page_title: Pella, Jordan
section_title: Islamic period
hierarchical_section_title: Pella, Jordan / History / Islamic period
caption_attribution_description: English: Taken by Nick Fraser in the late summer of 2004. Children playing in the ancient ruins of Pella.
context_page_description: Pella is located in northwest Jordan at a rich water source within the eastern foothills of the Jordan Valley, close to the modern village of Ṭabaqat Faḥl some 27km south of the Sea of Galilee. The site is situated 130 km north of Amman, a drive of about an hour and a half, and is a shorter half an hour by car from Irbid, in the north of the country. Today the city's ruins, predominately temples, churches and housing, have been partially excavated by teams of archaeologists, and attract thousands of tourists annually but especially in spring, during which time the area is awash with spring flowers.
context_section_description: On the plain of the Jordan Valley below Pella, a historically decisive battle took place in January 635 CE (13 AH) between a Muslim army and the Byzantine forces stationed at Pella and Scythopolis (Beit She'an; Beisan). This encounter, one of the earliest between Muslims and Byzantines, came to be known as the Battle of Fihl (also Battle of Fahl, Fahl being a later variant of Fihl). The Muslims forces faced little resistance with the town of Pella surrendering by treaty, thereby avoiding occupation by military conquest. Accordingly, the archaeological record shows no disruption attributable to the arrival of Islam, as was the case for nearly all the towns of Bilad al-Sham. Rather, the churches, markets and houses of Pella continued in use, with the archaeology showing their progressive modification to meet evolving social and political conditions, as in many of the other towns of the Decapolis alliance in north Jordan. In particular, a large market and workshop area was installed adjacent to the Civic Complex church at the heart of the Byzantine town plan.
  Pella, which by the eighth century CE had officially returned to its original Semitic name of Fihl (variant of Pihil), was totally devastated by the massive 749 Galilee earthquake, as a Jordan Valley rift fault line runs directly under the site. The stone and mudbrick two-storeyed houses on the top of the tell (main mound) collapsed in on themselves, thereby trapping the inhabitants — human and animal — and preserving a rich collection of finds sourced from distant regions, such as Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula . Subsequent settlement at Pella, dated from the later eighth to eleventh centuries CE, was reduced in size, but featured an enclosed double-courtyard architectural complex in the valley immediately north of the tell. The configuration of the complex suggests markets (khans), with commercial activities such as glass workshops. Occupation spans the Abbasid into Fatimid periods. Recent work on the tell has identified widespread rebuilding following the 749 earthquake, as indicated by wall foundations, plastered floors and refuse pits filled with finely worked bone and moulded glassware. Evidence for a presence in the Crusader period (12th century CE) is slight — a few pottery sherds only — but in the following Ayyubid and Mamluk periods the flat summit of the tell was inhabited by a large village, featuring a stone-built mosque with a minbar (pulpit), residential compounds defined by lane ways, and a large cemetery. Late 16th century Ottoman defters list a village called Fahl el Tahta in the administrative district of Ajlun where wheat, barley, and sesame were grown and taxes collected on goats, beehives and water-driven mills.
caption: Children playing football in the ancient ruins of Pella in September 2004.
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