Born In Damascus

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Turbā at-Takritīyyā: Plaster Ornamentation

The south side of the prayer hall shows the fine masonry of its walls without coating; it includes a miḥrāb with a round window over it (1). The double quatrefoil around that window is closely connected with the marquetry works of the Aleppo school, all dated between 569 (1173 CE) and 650 (1252 CE) at the latest. This side of the room belongs to the first period of the building, before 634 (1236 CE).

The three other sides are plastered and richly ornamented. Watzinger and Wulzinger (2) and Sauvaget (3) stress, with reason, the Maġrebine character of these ornaments. The decoration was certainly added when Taqīī ad-Dīn was buried in the turbā, which had been bought, an existing building, for Kamāl ad-Dīn in 634. One cannot expect to encounter literary evidence connecting Taqīī ad-Dīn with the Maġrib. But ibn Ǧubayr says that there were many Maġrebines living in Zāwiyat al-Maġāribā (4), an institution richly endowed, and there must have been many of them a hundred years later. The decoration has found no imitation at Damascus and remains an isolated, spontaneous transplantation. The style does not agree with the spirit of ʾAyyūbid architecture and decoration.

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2. Karl Wulzinger & Carl Watzinger. Damaskus, die Islamische Stadt. Walter de Gruyter 1924 (p. 120-121).

3. Les monuments historiques de Damas. Beyrouth, Imprimerie Catholique 1932 (La ville musulmane, number 105).

4. Riḥlat ibn Ǧubayr, p. 232.

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Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus, Studies in Architecture III. Ars Islamica XI-XII 1946 (p. 1-71).

Byzantine Gold Leaf

This gold leaf, currently a collection of the National Museum of Damascus, is a fine specimen of openwork featuring a small winged angel standing to the right of a large flower and another one standing to its left. The maximal width is 14 centimeters. Provenance is not provided.

Highlights of the National Museum of Damascus. Media Minds LLC, [Lebanon], 2006.

Photo credit: Nicholas Randall.

رأسُ حربةٍ وصفائحٌ ذهبيّة

لا زلنا في صَدَد لُقى تلّ أبو صابون المحفوظة حاليّاً في متحف دمشق الوطني.

القِطْعَةُ المعروضة رأسُ حربةٍ من الحديد الذي أكَلَهُ الصدأ، بطول ١٣٣ من معاشير المتر. الحربةُ مؤلّفةٌ من تجويفٍ ترتَكِزُ فيه رقاقةُ النصل. عُثِرَ على هذا السلاح إلى الجانبِ الأيمن من رفات الميّت، مع العديد من الشرائط الذهبيّة المتفاوتة الثخانة وإن بَلَغَت شأواً لا بأس بِهِ من المتانة. لُفَّت هذه الشرائط لولبيّاً كما لو استُعْمِلَت لكَسوةِ عصاً مستقيمة، واصطُنِعَ فيها عددٌ من الثقوب الصغيرة بهدفِ تَثْبيتِها. تراوَحَ عَرْضُ هذه الثقوب عموماً من ٢٣ إلى ٢٦ من معاشير المتر، ومنها ما لم يَزِدُ عَرْضُهُ عن ١٨ معشار المتر. عددُ هذه الشرائط ٣٥، وطولُها الإجمالي أربعةُ أمتار و ٥٨ من عشيرات المتر.

جَرَت العادة أن تُكْسى صولجاناتُ الملوك على الأقلّ بالذهب، ولربّما حرابُهم. عندما نقرأ في نصٍّ ما عن صولجاناتٍ ذهبيّة فالمقصود على الأرجح أنّها ملبّسةٌ بالذهب، ولو كانت بالفعل من الذهب الخالص لَبَلَغت من الوزن حدّاً يجعل حَمْلَها عمليّةً مرْبِكة.

Henri Seyrig. Antiquités syriennes. Syria. Archéologie, Art et histoire. Année 1952 (29-3-4) pp. 204-250.

Fer de lance, et tôles d'or

Turbā at-Takritīyyā: Plan

Lacking an inscription and identified solely through literary tradition, the building—which can only be dated by comparison—clearly reflects the Mamlūk style of the late thirteenth century, still imbued with the bold vigor of ʾAyyūbid architecture. The entrance portal, set into the southern façade, opens onto an oblong vestibule roofed with two groin vaults. From here, one gains access on the right to a funerary chamber covered by a dome resting on two drums—one eight-sided and the other sixteen-sided, both of stone masonry—and on the left to a groin-vaulted prayer hall, now converted into an office. The façade, constructed of fine dressed-stone masonry without polychromy, features four low windows—two for the turbā and two for the prayer hall—topped by lintels and relieving arches executed in the finest ʾAyyūbid tradition. Framed by a band designed to hold an inscription, the portal is crowned by a vault featuring three tiers of muqarnaṣ topped by a conch.

Gérard Degeorge: Damas des Origines aux Mamluks, l'Harmattan 1997 (p. 342-343).

Plan: Karl Wulzinger & Carl Watzinger. Damaskus, die Islamische Stadt. Walter de Gruyter 1924 (p. 120-121).

Photo credit: K.A.C Creswell.

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Turbā at-Takritīyyā

Turbā at-Takritīyyā, in the bazaar of aṣ-Ṣāliḥīyyā, is the turbā of Šayẖ Taqīī ad-Dīn son of aṣ-Ṣāḥib (1) ʾabu al-Bakāʾ ibn Muhāǧir at-Takritī (2). And dār al-Ḥadïṯ al-ʾAšrafīyyā, opposite the turbā of the ṣāḥib Taqīī ad-Dīnat-Takritī (an-Nuʿaymī).

This location proves, as the Monuments historiques (3) accepts, the anepigraphic building to be at-Takritīyyā, but not at all that it ought to be dated according to the first paragraph of an-Nuʿaymī: “ Ibn Muhāǧir ... at-Takritī ... buried there in 698 (4), at the age of about seventy-eight years.” For an-Nuʿaymī goes on, quoting first Naǧm ad-Dīn son of as-Sābiq:

"Ibn Muhāǧir came to Damascus (5) and settled in a house at the ʿAqabat al-Kittān (6) .... he gave many alms and began buying estates for waqfs .... he had agreed with my father to pave that street, and said: Come tomorrow and get the money for it! In the evening, al-ʾAšraf sent him a bunch of violets; he took it and smelled it — that was his death. The next morning he was dead. With a thousand dirham, to the account of the estate, they bought a turbā for him at the sūq of aṣ-Ṣāliḥīyyā".

Then, Šayẖ Šams ad-Dīn says: "A certain time after, the vizier Taqīī ad-Dīn son of ʿAlī ibn Muhāǧir at-Takrītī built five shops in the walls of the turbā; he pretended to be his cousin-german". Apparently, the passage is taken out of the original context and ought to follow the next passage: “According to ʾabu al-Muẓaffar ibn al-Ǧawzī the estate of the sāḥib Kamāl ad-Dīn was evaluated at 300,000 dinars. Al-Ašraf showed me a chaplet of a hundred pearls, each the size of a pigeonʾs egg, from his estate. He died 1 Ǧumādā II 634 (7)".

"The vizier Kamāl ad-Dīn, son of šarīf Muʿīn ad-Dīn, was one of the illustrious sayyids of his time; his great wealth permitted him not to seek pecuniary rewards from the government. ... He died on a Friday, while prostrating himself at the morning prayer. (al-Qūṣī)".

Evidently, the ibn Muhāǧir of Naǧm ad-Dīn is the Kamāl ad-Dīn of ibn al-Ǧawzī, his proper name was not ʿAlī, else Taqīī ad-Dīn would be his son and could not pretend to be his cousin. Evidently, too, there are two ibn Muhāǧirs, Kamāl and Taqīī ad-Dīn, the second a shady figure. He was born in 620 and died in 698 (8), his long life being a continued change between premiership and prison, typical for the Mamlūk period. But since Sibṭ ibn al-Ǧawzī died in 654 (9), the date 634 of the death of Kamāl ad-Dīn is right, and al-malik al-ʾAšraf has to be the ʾAyyūbid Mūsā (10). It would have been unnecessary for al-ʾAšraf to poison a man seventy-eight years old. And the turbā was bought, not built, for Kamāl ad-Dīn. The fact that the building has no inscription again confirms the story. “To the account of the estate” seems to imply that he had no direct heirs, and, combined, the notes seem to impute legacy hunting to Taqīī ad-Dīn.

Thus, the building must have existed before 1236 without being used, for reasons unknown; in 1298 Taqīī ad-Dīn, the vizier, was also buried in it. But the name at-Takrītīyyā refers to Kamāl ad-Dīn. The construction permits two periods to be distinguished, demanding these dates: first third and very end of the seventh century. Aṣ-Ṣaqqāʿī adds that the turbā was burned during the occupation of Damascus by the Tatars in 1299 CE (11).

1. Ṣāḥib = vizier.

2. Sauvaire 230-232.

3. Sauvaget, number 105.

4. 1298-1299 CE.

5. From Tikrit, like Saladin.

6. ʿAqaba is a road with a high gradient.

7. January 30, 1237.

8. 1223-1298 CE.

9. 1256-1257 CE.

10. Reigned 1229-1237 CE.

11. Sauvaire p. 278.

Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus, Studies in Architecture III. Ars Islamica XI-XII 1946 (p. 1-71).