Dictionary of islamic architecture

particular combination of structures and their
design is characteristic of the Umayyad period (a
fort converted to palace, bath house and mosque),
the individual elements and building style at
Hallabat are all Byzantine.
A similar structure to Hallabat is the Umayyad
complex at Qastal (25 km south of Amman) which
until recently was thought to have been built as a
Roman or Byzantine fort. However, recent research
has shown that all the main structures date from
the Umayyad period. The main structure are a fort-
like palace, a mosque, a bath house, reservoir, dams,
cisterns, a cemetery and domestic houses. The
central palace complex consists of a square fort-like
building (about 68 m per side) with four round
corner towers and intermediate semi-circular
buttress towers. The decoration within the palace
is similar to that found at Hallabat and includes
mosaics, stucco work and carved stonework.
Internally the building consists of a central
courtyard opening on to six buyut (pl. of bayt) or
houses. Probably the most impressive feature of the
building was the large triple-apsed audience hall,
located directly above the entrance.
Sassanian Influence (‘Eastern’)
Structures representing strong Sassanian or eastern
influences are less numerous although perhaps
more striking because of their obviously foreign
derivation. Perhaps the best-known building of this
type is Qasr Kharana (located 50 km east of Amman
on the present Baghdad-Amman high-way).
Kharana consists of a two-storey square-plan
structure, 35 m per side, with small projecting
corner towers and a projecting rounded entrance.
The building is remarkable for its superb state of
preservation, which includes 
in situ
plasterwork on
the upper floor. The building is made out of roughly
shaped blocks set in a mud-based mortar with
decorative courses of flat stones placed in bands
running around the outside of the building. There
are also small slits set within the wall which were
probably for ventilation (their size and positioning
means that they could not have been used as arrow
slits). Internally the building is decorated with
pilasters, blind niches and medallions finished in
plaster. The whole appearance of the building is so
different from other Umayyad structures in Jordan
that scholars have tried to attribute it to the period
of Sassanian occupation of the area despite an
eighth-century inscription. The best parallels for
Kharana are to be found in early Islamic buildings
in Iraq such as Khan 
Atshan (similar size and
decoration) and Qasr Khubbaz which is built using
the same materials (i.e. rough stone blocks set in
mud mortar).
Another building erroneously attributed to the
Sassanian period is the palace on the citadel in
Amman. Like Kharana the Amman citadel building
exhibits unmistakable eastern influence in its
architecture and layout. The best preserved part of
the palace is the building known as the kiosk. This is
constructed on a four-iwan plan and decorated with
blind niches lined with plaster, a common feature of
Sassanian and Umayyad architecture in Iraq (e.g.
Ctesiphon and Ukhaidhir). The layout of the palace
was huge with at least twelve courtyards arranged
on a linear plan. At the opposite end of the complex
from the kiosk was a large iwan leading to a
cruciform-plan audience hall. All of these features
are reminiscent of Mesopotamian palace arcitecture,
Interior of Qasr Kharana, Jordan

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Jordan (Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan)
where palaces are like small cities, containing both
administrative and residential areas.