دراسة لعمارة نموذجية من العهد العثماني ١_a .. كتاب العمارة العربية الاسلامية

C - A study of typical architecture from the Ottoman era:

Damascus Sulaymaniyah Hospice

Entering Damascus from the west, we can see a luxurious urban complex occupying a large area of ​​land on the right bank of Bardi. It draws attention with its many domes arranged like knots around a large main dome, surrounded by two slender minarets, rising into the sky. This architectural group is interspersed with gardens and lush trees, the beauty of which blends with the virtues of the architecture, making this spot in Damascus the most beautiful and attractive spot (see photo from No. 83).

This Ottoman facility was built on the ruins of Al-Ablaq Palace, Al-Zahir Baybars Palace, and replaced it, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. It consists of a large hospice on the western side, an independent school on the eastern side, and a market extending in front of the school from its north (see Plan No. 36).

He began building the hospice in the year 962/1445, and its construction was completed in the year 967 AH, then he began building the school in the year 974 AH. We previously published a study (1) in which we corrected the common errors in the minds of people and scholars who wrote about this hospice related to the construction being sometimes attributed to Sultan Selim. Or the attribution of the hospice to Sultan Suleiman, and the school, which was considered a minor hospice, to Sultan Selim. We have proven with sufficient evidence that both the hospice and the school were built during the reign of Sultan Suleiman, as mentioned above.

1 - Hospice:

It consists of a heavenly court with a rectangular pool in the middle, around which a group of buildings are distributed that are almost independent of each other, all surrounded by a rectangular wall (125 x 94 metres). It is penetrated by a door on the western side and another on the eastern side, connecting the hospice to the market and the school. There is a small third on the northern side, preceded by a small dome supported by columns. As for the gardens, we find them occupying the space between the wall and the buildings, as well as some sections of the wide courtyard.

We distinguish in the hospice six buildings distributed around a wide courtyard, three in each of its northern and southern parts, and they are almost independent of each other. Among them is the architectural style and general form represented in the facades and in the corridors overlooking the courtyard with their Persian arches and columns with muqarnas capitals, and with domes that are a tool. Roofing everywhere, and finally in the alternating white and black colors in the walls and arches (Photo No. 80). Below we provide a detailed description of these buildings:

A - The mosque: It occupies the tribal wing and consists of a wide gallery in front of it.

As for the hall, it has a square shape with a side length of 16 metres. It is roofed with a high dome of the Ottoman type. It has a neck with many windows and a hemispherical bowl armored with lead. The dome is supported by four arches attached to the thick walls of the hall. The transition angles between the arches are occupied by regular spherical triangles without stalactites or squinches. The four walls of the hall open windows onto the gardens. On each wall is a window. These windows, along with the windows of the dome, were made of plaster stained with colored glass, consisting of wonderful decorative themes, most of which are unfortunately gone (see photo No. 86). The external facades of the mosque are built with courses of colored stone, alternating between black and white, and the decorations appear on the facade. The northern one is only covered with beautiful colored marble and tile.

Also in this façade is the wonderfully made door of the sanctuary, which opens into a wide iwan on either side of which are two mihrabs decorated with muqarnas. Above the door are also stalactites equipped with stone pendants, which is a development of the stalactites known in previous eras. We point out here that there is a marble panel above the lintel of the door, on which are engraved two lines in the Turkish language and in Naskh script, dating the building of the hospice. Surrounding the door is a frame of geometric decorations composed of pieces of colored marble (white, black, and red).

But they consist of two high, cylinder-like minarets in the corners of the northern wall of the mosque, made of a many-sided polygon, built of limestone, and with a pointed conical tip resembling a pencil. Each minaret has a balcony for the call to prayer, supported by stone stalactites. It appears that these two minarets were renewed after that.