Once a symbol of modernity in a rapidly transforming Damascus, this picturesque suq is nowadays a Mecca for tourists seeking the oriental and exotic in the Eternal City.
In reality, there exist but the most tenuous of connections between the narrow and crooked bazaars with its minuscule shops of a stereotypical medieval town on the one hand, and the elegant Suq al-Hamidiye, fashioned after the European galleria -forerunners of today's shopping malls-, on the other. That said, the suq's location within the walls of Old Damascus south of the Citadel, leading all the way to the Roman propylaeum, and ending at the west entrance of the Omayyad Mosque is saturated with history and authenticity.
Suq al-Hamidiye is obviously named after the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid but given that it's development spans 200 years, one wonders which Abdul Hamid is the sovereign in question. Likely the reference is to Abdul Hamid II, though this conjecture is based on the changing nomenclature of the venerable shopping center since its inception.
The west portion of the suq (number 10 in the attached map) was constructed in 1780-1781 under Governor Muhammad Pasha al-Azm during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid I (1773-1789). It was located right next to and parallel to the south wall of the Citadel and was relatively modest, its width a mere 3-4 meters with a simple roof surmounting the whole structure. The name at the time was Suq al-Jadid, literally, the New Marketplace.
The achievement of the east portion (number 11 in the attached map) had to wait 100 years and was done in several stages under Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909). It would eventually extend the suq all the way to al-Miskyie (then the Book Marketplace) and the colonnade before the Great Mosque. This was a far more ambitious project, particularly after filling the moat south of the Citadel in 1884, therefore increasing the street's width to 10 meters.
Numerous adjustments have taken place since, subsequent to periodic disasters (a metal roof replaced the wooden one after the 1912 fire to name but one example), or deliberate interventions by city planners (such as the demolition of the west entrance in 1983) without substantially altering its shape or function as they had developed towards the end of the 19th century.
Contrary to modern Syrian school curricula, Abdul Hamid II -whatever his flaws- was no blind reactionary. He was rightfully suspicious of Europe's designs on his possessions, keenly aware of the antiquated infrastructure of his vast empire, and spared no effort in a frenetic course to modernize it. Suq al-Hamidiye was one aspect of the transformation of Damascus' urban space under his rule; it featured European-styled uniform store façades and -a precedent- the new shopping center was reserved exclusively for retailing with no workshop allowed. the following is borrowed verbatim from a brilliant summary by Professor Ross Burns:
This re-formalization of the western axis leading to the Mosque thus completed the reorientation of the city's commercial activities by joining the Mosque to "Little Istanbul" to the west. The Greek temple had been oriented towards the commercial zone to the east around the agora, later the Roman forum. By Ayyubid times, the commercial heart of the city had partly drifted to the south, towards the central area of Straight Street. In Ottoman times the new emphasis was on the west, towards the Midan (the pilgrimage route leading to Mecca), the Tekkiye, and later northwest towards Merdje. Now the commercial heart of the city, already oriented towards the heartland of the a'yans (notables), followed the new axis leading directly towards the western entrance of the Mosque. The clockwise rotation through 180 degrees had taken two millennia to complete.
Ross Burns. Damascus: A History. Routledge 2005.
Dorothée Sack. Damaskus. Entwicklung und Struktur einer orientalisch-islamischen Stadt. von Zabern, Mainz 1989.
Stefan Weber. Ottoman Modernity and Urban Transformation 1808-1918. Proceedings of the Danish Institute in Damascus V 2009.
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