Dictionary of islamic architecture

particularly fond of the city and refur-bished the
citadel as a royal residence for himself. To the west
of the city he built another palace known as the Qasr
Ablaq which was built out of alternating courses of
black and ochre-coloured masonry. Madrassas
continued to be built although not on the same scale
as before. There was a proliferation of mausoleums
and to this period may be ascribed the invention of
the double mausoleum where two mausoleums were
included within a single complex. Examples of this
type of building include the tomb of the Mamluk
sultan Kit Bugha and the tomb of the Muhajirin
commemorating a Mamluk who had fought the
Mongols. The form of these double mausoleums was
of two symmetrical domed tombs, with a
monumental portal between them which would lead
to the madrassa or memorial mosque.
In the later Mamluk period there was a
development in the outward appearance of
buildings characterized by the growth in the
number of decorative octagonal minarets. These
towers were decorated with blind niches, muqarnas
corbelling elaborate finials and stone inlays. There
was also a development of the markets outside the
city centre and to this period may be ascribed the
development of the suqs known as Taht Qal
a
(below the citadel).
The Ottoman conquest of the early sixteenth
century re-established Damascus as a regional
capital, a position which was reinforced by its
position at the start of the Hajj (pilgrimage) route to
Damascus. New facilities both religious and practical
were built to accommodate the vast numbers of
pilgrims coming from Anatolia, Syria and even from
Iran. The most important monument was the Tekiyya
of Sulayman the Magnificent designed by his
Entrance to the Hospital of Nur al-Din (built 1154), Damascus, ©
Rebecca Foote
Damascus

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architect Sinan and completed in 1555. The Tekiyya
is built on the river bank on the site of the old
Mamluk palace, Qasr Ablaq. The Tekiyya comprises
a mosque, kitchens and a camping ground for
pilgrims. The mosque is built in the classical
Ottoman style with a prayer hall covered by a large
dome and a double arcade running round it on three
sides. The twin minarets are tall pencil-like structures
with sharp pointed roofs. The pure Ottoman
appearance of the building is modified by the use of
alternating black and white (ablaq) masonry. Other
Ottoman mosques of the period also display a
mixture of local and Ottoman features, thus the
Sinaniya (after Sinan Pasha the governor of
Damascus, not the architect) mosque has a large
central dome in the Ottoman style but the use of
ablaq masonry and the monumental muqarnas
portal resemble earlier Mamluk buildings.
The Ottoman conquest also brought a fresh
impetus to the trade of the city with the establishment
of numerous khans. One of the earliest Ottoman
examples is Khan al-Haria built in 1572 around a
square courtyard with stables and store rooms on the
ground floor and accomodation above. In eighteenth-
century khans the central courtyard was often smaller
and covered with domes. The most famous example
of this later type is the As
ad Pasha Khan which is a
square building covered with eight small domes and
a large central dome supported on marble columns.
The eighteenth century also saw the development of
domestic architecture influenced by buildings such
as the Azzam palace which was built around a
courtyard in the traditional Syrian manner but with
decoration that recalls the mansions of Istanbul.