‘Izz al-Din hammam

Located on the left bank of the Abu ‘Ali River, in the commercial hub of the city, near the khan and the Great Mosque, the ‘Izz al-Din hammam was the first built in Tripoli after the victory of the Mamluk over the Crusaders. Buried in a nearby mausoleum, its sponsor, ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Mawsili Al-Mansuri, was governor of Tripoli from 1294 up to his death in 1298. His hammam was for a long time the largest and most important of the city, as reported by the historian Al-Nabulsi on his visit in 1700.

Surrounded by buildings, the structure of the hammam is not visible from the outside, except for the dome of the cloak room and the façade of its single entrance, opened by an archway. This leads to a entry door that opens onto a large square room with three iwan, embellished at the centre by an octagonal fountain covered by a dome with dormers. This room served as a reception area and cloakroom[1], where customers changed clothes and rested. From  this room, bathers accessed a cold room[2] which in turn opened into a lukewarm room[3], where massages and other treatments where provided. The last room, where customers washed, was the hottest[4]; like the lukewarm room, it was surrounded by two small rooms. To control the temperature, all the rooms of the hammam were covered by domes and there were no windows, but light was let in by occuli in the domes.

Although no Arabic inscriptions were found in this hammam, there are two inscriptions in Latin at the entrance: "SCS IACOBUS" (Saint James), framed by two shells, emblems of the saint[5], above the entrance archway, and "ECCE AGN. DEI" (This is the Lamb of God) engraved on the lintel of the entry door, next to an Easter Lamb flanked by two rosettes. These are the only vestiges of a Crusader hospice that was built in this location of the city under the name of Mons peregrinus (pilgrim's mount)[6].

The ‘Izz al-Din  hammam is an example, even during the Mamluk period, of the bathing establishments that inherited the tradition of the Greco-Roman thermal baths adapted to the requirements of the civilisation of the countries dominated by Islam (removal of the frigidarium, transformation of the cloakroom into a reception area). The baths in fact took a dominant place in the Islamic world where body hygiene is directly associated with the prayer ritual. From the Umayyad period, independent baths or baths connected to civil or religious structures such as the mosques were erected, as attested by the large estates in Syria.

The architecture of the ‘Izz al-Din hammam, with its large cloakroom, single cold room, three lukewarm rooms and three hot rooms, is typical of the Syrian hammams of the period. There is no doubt that the entrance of the hammam is from the Crusades, however, the architecture of the building itself is nothing like the layout of Crusader hospices. The iwan, originating from the Partho-Sassanid world, is moreover a typical trait of Islamic architecture. Spread over time as far as the Maghreb, it was never used in the Occidental world.

[1] Maslah.

[2] Wastânî barrânî.

[3] Wastânî juwwanî.

[4] Juwwânî harârah.

[5] Still today, pilgrims travelling the European routes toward Santiago de Compostela wear a shell on their bag or hat.

[6] The Arabic inscription dates from the 1970s-1980s, a period in which the hammam was still in operation. It indicates the business hours.