Mosque Name: Nahal Peher Mosque
Country: Negev
City: Rahat
Year of construction (AD): 600 - 800 CE
GPS: 31.372357 34.764179
Gibson Classification: Unknown 174.81 from drawings
Rebuilt facing Mecca: never
Description:
During an excavation of a fairly standard farm structure at Rahat in the Northern Negev, a modest mosque was uncovered. It measures only 6×5 m and includes a mihrab that protrudes from its southern wall facing south. Dating to the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, the structure constitutes the first discovered rural mosque in the Northern Negev. While mosques were a familiar feature in the cities at the time, they were much slower to appear in the countryside, where Islam spread in a gradual and drawn-out manner. The discovery of the mosque in question indicates that Islam reached this part of the countryside rather early.
The qibla of this mosque does not fit the pattern set by the large congregational mosques in cities. This small rural mosque faces too far west. It’s Qibla however is very similar to other Qiblas used in the Negev. Perhaps there was a local person who was called on to set mosque qiblas in the Negev, and this person set all the Qiblas all too far west. Gibson classified the Negev Qiblas as unknown, when in reality they are closer to the Petra Qibla than any other.
News reports that claim this was the earliest mosque found are in error. The Qibla database lists over 120 earlier mosques.
Dan Gibson has a video on the Rahat mosque. See it at:
https://nabataea.net/cinema/questionsanswers/q-a-7-the-rahat-mosque/
There is also a transcript of this video at:
See: https://nabataea.net/explore/founding_of_islam/the-rahat-mosque-q-a07/
You can learn about this and other mosques using the Qibla Tool. Visit:
https://nabataea.net/explore/founding_of_islam/qibla-tool/
The small Rahat open air mosque
The Negev Open Air Qiblas all face west of Petra, and all the other Qiblas directions.
Sources:
An Early Islamic Mosque and Farmhouse at Naḥal Peḥar (Rahat) and the Islamification of the Countryside, Jon Seligman and Shachar Ẓur, Israel Antiquities Authority
Early Mosques in the Negev Highlands: New Archaeological Evidence on Islamic Penetration of Southern Palestine. Author: Gideon Avni. Source: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 294 (May, 1994), pp. 83-100 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1357155
News Sources
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49036815
https://www.livescience.com/65993-rural-mosque-just-before-muhammed-death.html
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