Building inscriptions from the bazaar gate in angular Kufic script

This impressive, two-part mosaic inscription commemorates the renovation of the Umayyad bazaar in Beth Shean (Beisan) by the local governor, Ishaq ibn Qabisah, under the orders of Caliph Hisham. However, 11 years after the building was erected, it was destroyed in an earthquake that devastated the city and many other parts of the Land. Glass wall mosaics were common in the Umayyad Period. Magnificent examples have survived in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Mosque in Damascus.