It dates back to the time of the conquest and is in addition to newly discovered Islamic monuments .. Discovery of one of the oldest mosques in the world in Tiberias

The British newspaper The Times reported that archaeologists in Israel believe they have found the remains of one of the oldest mosques in the world, on the banks of Lake Tiberias.

The newspaper pointed out that the mosque was found under the ruins of a building that was originally identified as being from the Byzantine period, and is located on the outskirts of the city of Tiberias, overlooking the west bank of the lake.

The discovery was announced last week at an academic conference after 11 years of excavation by a team led by Katia Citrine Silverman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The site was previously excavated in the 1950s, when a columned structure was found and identified as a market from the late Byzantine period.

However, recent excavations have discovered pottery and coins from the early Islamic era, as well as the multi-level design of the foundations, which indicates that the site was Islamic.

Archaeologists have identified the remains of a mosque dating back to the eighth century, but other excavations have revealed that the remains date back to the seventh century.

Historians know the sites of ancient mosques, but they are hidden beneath existing mosques and inaccessible to archaeologists.

The oldest remains of a mosque were found in the ancient city of Wasit, east of Baghdad, and it dates back to the year 703 AD.

Archaeologists believe that the mosque discovered in Tiberias was built decades earlier, and may have been founded by the companion Sharhabeel bin Hasna, the commander of the army who conquered that area.

"We cannot say with certainty that this was Sharhabeel, but we have historical sources that say that he established a mosque in Tiberias when he opened it in 635 AD," said Dr. Citrine Silverman.

The effects of Islamic Tiberias

Previous excavations and excavations had revealed monuments and assets from Islamic times in the city of Tiberias within the 48 lands, which were considered important for understanding the history of the Palestinian city, especially in its golden age in the Abbasid and Fatimid eras.

Excavations revealed residential neighborhoods from the Fatimid and Abbasid Islamic periods in the mountainous region south of Tiberias, which was conquered by the Arab Muslims in the year 13 AH (635 AD) under the leadership of Sharhabil bin Hasna, and were built on Byzantine archaeological foundations.

Archaeological researcher Walid Atrash said - to a previous report by Al-Jazeera Net - that the Abbasids rebuilt the city of Tiberias after it was destroyed by a devastating earthquake that occurred on January 18, 749 AD.

He explained that, in the Islamic era, Tiberias was the capital of the Soldiers of Jordan, and witnessed exceptional prosperity during the Abbasid era, both quantitatively and qualitatively, but it reached its peak in the Fatimid period.

Atrash emphasized at the time the importance of the archaeological findings to demonstrate the status of Tiberias in the Islamic period, as it was the capital of the Soldiers of Jordan and a cultural and political commercial center for the region.

He added that the excavations "reveal the construction of neighborhoods at a high level of urban planning in Tiberias, whose population at the end of the Fatimid era is estimated at 30,000."

In 2012, the Brazilian researcher, Dr. Katia Citrine Silverman, a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, revealed that she was using great efforts to discover the effects of a huge mosque dating back to the eighth century, with an area of ​​more than 7 thousand square meters, and accommodating thousands of worshipers.

Katia added to Al-Jazeera Net that the design of the Tiberias Mosque is very similar to the Great Mosque in Damascus, which was built in the same century and is still open, and it resembles another mosque, the smallest area revealed in the archaeological excavations of Jerash in Jordan, adding that "the Great Mosque is further evidence that Tiberias is a central Islamic city." In the Levant. "

The Brazilian researcher said, "There is no doubt that Tiberias knew its golden age and reached its climax as a spiritual and commercial center in that Islamic period, as the urban archeology reflects that."

Politicized Archeology

Archaeologists say Israel is using the archaeologist's shovel as a tool of politics to try to bolster Jewish claims to the occupied lands.

According to Israeli archaeologist Ravi Greenberg, who is active with a left-wing group of archaeologists critical of the Israeli excavations in the West Bank, the Israeli authorities do not publish the list of excavations or the list of discoveries or their sites, and in return all this data is kept as state secrets.

The Israeli army has an antiquities unit responsible for excavations in most parts of the West Bank, which is the territory that Israel occupied in 1967. According to the peace agreement, the status of the West Bank - and the artifacts in it - are negotiated in subsequent peace talks, but until then the archaeologists continue. The military digs - and granted exploration permits to Israeli academics - in the West Bank and the occupied territories, according to a previous report by the American "NPR" website.

A year ago, the Israeli Antiquities Authority found 9 coins, including a gold dinar dating back to the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, in the ancient city of Yavne, located in the occupied lands in the southern coastal plain.

Israeli media said that the history of the coins dates back to the Abbasid era, and they are 1,200 years old. They were found in a broken vessel of clay and clay, and included rare pieces from North Africa and others issued by Caliph Harun al-Rashid, and the discovery showed that the region was vital in ancient times.