Resumen de O "Ribat" da Arrifana (Aljezur, Algarve): resultados da campanha de escavações arqueológicas de 2002
Mario Varela Gomes, Rosa Varela Gomes
Beyond cited in diverse Islamic texts, such as for later historians, the ribat (convent-fortress) established by the master sufi Ibn Qasi, in Arrifana (Aljezur), would only be identified by the authors in 2001, in the small peninsula called Ponta da Atalaja, about 6 km west of AljezurÁ After the superficial cleaning of two zones, made in that year, the same ones had been excavated during the month of August of the following year, leading to the identification of architectural remains of three mosques, with qiblas and respective mihrabs, duly orientated ro Meca. In one of the searched sectors (Si) a mosque of great dimensions was recognized that was bujid near another previous one, while in the sector (S2) was identified a smaller mosque and the remaining portions of attached compartments. The exhumed estate is not abundant, if compared with contemporary Islamic sites of the region, and in it they preponder ceramics (of table, cooking and storage), even so also have been exhumed metallic artefacts (lead canudo-amulet, two coils, pendant, iron of spear, etc...), such as small bead of faience. As much the information of historical character as the archaeological one, allows to consider that the ribat will have been raised around 1130 and abandoned from 1151 onwards, after the murder of the its spiritual leader and founder and the persecution moved to its followers. It matters to register that this is the second ribat discovered in the Iberian 'Peninsula, after the one of Guardamar, situated in the old delta of the Segura River (Alicante), in the Levantine Coast. This, despite being even about a century older, shows some affinities with the one of Arrifana, namely in the localization in a peninsula, near the sea, as in the form and dimensions of some of the mosques.
