Ḥammām al-Qīšāni (981/1573-1574), which belonged to the waqf of Governor Darwīš Pāša (d. 987/1579), provides a good example of functional changes. Court records give information about how the tenants of this waqf, Ḥāfiẓ Afandi al-H̱arbuṭli and Šafiqa H̱anum al-ʾArḍrūmi, developed the idea of changing the public bath, out of service since 1905, into a sūq. Backed by a legal certificate فتوى of Mufti Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Qaṭana, they argued that in order to pay the rent to the waqf administration and to pursue the interests مصلحة of the waqf, the function of the building needed to be changed. Following this, a council of experts was set up by the waqf administration, consisting of two carpenters, - Muḥammad ibn ʾAḥmad at-Tawwām and Saʿīd ibn Kamāl ʾAṣfar - and the architect H̱awāja Ḥabīb al-miʿmāri ibn Luṭfi Qarwašān who studied the case in 1324/1906. They confirmed the bad condition of the building and recommended it be changed into a sūq. After the case was decided positively and a request for ratification براءة sent to Istanbul, Ḥammām al-Qīšāni was rebuilt in a fashionable modern style as Sūq al-Qīšāni and opened to the public 12 months later.
Stefan Weber. Damascus Ottoman Modernity and Urban Transformation 1808-1918. Proceedings of the Danish Institute in Damascus V 2009.
Stefan Weber. Reshaping Damascus: Social Change and Patterns of Architecture in Late Ottoman Times
Photo credit: Library of Congress circa 1890.
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