This restricted and temporary use of these buildings may explain the scarcity of pottery shards from those sites. A combination of factors and coordinates therefore involved in building the Umayyad Desert Castles, and no single element is enough to explain them all.

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