ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER UAE’S EARLIEST MOSQUE AT AL AIN SITE
Building from 1,000 years ago, in Islam’s early Golden Age of the Abbasid Caliphate, ‘proves richness of region’s history’
Archaeologists have discovered a 1,000-year-old mosque close to the building site of the Sheikh Khalifa mosque in Al Ain, making it the earliest yet discovered in the UAE.
The remains, which date back to Islam’s early Golden Age of the Abbasid Caliphate, were found close to several irrigation waterways and suggest at least three mudbrick buildings.
Archaeologists from the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism discovered a mihrab – the niche in the mosque walls that are closest to Makkah – inside and outside.
This means the faithful would have prayed inside and outside the mosque, as they do today.
Fragments of pots, which were probably used for ablutions and other ritual purposes, were found inside the remains and date from between the ninth and 10th centuries. Radiocarbon dating of a nearby falaj, or traditional irrigation, confirms that the mosque is the earliest discovered in the UAE.
“The new findings at the Al Ain archaeological sites prove the richness of the region’s history, which allows us to expand our knowledge of ages long past,” said Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the tourism authority.
“The discovery of a mosque from the Abbasid period in Al Ain shows the deeply rooted influences of Islam in the region, despite the immense distance from where Islam emerged and at a time when transport was quite rudimentary.”
The findings display “clear and profound cultural influences” that reveal how the connections established by our ancestors with neighbouring cultures and nations transcended borders and surmounted difficulties associated with transport, Mr Al Mubarak said.
The buildings at the site are the remains of a small fortress and several other structures.
People living in the buildings would have obtained fresh water from several falaj waterways constructed around the settlement.
The technology used to create falaj in Al Ain dates back 3,000 years.
In the early Islamic period, people in Al Ain improved the technology by using fired
The Muslim finds at Al Ain are contemporaneous to a Christian site at Sir Bani Yas, reflecting the UAE’s message of tolerance
bricks to ensure the stability and durability of the underwater channels. When excavated these falaj were still intact.
Experts believe the mosque indicates the popularity and position of Islam in the UAE in the centuries following Prophet Mohammed. And they say the finds of the fragments of pots and other artefacts show how the spread of Islam opened up trade and ushered in a global age of commerce.
They included ceramics which had been imported from the rest of the Arabian Gulf, along with several fragments of Dusun ceramics, which were discovered in the mosque and adjacent buildings. Dusun ceramics were produced in the Guangdong province of southern China and traded across east Asia and the Middle East.
Archaeologists are continuing to research Al Ain and elsewhere in Abu Dhabi in an effort to further understand the early centuries of Islam, said DCT Abu Dhabi.
Archaeologists have also investigated a Christian church which dates to this period on the island of Sir Bani Yas. Discovered during excavations in 1992, the Christian monastery and church are evidence of another feature of the early Islamic period, say archaeologists, the tolerance and acceptance of other religions, which is still a feature of life in today’s UAE, said DCT Abu Dhabi.