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The Mamluk sultans were new to embrace Islam, and so their main reason for strengthening
their rule over the Islamic region was to obtain legitimacy, through taking over the status as the
defenders of Islam and its sacred places. To achieve this aim they applied several methods,
some of which had a significant impact on the architecture and urban planning for the cities.
The methods they used were as follows:
Firstly: They launched their first mission to fight and expel the Crusaders from Jerusalem.
Secondly: They protected the pilgrimage route to Mecca in all of the countries under their con-
trol, which led to the re-emergence of the pilgrimage routefrom Damascus to the south.
Thirdly: The Mamluk policy to consolidate their rule also involved getting closer to the Islamic
nations through other social and intellectual aspects, such as spreading fads that were related to
religion and exaggerating the celebrations of religious ceremonies. The most important of these
was the pilgrimage howdah, which was invented by El-Zaher Baybars in Damascus at the be-
ginning of his reign in order to prove his sovereignty over the region. The pilgrimage howdah
involved travelling through the pilgrimage route, and was launched from one of Damascus'
mosques with grand celebrations. The previous two factors had a great impact on the urban
planning of the city, as we will see,since the concept of pilgrimage rituals was connected to the
need to establish grand spacious mosques that were located in places that were suitable for ac-
commodating a large crowd to practice the rituals. They also led to the necessity to place these
mosques on the route of the pilgrimage, starting from the gate of the citadel to the south that
was in alignment to the western city wall.
Fourthly: Trying to obtain blessing by getting closer to the buildings of their predecessors, who
owned the real legitimacy to rule the Islamic State. Since the Mamluks took great care in choos-
ing their buildings sites, the location of the building was seen to be as important as the architec-
tural significance, and possibly more. In his book, Rabbat mentioned that the historians of the
Mamluk era did not care about the aesthetic values of the buildings mentioned in their books,
but that the Waqf documents were describing the distribution of the internal spaces without de-
scribing the ornaments or decorative elements in detail. Besides that, they paid great attention to
announcing the location of the building and they mentioned all of the important buildings in the
neighbourhood, which clarifies the importance of choosing the buildings' locations.
Damascus was considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities; the archaeo-
logical studies on the old city of Damascus, carried out by Zack D. showed that it had been
The mutual influence of the Mamluk interior architecture and
urban planning in Damascus
Dr. Karam Abdallah
Faculty of Art & Design
Interior Design Department
October University of Modern Science & Arts
ABSTRACT: During the Mamluk era, Damascus was again the capital of the Levant area and
the main passage for the Hajj convoys that travelled from all of the countries in the east to Mec-
ca. This research establishes a study of the relationship between Mamluk political and religious
concepts concerning the distribution of the main Islamic buildings in Damascus, the impact of
this distribution on the urban planning of the city and, finally, the impact of all these factors on
its interior design.
based on perpendicular street planning since the Hellenistic era. This planning started to disap-
pear with the emergence of Islam in Damascus, until it finally disappeared in the Mamluk era
and the city became made up of twisted alleys that may end with blocked lanes. Also, the urban
architecture extended outside the city walls to several new important places: Sook Saroja in the
north, Senjekdar district in the west and Al-Midan in the south. These are the regions that are
included in this survey. We are going to study the distribution of the Islamic buildings of
mosques and schools in these areas, including the buildings that mentioned in Sauvaget and
Zak, D. researches about Damascus. Some of these buildings are still there and will be within
the scope of the field study, others have ceased to exist and their descriptions come from books
and references.
The field study shows a great diversity in the interior architecture design style; we are going
to make a comparison between the distribution of the buildings and the interior architectural
style. Thus, we will use examples of the most important buildings, as shown in the attached ta-
ble (Table 1). These examples were selected because they were built by the sultans, their repre-
sentatives or their high ranking officials in Damascus. Therefore we could attain results that re-
flected the thoughts prevailing during the Mamluk era.
On the map (Figure 2), we notice the distribution of mosques and schools in the old city of
Damascus, both inside and outside the walls, and the increase in the buildings' density in the
north of the Umayyad Mosque area, the area between the castles and the straight street that was
named Sook Al-Kmh, as well as on the pilgrimage route, starting from the locality of Al-
Senjekdar in the alignment of the city wall and then turning towards the south. We also observe
similar density on both sides of Sook Saroja, which runs from west - to north-east of the city
walls. The attached diagram, (Figure 1), shows the distribution in numbers and its explanation is
as follows:
North Umayyad Mosque area: Tracking the construction dates of the most important archi-
tectural structures in the attached table, we note that the first thing that was done by Sultan Bay-
bars upon the receipt of power was to create Al-Zaheria, which is a mausoleum and a school,
and he chose the site facing Al-Adelya school because of its religious and political fame, mak-
ing them complement each other and become counterpart twin buildings, as if they belonged to
one architectural unit in which the shrines’ domes and entrances’ corresponded to each other.
The southern façade is an extension of the southern façade of Al-Adelya school. Here we should
mention that the Ayyubids had set up a number of important buildings adjacent to the north of
the Umayyad Mosque, notably the Saladin mausoleum and Al-Rashaeya school. This explains
the architectural density in this area, which affirms the previously mentioned desire to have
neighbouring buildings next to the buildings of the former legitimate kings. So they built Al-
Ekhnaeya School (Figure 4) in the place of the Al-Rashaeya, directly followed by the Al-
Jaqmaqyah School (Figure 3) in the place of an old mausoleum. The concept of the twin build-
ings was repeated once again, as these two schools constituted one architectural unit where the
domes and the great entrances of both buildings faced each other.
West of the city: When we trace the historical sequence of buildings in the Mamluk era, we see
that the great rulers in the early Mamluk era gave their attention to the construction of great
mosques that were miniature copies of the Great Umayyad Mosque. This interest in the tradition
of the Umayyad Mosque was not only due to the importance of its architectural and aesthetic
values, but also because it represents a symbol of the Sunni group that the Ayyubids and then
the Mamluk tried to revive and spread. This was achieved by choosing appropriate sites that
provided space for such great mosques in the western part of the old city, looking over the
branches of Barada's River. In other words, selecting sites, depending on the availability of the
necessary landscape area, where the Great Mosques of Tinkyz and Yalbuga and the Shazebkya
School (Figure 5) were built.
Pilgrimage route: Meanwhile, a new and important reason appeared for choosing a site on
which to build mosques and schools, and that was the pilgrimage route. Through knowing the
ceremonial rituals organised by the Mamluks before the pilgrimage season, we consider that the
pilgrimage route started from the Senjekdar district, opposite the castle. It then stretched in
alignment to the city wall, where the Afridonia and Alsabonia schools were situated, and then it
turned south where the two important mosques,,Al-Kremy and Manjek, were built.
The area south of the Castle and north of Sook Al-kamh: We note the density of school
buildings in a relatively small space, since this region is one of the most vital areas in the old
city of Damascus and is close to the surrounding public markets, such as Sook Al- Kamh in the
south and Al-Bzoryah in the east. Most of the schools were built in distant streets, far from the
main public streets. This proves that this area was considered to be a residential area and that it
contained some of the most important residential buildings, such as the hospital of Al Nouri, the
palace of Alsadaa, which was south-west of the castle, and the palace of Dar-Althahab, which
was south-east of the Umayyad Mosque. Therefore, many of the rulers and princes had lived in
this region since the Ayyubid period. Many historical references, such as Al-Nuaimi mention of
schools in Damascus, pointed out that many of the rulers and princes had transferred their hous-
es into religious schools after their death. The most famous of which were the Athrawyah
School 580 AH and the inner Al-Shamya School 612 AH. As a result, many of the rulers and
high ranking men did the same thing during the Mamluk period. Yet, most of these buildings
were destroyed and there is no trace left whatsoever, and even their locations were not deter-
mined except in the historical researches of Sauvaget, and Zack D.
The area north of the walls (Souk Saroja): When the Burjy Mamluks gained power, they
changed the basis on which they chose the sites of the religious buildings.
They paid attention to the areas located north of the walls, Sook Saroja and its eastern exten-
sion. This was because these regions had reached their constructional completeness in that era
and also due to the existence of some significant Ayyubid religious buildings, such as the exter-
nal Al-Shamya School, Al-Tawba and Al-Aqsab mosques. The former two mosques were built
in the style of the Umayyad Mosque; even the remains of Al-Shamya School's arcade shows
that this great school was also built in the Umayyad Mosque style. Thus, the remainder of the
buildings in this region were an attractive factor in encouraging the residential completion of the
Saroja region. As a result, the new religious buildings, such as the mosques of Moaayad, Al-
Jawzah, Al-Ward, Belban and Al- Moaalaq, were built on the sides of Saroja's main street.
THE IMPACT OF THE URBAN PLANING ON THE INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
We conclude from the previous section that political and religious thoughts were the main in-
spiration for construction and architectural style in the Mamluk era in order to attain their politi-
cal aims, and that this had a great impact on the interior architecture.
Arcades style: In the early part of their rule, the Mamluks decided to build mosques, and they
tried to imitate the Umayyad Mosque. They tended to choose wide spaces, far from the crowded
old city, and that allowed them to use the style of the opened courtyard surrounded by arcades.
The Mamluks used several ways to imitate the Umayyad Mosque; the most important of the-
se was by using the same plan, thus the mosques were built with an open courtyard, surrounded
by four arcades, with the southern one being the largest because it was in the qibla direction.
These arcades overlooked the open courtyard from semicircular arches, topped with another row
of arched windows. Also they added a nave to the prayer hall of the Al-Kremy and Al-Ward
mosques and the minaret was built in the middle of the northern arcade in Tenkiz and Al-
Kremy. In addition to that, all the mosques had several entrances, in the north, east and west
which were in the typical style of the Umayyad Mosque.
In this era, it was preferred that schools, which had no less religious or political importance
than mosques, should be built near the residential areas for daily use. For this reason, these
schools were built both inside and outside the city, to the north and west of the walls.
THE IMPACT OF THE LOCATION UPON THE INTERIOR SPACES OF THE SCHOOLS
Firstly, schools of the iwan style: This was the typical plan for schools, which had been adopt-
ed since the Ayyubid period; as the qibla direction faced the south, these buildings tended to ex-
tend from north to south. The chosen site should provide enough space to make the qibla iwan
the biggest one. We see this in Al-Afridonya (Figure 6) and Shathebkya (Figure 5), where we
note that the entrances were put in the eastern façade in both buildings, which is the main façade
of the building. As for the location of the mausoleum, this may vary according to the street lo-
cation; it should be put in one of the corners of the building, so that it could overlook the street.
Thus, in Shathebkya, the entrance was put in the south-west corner, as the façade was single and
not attached to other buildings. But as Al-Afridonya had only one single façade, the mausoleum
was put in the north-east corner so that it could overlook the street. However the Tenkyz School
(Figure 7) was the only remaining one that was built to the iwan plan, located inside the walls of
the old city. It seems that the powerful of Tinkes enabled him to build his school in such im-
portant site facing Dar Al-Thahab palace and inside the walls of the city using the typical plan
for schools. The entrance was made to face the north, which is the main façade, in order to over-
look the street. This important change in the planning of this building occurred as a result of its
site. Also, this school did not have a mausoleum, which was considered to be rare. Other
schools had the mausoleums of their builders, unless they were transferred from houses to
schools.
Secondly, the complex plan: The most important example is Al-Zaheria School, which was
built facing to the Adelya School from the Ayyubid period. It contained four iwans, but they
were not symmetrical around one axis. In addition, the main entrance opened on to a transverse
arcade, and we can clearly note that the arrangement of the interior spaces corresponded to those
of the Adelya School, which was considered to be its architectural twin. The entrances were fac-
ing each other; moreover, the two domes of the mausoleums were also opposite each other. On
the one hand, we can see how the architect was able to adjust the new exterior architectural
mass to the older one. On the other hand, the mass of the mausoleum took up a large part of the
total space of the building because of the owner's importance. In spite of the Al-Zaheria
School's displacement towards the south, the façade looked like a complement of the Adelya
School. Thus, the displacement helped to emphasise both domes.
Another important example of twin buildings was Al-Ekhnaeya School (Figure 4) and Al-
Jaqmaqyah School (Figure 3). These were built in two very close eras. In the attached pictures,
we can see the balance and symmetry of the interior spaces and the courtyards, and the mauso-
leums mass. Here, we should mention that the courtyard ceiling of the Al-Jaqmaqyah School
was covered over in the 20th century, but it had previously been open to the sky. The same is al-
so true of the Al-Ekhnaeya School. Also, the iwans of the Al-Ekhnaeya School were open to the
courtyard and they have recently been covered. Furthermore, we can see the symmetry of the
prayer halls, whose shape looked like an iwan and an arcade at the same time, as they go around
the central courtyard. The only difference we notice is the position of the entrance mass, which
was shifted in the Al-Jaqmaqyah School from the middle of the main façade to its west side.
The reason for this shift was that the main façade overlooked a narrow street, but the west front
overlooked a spacious square. This meant that the entrance was more notable in this position
than being in the centre of the façade, because of its height compared to the narrow street.
The complex buildings outside the walls: The most important examples are the mosques of
Senjekdar, Al-Tawrizy (Figure 9), and the schools of Sabounya (Figure 8) and Saybaeya (Figure
10). Al-Tawrizy Mosque was built in a residential street in the west of old Damascus. Its first
function was intended to be only as a mausoleum, and then it was decided to continue construc-
tion to add a mosque to it. Thus, we can find a distinguished design in which the mausoleum
was located in the middle of the north façade adjoining a small courtyard. It had two entrances,
with the main one located in the west of the northern façade and opening directly on to a trans-
verse arcade, which used to be an open courtyard in the original design. But the main impact of
the building site with regard to the interior spaces distribution was that there was no place for
the minaret. This led to the minaret being put on the opposite side of the street.
We note here that the arcades were transverse due to the availability of space, where the
main axes of the building run from east to west, contrary to the previous examples of the iwans
plan.
The Sabounya School axes goes from east to west, and we also see the same expansion in the
Saybaeya School.
In the previous examples there was a transverse passage going from east to west, dividing the
plan into the northern part, containing the mausoleum and other rooms, and the southern part,
containing the prayer hall and other rooms and iwans. This passage may lead to another interior
open courtyard surrounded by four iwans or arcades. This plan was used in the schools that
were built outside the walls along the pilgrimage route, where there was not enough space to use
the iwans plan, and where the building needed to present the dome to the street, as with the Sab-
ounya School, Saybaeya School and Senjekdar. Also, as these buildings were constructed to be
schools, there was no need to put the dome in the main axes of the building, as with the
mosques with their arcaded plan.
It became popular in Damascus, at that time, to build the minaret above the main entrance, in
order to reflect the continuing escalation of the entrance to the sky. That made it close to the
dome of the mausoleum in most cases, when the main façade was not that long. But, when the
façade was expanded to be very long such as in the Saybaeya and Sabounya Schools, the mina-
ret was put on the other side of the dome to achieve a balance.
When we compare the position of the mausoleum to the plan, we see that, in the case of the
iwan plan, the mausoleum was put in a place that was separated from the mass of the iwans, not
in the corners between them. Whereas, in the complex plans, the mausoleum was part of the en-
tire form of the building plan.
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- The urban planning of the old city of Damascus was a result of the political and religious
thoughts of the Mamluk rulers, as previously explained..
- At the same time, this distribution of Islamic buildings led to the emergence of new resi-
dential regions such as Saroja.
- The impact of political and religious beliefs on the distribution of the Islamic buildings
affected several aspects of the interior architecture of these buildings, which are: choos-
ing an appropriate plan and style for the interior spaces and finding an alternative design
for the interior spaces. Thus, the interior architect had the flexibility to change from the
original designs of Islamic buildings, according to the construction site.
- The comparative study between the description of the buildings in the historical books
and the field study nowadays, showed that the renovation of the ancient buildings in Da-
mascus was not at the required level. A lack of suitable materials and the right construc-
tion methods led to the creation of deformed buildings that were unrelated to the old ones
and had no aesthetic value.
- The Urban Planning Commission in Damascus must make an effort to preserve the an-
cient buildings in Damascus by appropriate renovation and reconstruction. It has to create
an appropriate urban plan to save the buildings instead of destroying them for the sake of
expanding streets, as was undertaken in the middle of the 20th Century by the French ar-
chitect, Icho Shard.
Figure 1. Diagram shows the number of religious buildings according to the regions in
the old city of Damascus and the places surrounding it.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Number of buildings by region
Figure 2. Map of the religious buildings in old Damascus and the area surrounding it – the
numbers shown in the map are explained in the following table.
Table 1. Table shows the sample of the most important buildings in the old city of Damascus
in chronological order
NO.
Building
Function
Date
Plan
Site
Main en-
trance
1
Al- Zaherya
School
676HA/1277AD
Complex
North Umayyad mosq.
West
2
Tinkez
Mosque
718HA/1318AD
Arcades
West of the old city
South..
3
Al-Kremy
Mosque
718HA/1318AD
Arcades
Pilgrimage route
East-west
4
Al-Tankezya
School
739HA
Iwan
South of the citadel
North
5
Yalbuga
Mosque
747HA/1347AD
Arcades
West of the old city
E - W - N
6
Al-Afridonya
School
749HA/1348AD
Iwan
Pilgrimage route
East
7
Senjekdar
School
749HA/1348AD
Complex
Pilgrimage route
East
8
Manjek 1
Mosque
763HA/
Arcades
Pilgrimage route
East- north
9
Moaayad
Mosque
802HA/1399AD
Arcades
North of the walls
west
10
Al-Jawzah
Mosque
1401HA/804
Arcades
Sook Sarouja
East-west
11
Al-Aqsab
Mosque
811HA/1411AD
Arcades
Sook Sarouja
North
12
Al-Thekafe
Mosque
811HA/1411AD
Complex
East of the walls
West
13
Al-Ekhnaeya
School
820HA/1417AD
Complex
North Umayyad mosq.
North
14
Jaqmaqyah
School
824HA/1422AD
Complex
North Umayyad mosq.
North
15
Al-Tawrizy
Mosque
825HA
Complex
West of the old city
North
16
Al-Ward
Mosque
830HA/1426AD
Arcades
Sook Sarouja
South
17
Hesham
Mosque
831HA/1427AD
-
The Straight street
-
18
Manjek 2
Mosque
835HA
Arcades
Pilgrimage route
South, north
19
Belban
Mosque
840HA/1441AD
-
Sook Sarouja
South
20
Shazebkya
School
857HA
Iwan
West of the old city
East
21
Al- Moaalaq
Mosque
860HA
Complex
North of the walls
North
22
Sabounya
School
1457AD
Complex
Pilgrimage route
East
23
Al- Qaley
Mosque
Late9th century
-
The Straight street
-
24
Saybaeya
School
921ha/1415ad
Complex
Pilgrimage route
East
Figure 3. Al-Jaqmaqyah School plan Figure 4. Al-Ekhnaeya School plan
Figure 5. Al- Shazebkya School plan Figure 6. Afridonya School plan Figure 7. Al- Tankezya plan
Figure 8. Sabounya plan Figure 9. Al-Tawrizy plan Figure 10. Saybaeya plan
The Resources:
Talas.A. (1943), “The mentioned of the mosques”
Sauvaget. J. “Damascus, Alsham, the history from of the ancient era till the French eccu-
pation”.
Zak, D. “The development and architecture of an Islamic oriental city”.
Al-Nuaimi, “A study in the history of schools”.
Watzinger, C. & Wulzinger, K. “Islamic monuments in the city of Damascus”.
Al-Harthy, H (2001). “The concept of space in Mamluk architecture”. In Muqarnas
XVIII: An annual on the visual of the Islamic world, 73-93. American University of
Bierut,Bierut, Lebanon.
Flood, F.B. (1997). “Umayyad survivals and Mamluk revivals: Qalawunid architecture
and the great Mosque of Damascus”. In G. Necipoglu (Ed.). Muqarnas XIV: An Annual
on the Culture of the Islamic World. Gulru Necipoglu (ed). Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Rabbat, N. (2010). “Mamluk history through architecture, monuments, culture and poli-
tics in medieval Egypt and Syria”. London: I.B. Tauris.
Table 1: Table made by the author
Figure 1: Diagram made by the author
Figure 2: Map by Zak, D.
Figure 3: Plan from the directorate of the antiquities in Damascus.
Figure 4: https://www.arab-ency.com/_/details.artifacts.php?full=1&nid=166851
Figure 5: https://www.naseemalsham.com
Figure 6: https://www.facebook.com/pg/-Madrasas-in-Damascus-
Figure 7: https://www.facebook.com/pg/-Madrasas-in-Damascus-
Figure 8: https://www.facebook.com/pg/-Madrasas-in-Damascus-
Figure 9: https://www.facebook.com/pg/-Madrasas-in-Damascus-
Figure 10: https://www.facebook.com/pg/-Madrasas-in-Damascus-