Wall of a reception room with a fountain

This reception room (qa‘a) wall belonging to a house in Damascus is made up of stonework alternating contrasting colours of marble and stone in the centre of which is a niche with muqarnas. Three of the wall panels as well as the medallions set on the arch of the niche are decorated with geometric designs inlaid with multicoloured mortar, while the spandrels are engraved with bouquets of tulips and carnations springing from a vase. Ceramic tiles with a floral motif cover the niche, while the small fountain that stands in front of it is a reproduction of the damaged original. The identification of the house from which this wall came is uncertain because the house was demolished. The only certainty is its date (1639-40), inscribed on the west wall of the room. 

The importance of this wall stems from the fact that it is a rare intact example from the first half of the seventeenth century. It is essential for the chronology of the decorative techniques of Damascus, all the more since there are only, according to recent studies[1], about a dozen examples from between 1610 and 1690. Furthermore, this wall as a whole represents the evolution of the style of houses in Damascus in the seventeenth century when many elements of the ancient geometric tradition still survived alongside new shapes. Thus, multicoloured mortar inlay work is a technique that developed near the end of the Mamluk period, first in Cairo[2] and then in Damascus where it particularly flourished and survived into a later period. This mortar, consisting of pigments mixed with wax, was inlaid in engraved stone or marble, producing a mosaic effect. In the eighteenth century, this technique spread to several cities of the region, such as Hama[3] and Saida[4], but it was totally absent in Alep where relief-engraved stone was the preferred.

The inlay work of the niche is one of the rare examples from the seventeenth century. It may be compared with those on the inner walls of the tomb of Saladin in Damascus, realised during the restoration of 1617-18. In both cases, Mamluk geometric configurations appear alongside new Ottoman floral shapes, such as the tulip and the carnation, which took its place in the decorative repertoire starting at the end of the sixteenth century. This new style, also evident in the locally crafted ceramic tiles in the niche, was introduced in Damascus in the first Ottoman constructions, as demonstrated by the minbar of the mosque of Sinan (1591) and a wall, currently at the National Museum of Damascus, from the Lâlâ Mustafa Pacha mosque (1566), destroyed.

[2] Cairo, Abu Bakr ibn Muzhir Mosque, 1479.

[3] Hama, ‘Azm Palace.

[4] Saida, Debbané Palace.