Jabal Sais (Arabic:جبل سايس also known asQasr Says is aUmayyad desert fortification or former palace inSyria which was built 707-715 AD. The fortification sits near an extinct volcano.[1] Jabal Says is mountain peak next to the fortification which sits 621 meters above sea level.[2]
Built from 707-715 AD and located in the Syrian Desert.[3] The location was dependent on the seasonal supply of water which pooled next to the volcano crater. The palace is now just a vestige.[4] The settlement at Jabal Says has existed since 528 AD.[5] According to the historianJere L. Bacharach,al-Walid I builtJabal Says, likely as aBedouin summer encampment between his base of operations inal-Qaryatayn and another of his desert forts,Qasr Burqu'.[6]
The site contains a famous inscription known as theJebel Usays inscription composed either in 528 or 532/3 AD. It describes the Jafnid leaderAl-Harith ibn Jabalah with the leaderal-malik, corresponding to how the title is spelt inSyriac texts from the time.[7][8]
^Fisher, Greg (2020).Rome, Persia, and Arabia: shaping the Middle East from Pompey to Muhammad. London New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 128, 140.ISBN978-0-415-72880-5.
^Genequand, Denis (2015). "The Archaeological Evidence for the Jafnisa and the Naṣrids". In Fisher, Greg (ed.).Arabs and empires before Islam. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp. 175–193.ISBN978-0-19-965452-9.
