| Text (with hotlink) | Original Language | Biographical Info | Religion | Date of Composition | Location Composed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage and Chronology Reports from Textual Sources | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| al-Ishaki | Arabic |
|
Muslim | ? | Cairo |
|
| al-Shadhili continuator of as-Suyuti | Arabic |
|
Muslim | ? | ? - the account appears to contain some personal eyewitness testimony from the author of the earthquake as experienced in Cairo | Reports that a strong earthquake was experienced a little after midday in Cairo which was of long duration (5 minutes?). Wrote that the tops of minarets shook with some losing their tops, basins and water tanks titled over, water sloshed violently in a pool, and that several quarters and houses in Cairo were damaged. Also reported that the walls of a courtyard of a specific house in Fustat (Cairo) swayed and some stones fell with a crash. Date and day of the week do not agree which leads to dates of Monday 4 January 1588 CE or Sunday 3 January 1588 CE |
| al-Ghuzzi continuator of as-Suyuti | Arabic |
|
Muslim | ? | ? | States that in A.H. 966 (24 Oct. 1588 CE to 12 Oct. 1559 CE) at Tabuk, on the Syrian pilgrim route, there was a strong shock and a castle collapsed on the pilgrims. |
| al-Aidarusi | Arabic |
|
Muslim | ? | ? | States that the shock was felt at Medina. |
| Damage to Saint Catherines' monastery in the Sinai as reported by Ben-Menahem (1979) | Arabic | Ambraseys (2009) notes that
Ben-Menahem (1979:258),
without details, reports that in Sinai, the mosque in the monastery of St Catherine’s collapsed and, together with other structures, was later rebuiltwhile adding - see Papamichalopoulos (1912, 242), quoting Zeki (1908), which has not been traced. Ben-Menahem (1979:258) entry only lists the year 1588 CE in Table 3 - Seismicity of Sinai. There is no mention of Saint Catherine's monastery or anything for that matter - only the year. Papamichalopoulos (1912) and Zeki (1908) are not listed as references by Ben-Menahem (1979). |
||||
| Text (with hotlink) | Original Language | Biographical Info | Religion | Date of Composition | Location Composed | Notes |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Minimum PGA (g) | Likely PGA (g) | Likely Intensity1 | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gulf of Aqaba | probable | n/a | n/a | Turbidites in numerous R/V Thuwal Cores - ~1500-~1600 CE (1σ) Bektaş et al. (2024:12) report that numerous coeval turbiditeswere identified in R/V Thuwal Cores which, based on Probability Density Functions (PDFs) presented in Fig. 8 of their paper, should have been deposited between ~1500 and ~1600 CE (1σ). A sedimentary event was identified from around this time in 15 or 16 of 18 R/V Thuwal Cores of which 12 or 13 were Type I (Turbidite Event) and 3 were Type II (Turbidite or Flooding Event). The 3 Type II Events were identified in Core 2 in the Tiran Deep and cores 9 and 10 in the Dakar Deep. No turbidites from around this time were identified in Core 6 which was collected from a small and isolated basinwhich was isolated from turbidity flows that would come from the main slopes of the gulfand, due to its relatively smaller slopes, may not be sensitive to earthquake shaking as much as the larger main slopes of the gulf. A missing turbidite from core 14 was more difficult to explain. Bektaş et al. (2024:12) suggested two possibilities for its absence
triggered seismo-turbidites along the entire gulfand suggested that, when one adds paleoseismic observations by Kanari et al. (2020) from the Elat Sabhka Trenches, the CE 1588 earthquake likely [] ruptured the entire fault system in the Gulf of Aqaba1. They added that the earthquake or earthquake and aftershock does not seem to have propagated inland beyond the northern end of the gulfand ruptured south of the Tiran Strait. They surmised that the causitive earthquake did not propagate inland due to an absence of a seismic event from around this time in the Qatar Trench. 7 cm. thick Mass Transport Deposit Event B was identified in R/V Mediterranean Explorer Canyon Core P27 by Kanari et al (2015) and Ash-Mor et al. (2017). Ash-Mor et al. (2017) provided an unmodeled 14C date of ~1292 CE (658 ± 34 cal years BP) for the sediments below the mass transport deposit which Kanari et al (2015) associated with the 1458 CE earthquake although other events might also fit this approximate unmodeled date - e.g. the 1068 CE Earthquake, 1212 CE Earthquake, and the 1588 CE Earthquakes. Kanari et al (2015) based their date assignment of 1458 CE at least partly on their work in the nearby Elat Sabhka Trenches where Kanari et al. (2020) dated Event E2 in Trench T3 to after 1294 CE and listed earthquakes of 1458 CE and 1588 CE as likely candidates. Kanari et al. (2020) also identified liquefaction sand blows SB1 and SB2 in the same Elat Sabhka Trench (T3) which they dated to between 1287 and 1635 CE or 1287-1550 CE1. Kanari et al. (2020) surmised that the data for liquefaction sand blows SB1 and SB2 tend to support an interpretation of 1458 CE, but are inconclusive. |
|
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Minimum PGA (g) | Likely PGA (g) | Likely Intensity1 | Comments |
| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jordan Valley - Tell Saidiyeh and Ghor Kabed Trenches | possible | ≥ 7 | Ferry et al (2011) detected 12 surface rupturing seismic events in 4 trenches (T1-T4) in Tell Saidiyeh and Ghor Kabed; 10 of which were prehistoric. The tightest chronology came from the Ghor Kabed trenches (T1 and T2) where Events Y and Z were constrained to between 560 and 1800 CE. | ||||||||||
| Dead Sea - Seismite Types | n/a | n/a | n/a | ||||||||||
| Dead Sea - En Feshka | no evidence | The top of Kagan et. al. (2011)'s section in En Feshka began around 1300 CE. | |||||||||||
| Dead Sea - Nahal Darga | possible | ≥ 7 | Enzel et. al. (2000) identified a 25-50 cm. thick seismite in coarse grained lithology in Deformed Unit 10 at the base of Stratigraphic Unit 13 which dated to 1450-1550 CE (~ 400-500 yrs BP). | ||||||||||
| Dead Sea - En Gedi | possible | 5.6 - 7.0 | Migowski et. al. (2004) assigned a 1588 CE date to a 1 cm. thick Type 1 seismite at a depth of 52 cm. (0.52 m). | ||||||||||
| Dead Sea - Nahal Ze 'elim | possible | 8.2 - 9.0 | At site ZA-2, Kagan et. al. (2011) encountered a 10 cm. thick Type 4 seismite which was dated to ~1525 CE ± 125. The date was not within their Bayesian modeled range and was extrapolated. Kagan et. al. (2011) suggested that this particular seismite formed during an earthquake in 1458 CE. | ||||||||||
| Araba - Introduction | n/a | n/a | n/a | ||||||||||
| Araba - Qasr Tilah | possible | ≥ 7 | Haynes et al. (2006) dated Event I to 1515-1918 CE. | ||||||||||
| Araba - Taybeh Trench | possible | LeFevre et al. (2018) assigned a 1458 CE date to a seismite labeled as E2 which was age modeled to 1581 CE ± 133. | |||||||||||
| Araba - Qatar Trench | possible | ≥ 7 | Klinger et. al. (2015) identified one seismic event which fits the 1458 CE Quake.
|
||||||||||
| Araba - Taba Sabhka Trench | possible | ≥ 7 | Allison (2013) assigned a 1068 CE date to a seismic event which they dated to between 1045 and 1661 CE and Allison (2013) assigned a 1212 CE date to a seismic event which they dated to between the mid 11th century CE and the 16-17th centuries CE. | ||||||||||
| Araba - Elat Sabhka Trenches | possible | Kanari et al (2020) dated Event E2 in Trench T3 to after 1294 CE and assigned it to earthquakes in 1458 or 1588 CE. Kanari et al (2020) dated sand blows SB1 and SB2 in Trench T3 to between 1287 and 1635 CE and suggested they may have formed during an earthquake in 1458 CE. | |||||||||||
| Araba - Trenches in Aqaba | possible | ≥ 7 |
Niemi (2011:153) noted that the most recent scarp-forming event fault [in Trench AQ-1] occurred after A.D. 1045-1278 based on a corrected, calibrated radiocarbon age from charcoal collected from a buried campfire at the base of the scarp in Trench T-1. This likely represents fault motion in one of the historical earthquakes affecting southern Jordan (e.g. 1068, 1212, 1458, or 1588). |
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| Location (with hotlink) | Status | Intensity | Notes |
Fig. 1 Location map of Hejaz study area (squared). Stars show location of adopted epicenters of the
earthquakes of September 873, 18 March 1068, and 4 January 1588. Open stars show the location of
Hala'l Ishqa (1) and Hala'l Badr (2) associated with the lava flows of 641 AD. JW: Epicenters are
mislocated (873, 1068, and 1588) and were corrected in subsequent publications. Map is presented for
other locations.
(from Ambraseys and Melville (1989))
AD 1588 Jan 4 Eilat
A little after midday on Sunday, 4 Safar a.H. 996 (4 January 1588 N.S.),
a strong earthquake shock was felt in
Cairo, where it was of long duration, about five daraja.
The minarets shook, some of them losing their tops;
basins and water tanks tilted over, and one report speaks
of an eye-witness running in fear from the bathhouse,
after the water had sloshed violently in the pool. Several
quarters and houses of Cairo were damaged (Al-Shadhili,
64).
The earthquake was destructive at the pass of Aila
(Eilat) and caused rock falls on the Egyptian pilgrim
route to Mecca (al-Ishaqi, 154). At Tabuk, on the
Syrian pilgrim route, the shock was very strong, and the
castle collapsed on the pilgrims there (al-Ghuzzi). Medina
was also affected by the shock (al-’Aidarusi sub ann.).
In Sinai, the mosque in the monastery of St Catherine’s
collapsed and, together with other structures, was later
rebuilt (Ben-Menahem 1979, 258).
These details are consistent with an epicentre in
the northern Red Sea area, to the east of the Gulf of
Aqaba (Melville 1984, 99; Ambraseys and Melville 1989).
Fig. 2.18 1588 January 4 - April 7, Northern Hejaz. Atfih was affected only in the
event of 7 April.
(Ambraseys et al, 1994)
1588 January 4 NS Sunday 4 Safar 996 Northern Hejaz
A little after midday, a strong shock of earthquake was
felt in Cairo, where it was of long duration (about five
daraja). The minarets shook, some of them losing their
top; basins and water tanks tilted over, and one report
speaks of an eye-witness running in fear from the
bathhouse, after the water sloshed violently in the pool.1
Several quarters and houses of Cairo were damaged.
The earthquake was destructive at the pass of Aila and
caused rockfalls on the Egyptian pilgrim route to
Mecca.2 At Tabuk, on the Syrian pilgrim route, the
shock was very strong and the castle collapsed on the
pilgrims there.3 Medina was also affected by the shock.4
In Sinai, the mosque in the monastery of St Catherine's
collapsed and, together with other structures, was later
rebuilt.5
These details are consistent with an epicentre in the
northern Red Sea area, to the east of the Gulf of Aqaba
(see Figure 2.18).6