The Basilica of Bahira

A few steps north of the cathedral stands a church with all four walls intact to roof height. It is reckoned the oldest surviving church in Bosra, and it takes its name from Bahira, the monk of the pre-Islamic accounts. The name is what tradition gave it; the building itself is a Byzantine basilica.

Getting there

Some 30 metres north of the cathedral. Find the cathedral in the old town and you need not look for this one separately; the two buildings are within sight of each other.

What to see

The plan is a rectangle, 14 metres by 23. At the east end sits a semicircular apse, its mouth 9 metres across. The walls are dressed limestone outside and plain within, and a row of 19 windows runs along the top, so even without a roof you can read how the interior was lit. Among the classical buildings of Bosra this was the only one under a pitched timber roof — the rest of the town worked in stone vaults and basalt lintels, while this church wanted beams.

The Bahira tradition

The account holds that the monk Bahira saw the boy Muhammad here, arriving with a caravan bound for Damascus, and recognised a sign of the prophethood to come. This is a tradition, not an archaeological finding. The building’s link to Bahira is no more than a name attached later. For the church itself the sources give the 3rd or 4th century, which is earlier than the time the account is set in.

What most visitors miss

Walk in towards the apse, then turn round. That is the view. From there you see the great arch high in the west wall and the windows above it. From outside the building reads as a blind box; from inside it is built entirely around light.