Museum Voices in Stone

Voices in Stone

Long ago, people carved words into stone to share their stories. These inscriptions are like messages from the past, letting us hear voices from different times and places. At Shobak, we find many of these messages, written in different languages by people from diverse social backgrounds.

One of the oldest is a Greek inscription (2nd-4th century), written in shaky letters—perhaps by someone remembering a loved one. From the 12th century, a Latin inscription from the village of Abu Makthoub may have been left by Crusaders.

Many Arabic inscriptions tell us about powerful rulers who left their mark on Shobak. Two were the nephews of the famous Saladin. Al-Mu’azzam Isa left his memory on a palace he built at Dosak, while his brother, Al-Kamil, who met in Cairo Saint Francis in 1219, recorded the construction of a building. Later, Al-Kamil’s son, As-Salih Ayyub, wrote about rebuilding Shobak’s towers in 1245.

Two mighty Mamluk sultans also left their names on Shobak’s walls: Qalawun (who ruled from 1279 to 1290) and his successor, Al-Lajin, who rebuilt this fortress in 1297–1298. We also find beautiful Mamluk funerary inscriptions, including one remembering an emir’s mother.

Finally, two Armenian inscriptions discovered in 2022 —the first ever found in Jordan - tell us about a community we never knew lived here. All of these inscriptions help us understand that Shobak was not just a fortress—it was a meeting place for many different people and cultures and a crossroads of encounters and dialogue across Western Eurasia.