Mausoleum of Badr ad-Dīn Ḥasan

  

Mausoleum of Badr ad-Dīn Ḥasan on the edge of the Kurdish quarter near the banks of a branch of Barada. 

This mausoleum is found on the banks of a branch of the Barada river very near the pace where medieval chroniclers set the famous al-Jisr al-ʾAbiaḍ (the White Bridge), now disappeared. It is covered with a dome supported by two drums, one of eight sides, the other of sixteen; it is one of the most ancient (end of the 12th century) and most characteristic funerary monuments of Damascus. Though the actual tomb of the Emir Badr ad-Dīn Ḥasan, milk brother and faithful companion of the Atabeg Nūr ad-Dīn, has long ago disappeared, the monument does have a fine collection of painted panels decorated with lamps and flowers in black, green and blue, and surrounded with a calligraphic frieze.

Jacques Ghislain de Maussion de Favières. Damascus, Baghdad: Capitals and lands of the caliphs. Translation to English by Edward J. Banks. Librairie orientale (Dar el-Mashreq), Beirut, Lebanon. 1972.