Just about the only vestige of ʿAbbasid rule in Damascus, Qubbat al-H̱aznā is thought to have been constructed in the second half of the 8th century CE under Governor al-Faḍl bin Ṣāliḥ bin ʿAlī during what was for Syria in general and Damascus in particular a desolate age. This is hardly surprising given a relentless campaign of extermination against everything ʾUmayyād that spared practically nothing except the Great Mosque.
The edicule known as the Treasury Dome is, therefore, most likely ʿAbbasīd, though several of its elements are clearly Classical, namely the eight granite half-columns topped by Corinthian crowns. A leaden cupola surmounted the structure supported by these columns.
The mosaics of the Great Mosque were covered with a layer of lime under the Ottomans (1), somewhere between 1664 and 1855. The motive for hiding the mosaics is unclear, but this act saved those priceless treasures for the pleasure and gratitude of future generations.
The 1893 great fire was the last in a long series of calamities the Great Mosque had endured since its erection. The ʾUmayyād's most celebrated landmark was subsequently raised from its ashes, and several of its walls, including the Treasury Dome, were restored and repainted—in the style of the 18th-century opulent Damascene houses—with horizontal bands of alternating colors of blue-black, white, and red-orange (2).
Eustache de Lorey, the first director of Damascus' French Institute, is credited with uncovering the mosaics in the late 1920s (3).
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1. As seen in the first photo taken prior to 1885 by Félix Bonfils (Fonds Max Van Berchem).
2. The date of the second photo is October 12, 1921 (Mission Frédéric Gadmer et Lucien Le Saint au Proche-Orient. Collection Albert Kahn).
3. The final photo was taken in 2010.
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Loreline Simonis. Les relevés des mosaïques de la grande mosquée de Damas. Paris, Louvre éditions /Somogy 2012.
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