The Architecture and Decoration Varieties of Khirbat al Mafjar

The 8th century desert palace Khirbat al Mafjar remains (in present day Jordan)is a matchless specimen of Umayyad luxurious lifestyle and their perception forart. The palace is amalgamation of variety of decoration type like carved andmoulded stucco, stone relief and birds and figure sculpture and also frescospaintings. It is famous for its well-preserved floor mosaics. Although credited tocaliph Hisham (r. AD 724– 743) but his successor and also his nephew named asAl Walid II probably built this palace (r. AD 743– 44) . However after five yearsAl-Walid’s died and, the palace was smashed due to an earthquake. This articlediscusses the building designed structure and the ornamentation and decorationvarieties used in the architecture. Though this palace is famous for its mosaicsbut this paper covers its main parts of architecture and all types of varieties. It’san explorative study collected from historical data, literature and excavationreports and in the end it concludes that this palace is unique not only for itsvarieties but also the symbolic meanings of elements in the decoration. Thesesymbols have some logic or reason of representing in the palace that explains thepower and authority of the owner. In other words not just depiction of luxuriouslifestyle but the aesthetics and symbolic both designs are the parts of thisUmayyad era building.Keywords: palace, architecture, decoration, varieties, aesthetic, symbolic.Introduction:Khibrat al- Mafjar also known as Hisham’s Palace is one of the most important culturalsymbols of early Islamic archaeology in Palestine. It was firstly excavated in 1930 by RobertHamilton who was member of British team and noted in 1873 in West. After Hamilton andBaramaki , Doanld Whitecomb and Hmadan Taha also worked on it. It is the case of earlyIslamic Umayyad architecture and its ruins spread in 60 hectares. These Mafjar ruins is alsothe last recorded remaining’s of the Byzantine and also Romans in Creswell (1932) views,while Hamilton (1959) and Baramiki (1948) believes it has Byzantine and Sassanianinfluences