Chapter 8 The Hajj Route in Syria

8. The Hajj Route in Syria This chapter discusses sites on the Hajj route within the boundaries of the modern state of Syria (for an overview of Ottoman Syria, see Petersen 2012). As much of the ieldwork for this book was centred on Jordan, this short introduction provides a regional context for the Syrian Hajj sites. The Hajj occupied a central place in the life of Ottoman Syria. From the moment of Sultan Selim’s conquest of Damascus in 1516, up to the closing years of Ottoman rule in the early 1900s, the inance, accommodation and transport of pilgrims from Syria to Mecca was a major priority (Issawi 1988, 236–39). Barbir has shown the extent to which, in terms of inance, logistics and administration, the whole province of Syria was geared to the Hajj during the 18th century. He observed that although the Syrian provinces participated less and less in imperial wars as time went on, ‘an Ottoman ‘campaign’ involving thousands of troops was conducted each year at pilgrimage time’ (Barbir 1980, 111). The cost of the military protection and most of the other expenses of the pilgrimage, were borne by the Syrian provinces of Damascus, Tripoli, Sidon and Aleppo. The Province of Tripoli was responsible for providing the jarda, or military caravan, which was sent to meet the returning pilgrims and provide them with necessary provisions. Each year, a few months before the departure of the Hajj caravan, the governor of Damascus made a tour of the Syrian provinces to collect the money required to inance the caravan (Marino 2000, 272–73). However, Syria also beneited inancially from the Hajj, both in terms of, selling goods, as well as providing an important inlux of exotic goods, which were brought back by pilgrims from Mecca. Items of particular importance coming from Mecca included, coffee, spices, Indian textiles, gems, precious stones and slaves (Estabalet and Pascal 1998, 163). The Hajj also provided a stimulus to the settlement of marginal areas, including areas directly on the route and areas further aield. For example, Bosra and the villages of the Hawran, as well as Sukhne and the region of Palmyra, developed as areas for breeding camels. The Hajj Route North of Damascus (Table 1) Damascus was always the oficial starting point of the Syrian Hajj route, even after the Ottoman conquest in 1517 when many pilgrims would begin their journey in Constantinople. However, the route from Constantinople to Damascus was of considerable importance and was known to contemporaries as ‘The Imperial Way’ (Tarik-i Sultanî). It has been identiied by Faroqhi as of one of the three major routes of the eastern Ottoman Empire (Faroqhi 1994, 41). Although, in effect, the overland Plate 11. Sulayman I mosque in Damascus (1554–60) (Tony Grey 1998). 52 The Medieval and Ottoman Hajj Route in Jordan; an Archaeological and Historical Study Place Names Beilan Builder Selim II Date 1550 Kara Mughurt (Baghras) Murad IV 1638 Buildings 1) vaulted rectangular building 70 × 31 m 2) mosque 1) large courtyard building 161 × 122 m al-Zanbakiyya pre 1779 1) khan Jisr al Shughur 1660–76 Qal‘at Mudiq late 16th early 17th centuries al-Resten late 16th early 17th centuries 1) large vaulted hall with square courtyard 1) square courtyard building 40 × 40 m 2) mosque 1) rectangular courtyard 98 × 45 m 1) caravanserai comprising, khan (Medieval) fort (Ottoman) khan (Ottoman) 2) mosque 1) vaulted rectangular building 65 × 32 m 2) mosque Huge rectangular complex 102 × 155 m comprising 1) rectangular courtyard building (khan) 2) suq (shops) 2) kitchens 3) hammam (bath-house) 4) mosque Hasye Sultan Sulayman al-Nabk al-Qataif 1520–66 not before the mid-16th century Koja Sinan Pasha 1590s Table 1 – Syrian Hajj Caravanserais north of Damascus based on Sauvaget (1937) Plate 12. Takiyya complex, Damascus, viewed from north (Photograph B_083 courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne). Plate 13. Interior of Takiyya complex, Damascus (Photograph B_081 courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne). route from Constantinople to Damascus became part of the Hajj route, it continued to be used by other travellers throughout the year and did not have the oficial supervision and protection enjoyed by the route south of Damascus. The route between Constantinople and Damascus was recorded by the 18th century traveller, Mehmed Edib 8. The Hajj Route in Syria Plate 14. Sinaniyya Mosque (1591 AD), located 300 m south of the citadel in Damascus (Photograph courtesy of Stefan Weber). 53 Plate 16. Khan Assad Pasha (1751–53 AD), nine-domed khan located in the Suq al Buzuriyya, Damascus (Photograph courtesy of Stefan Weber). with the exception of Muzayrib, simply comprise small forts and reservoirs with no large caravanserais. The City of Damascus (Plates 11–16) Plate 15. Darwishiyya mosque (1574–75 AD), located 100 m south of the citadel in Damascus (Photograph courtesy of Stefan Weber). (Bianchi 1825). There were 37 travelling days between Üskudar (the Asian side of Constantinople) and Damascus. An extra 6 rest days on the journey, gives a total time of 43 days from the imperial capital to Damascus. The route cut through the middle of Anatolia, via Iznik (Nicea), Konya and Adana, to Payas, which was the border with Syria. The archaeology and architecture of the stations on the southern part of the route, within modern Syria, has been studied by Sauvaget (1937). The route led from Payas to Antioch and then followed the course of the Orontes River, via Hama and Homs, to Damascus. The Ottoman rulers and their oficials provided stops with a range of facilities including, caravanserais, mosques, and, in some cases, bath-houses, shops and kitchens. The most elaborate complex was the khan at al-Kutaifa, which with its vast size, range of facilities and elegant design is a highly sophisticated example of classical Ottoman architecture (Sauvaget 1937; Kiel 2001, 104). This stands in marked contrast to the stations to the south of Damascus, which, Whilst the whole of Syria was, in some way, connected to the annual dispatch of the Hajj caravan, the same factors also re-enforced the role of Damascus as regional capital. From the beginning of the Ottoman period an oficial from Damascus was leader of the Hajj caravan (amir al-Hajj), while from the early 18th century, the Caravan was led by the Governor of Damascus in person. The link between Damascus and the Hajj was clearly expressed as soon as Sultan Selim captured Damascus in 1516 and he was addressed by the Qadi al-Farfur as, ‘victorious servitor of the two holy cities’ (Bakhit 1982, 10). The city obviously beneited from the inlux of pilgrims from Anatolia, Iran and Central Asia, both in terms of goods brought and sold, but also in terms of accommodation and food, all of which generated inancial activity. In addition to the pilgrims themselves, Damascus was illed with people providing services to the pilgrims from the Syrian provinces, thus in the Maydan there was an area for camel traders from Sukhne, near Palmyra, which also had its own mosque. The Ottoman conquest of Damascus was marked by a large number of building projects designed to improve the infrastructure and hence the status of the city as a regional capital. Bakhit states that during the 16th century ‘Damascus experienced a time of construction and repair. Schools, mosques, convents, bakeries, baths, bridges, markets and carvanserays were either built or repaired. Every class of society and travellers alike benefited from this upsurge’ (Bakhit 1982, 115). The majority of these building were religious in nature and none was more signiicant than the construction of the takiyya Sulaymaniyya (Plate 16), the magniicent Hajj complex, built under the orders of Sultan Sulayman between 1554 54 The Medieval and Ottoman Hajj Route in Jordan; an Archaeological and Historical Study and 1560, on the site of the Qasr al-Ablaq, originally built by Sultan Baybars in 1264. The complex housed both a Hanai law school, with its own mosque, as well as a main mosque with shops, soup kitchens, and other facilities for pilgrims. The complex was designed by the imperial architect, Sinan, and characteristically shows a respect for traditional Syrian architecture within Ottoman forms. For example, typical Syrian striped black and white (ablaq) masonry is used throughout the complex, including the loor surfaces, whilst the complex is roofed with multiple lead covered hemispherical domes in Ottoman fashion. The most strikingly Ottoman component of the complex is the mosque, which has a large dome resting on a fenestrated circular drum and is lanked by two tall pencil shaped minarets. Adjacent to the takiyya a large area (twice the size of the built complex) was enclosed to serve as a camping ground for pilgrims (Goodwin 1987, 255–57). The complex was supported by the revenue from an endowment of 40 Syrian villages (Bakhit 1982, 116; Van Leeuwen 1999, 98). To the south of Damascus, an area known as the Maydan grew up either side of the Hajj route, stretching for over 5 km. The extraordinary width (more than 40 m in places) of the street, combined with the large number of religious buildings (21 mosques and 17 mausolea), marked the route as an area of particular signiicance. In addition to the mosques there were at least 6 bath-houses, serving both pilgrims and inhabitants of the quarter. Much of the street front of the Maydan is composed of storehouses, or baykés, built to house grain from the Hawran. Each storehouse comprised a rectangular structure, covered with a lat roof supported on a series of transverse arches in the traditional style of the Hawran (Roujon and Vilan 1997; Petersen 2000). During the 16th century a number of important buildings were erected on the Tariq al-Sultani linking the commercial and administrative centre of Damascus with the Maydan. Notable structures include the complexes built, to the north and south of the citadel in the 1550s and 1560s, by Ahmed Şemsi Pasha and Lala Mustafa Pasha. Other important 16th century foundations include the Murad Pasha mosque complex (1568–70), built on the Maydan and the Sinan Pasha complex built between 1586 and 1588 on the Tariq al-Sultani. These buildings all accentuated the orientation of the Ottoman city towards the Hajj route (Kafescioğlu 1999, 73–74). The Hajj Route South of Damascus The route south of Damascus varied over time and depending on circumstances. During the Ottoman period it appears that pilgrims would leave Damascus in their own time, using their own routes, with a rendezvous at Muzayrib where the pilgrimage march would begin in earnest. Between Damascus and Muzayrib a number of signiicant locations may be noted. Qubbat al-Hajj During the Ottoman period the amir al-Hajj and the oficials of the pilgrimage caravan would spend their irst night at a location at the end of the Maydan, on the outskirts of Damascus, known variously as Qubbat al-Hajj, Kasr-ı Küçük Ahmed Paşa (the Palace of little Ahmed Paşa), Ahmed Paşa Turbası (the tomb of Ahmed Pasha), Qubbat Yalbug[a al-Yahyawi, or Qubbat al-Nasr. This stop was located one hour or 5 km south of the Umayyad mosque and a quarter of an hour south of the southern gate of the Maydan known variously as, Bab ‘Allah and Bab al-Mawt (gate of Death). The site was described by Evliya Çelebi (1682) as a magniicent palace located within a beautiful garden and vineyard (Bilge 1979, 216; Evliya Çelebi, Seyhatnâmesi I�, 295). It is likely that the majority of structures making up the palace were either tents or wooden pavilions. It is not clear what permanent structures were located at this point, though a white Dome or ‘Qubba’ and a number of tombs seem to have formed the nucleus of the site. The Qubba seems to originally have been a Mamluk building named after Yalbug[a al-Yahyawi, governor of Damascus between 1345 and 1347 (Bakhit 1982, 113, n. 135). The Qubba was renovated in 1515 and several times during the Ottoman period, which may account for the change of name. During the 16th century Muhammad ibn Manjik built a palace at the site that was later given to the Governor of Damascus, Küçük Ahmed Paşa, who used it for entertaining prior to the start of the Hajj (Bakhit 1982, 190). Most authors also refer to a village mosque known as the mosque of the foot (masjid al-qadm) that was reputed to be the place where Muhammad dismounted on his journey from Mecca to Damascus (Burckhardt 1822, chapter 2, 2). Both Ibn Kanaan (1663–1740) and Evliya Çelebi (1682) describe a number of festivities at this site and also indicate that the inhabitants of Damascus would accompany the caravan to this spot before returning home (Van Leeuwen 1999, 104–5; Bilge 1979, 216). The caravan commander (amir al-Hajj) generally waited at this place for three days, allowing inal adjustments in readiness for departure (Bakhit 1982, 113). Kiswa This village is located 4 hours (15 km) south of Damascus and was mentioned by Ibn Battuta as the location of the irst overnight stop on the Syrian Hajj route (for Kiswa in the Medieval period, see Chapter 3). Evliya Çelebi gives an enthusiastic description of the village, mentioning that it was located within gardens and vineyards tended by a population of 200 families. The village had two Friday mosques, as well as a small mosque (masjid), a bath-house and a khan. Evliya was accommodated in a pleasant guest house and dined on chicken, yoghurt and cream (Bilge 1979, 216; Evliya Çelebi, Seyhatnâmesi I�, 287). ). Mehmed Edib (1779) briely mentions the pleasant location of the village, set amongst trees and running water, but gives no 8. The Hajj Route in Syria further details (Bianchi 1825, 121). Burckhardt passed through the village in 1810 and stopped for half an hour at a coffee shop by the roadside. He noted that it was a large village with a paved bridge crossing the river and a small khan, or fortiied building (Burckhardt 1822, chapter 2, 2). Michael Meinecke made a study of the remains at Kiswa, including the religious complex or zawiya built by Manjak al-Yusui, the governor of Damascus in the 1370s (Meinecke 1992, II, 247 no. 22/47; Meinecke 1996, 46 and plate 15a) 55 Sanamayn This small ancient town is located approximately 50 km south of Damascus and irst appears as a stop on the Hajj route in the 9th century itinerary of al-Harbi (al-Jasir 1969). The place is also mentioned by Ibn Battuta (Ibn Battuta, Rihala, 77) who described it as a village when he passed through, on the Hajj, in 1326. Ottoman records indicate that a fort was built here between 1516 and 1520, during the reign of Sultan Selim I (Barbir 1980, 134). Evliya Çelebi notes that Sanamayn (population 2,600) is located on the main road, next to a lake and is built of black stones. To the east of the town, next to the lake, there was a large square Khan Danun fort made of black stones. He also observes that the town A quarter of an hour to the south of Kiswa there was a has a Friday mosque with minaret, two small mosques, a medieval khan completed in 1376; one of the stations bath house and a large khan. Although there was no market on the Mamluk postal route (Sauvaget 1935–45). Like in the town there were a number of prostitutes who lined the complex at Kiswa this building was erected by the up on the roadside (Evliya Çelebi, Seyhatnâmesi I�, 287; Governor of Damasucs, Manjak al-Yusui, though it is see also Bilge 1979, 216). Çelebi observed a bridge to the actually signed by the architect, or engineer, ‘Ali Ibn al south of the town, which Mehmed Edib dates to the reign Badri (Meinecke 1996, 46 and 53 n. 9). In the Ottoman Selim I (i.e.1516–20). Edib alsotomentions a fort Çelebi observed a bridge to the south of of Sultan the town, which Mehmed Edib dates the period it is irst mentioned in the late 16th century by he somewhat refers to as Ghubaghub reign of Sultan Selim I ( 1516–20).which Edib also mentions aconfusingly fort which he somewhat the author of Manazil al-Hajj min al-Sham ila Makka, confusingly refers to as Ghubaghub ( ( ΐϏ΍ΐϏ) )(Bianchi (Bianchi1825, 1825,122). 122).Burckhardt Burckhardtnoted that the who referred to it as Dhay al-Nun (al-Jasir 1969, 184). In contained ancient remains inscriptions but did noted that the town contained ancienttown remains and inscriptions but did and not examine 1672 Evliya Çelebi refers to the complex as Tarhani Han, not examine the place in any detail. the place in any detail. after the soup tarahan made of dried curds and lour (c.f. South of Sanamayn authors describe a number of Redhouse 1968, 1096), served to returning pilgrims at villages including, Zara‘a, Lesser Busra, Ketibe, Keskin this site. Çelebi states that there were two small khans, and Tafs, though the next major stop was Muzayrib. either side of the road, one of which contained 100 soup cauldrons (Evliya Çelebi, Seyhatnâmesi I�, 287).. By the late 18th century the khan seems to have been deserted and Muzayrib (Fig. 1) Mehmed Edib observes that it was in a ruinous condition Most authors agree that the fortress at Muzayrib was built (Bianchi 1825, 121). Burckhardt passed through Khan in the early years of Ottoman rule (see, for example, Kiel Danun in 1810 and gives the following succinct description 2001, 104; Meinecke 1996, 48). However, it is probable that of the site: the place had already developed as an alternative stopping ‘This khan, which is now in ruins, was built in the usual style point to Bosra in the late Mamluk period (for a discussion of of all the large khans in this country: consisting of an open medieval Muzayrib, see Chapter 3). For example, Ludivico square, surrounded with arcades, beneath which are small di Varthema (1863, 16) stayed at Muzayrib for three days apartments for the accommodation of travellers; the beasts in 1503; during which pilgrims were able to buy whatever occupy the open square in the centre’ (Burckhardt 1822, they needed, including horses, indicating that there was a chapter 2, 3). large market at the site. There is, however, no mention of a fort, or other building, at the site. The fortress of Muzayrib irst appears in Ottoman Ghabarib oficial documents in 1563, when it is listed as having a The precise location of the fort is not known, though fort at Tall Far‘un sometime garrison of 51 men (Bakhit 1982, 98). In the same year it seems probable that it should be identified with cise location of the fort is not (971 AH/1563 AD) Muzayrib is mentioned as a stop in entified with Ghubaghub Ghubaghub (( ΐϏΎΒϏ)) a stop on the Hajj route between the anonymous, Manazil al-Hajj, written in 1563 (al-Jasir Sanamayn mentioned by the 16th century author yn mentionedDanun by theand sixteenth 1969, 174). Oficial Ottoman documents indicate that the of Manazil al-Hajj (al-Jasir 1969, 184). Burckhardt also 4). caravan stopped at Muzayrib for seven days and that there mentions ‘Ghabarib’ three and a half hours to the south of was a large market where camels could be brought and sold. Khan Danun. He noted that the site contains a small ruined The fortress was used as a centre for inancial transactions, fort and a cistern, while nearby there was a small domed thus the governor of Damascus collected taxes from the shrine called Meziyar Elisha ‘to which the Turks resort from merchants, whilst the leader of the Hajj (amir al-Hajj) used a persuasion that the prayers there offered up are peculiarly it as a base to distribute payments (surras) to the Bedouin acceptable to the deity’ (Burckhardt 1822, chapter 2, 3). chiefs (Bakhit 1982, 113). It is possible that this is the same place referred to by The irst detailed description of the fortress was written Mehmed Edib when he noted a small settlement with a by Evliya Çelebi after seeing it in 1670. bridge known as Khan Zeit (Bianchi 1825, 121). 56 The Medieval and Ottoman Hajj Route in Jordan; an Archaeological and Historical Study ‘This castle was built by Hâtem Tay in the time of Hazret-I Ebu Bekir. It is built in the form of a square, situated on a stoney plateau and measures 8,000 paces in circumference. There is a fortress commander and 80 soldiers in the garrison. One of the Ağas of the Pasha sits here with 300 men, as does the kadi of the Hauran. Its Nahiye comprises 270 villages. Inside the castle is a mosque, a small hammam and stores where the treasure of the state as well as the merchants are kept’ (Kiel 2001, 104; Evliya Çelebi, Seyhatnâmesi IX, 201). Evliya’s account suggests a much larger garrison than the 51 men listed in the 16th century. However, by the mid-18th century (1741–59) Ottoman records indicate that the garrison had contracted to as few as 12 men (Kiel 2001, 104). Mehmed Edib gives little detailed information about the fortress except for the statement that it was built during the reign of Sultan Selim I, thus conirming its 16th century date. The first European description of the fortress at Muzayrib was by the Swiss traveller Burckhardt, who visited in 1812. ‘El Mezareib is the first castle on the Hadj road from Damascus, and was built by the great Sultan Selym, three hundred and eight years ago. It is the usual residence of the Aga of the Haouran…. The garrison of the castle consisted of a dozen Moggrebyns [Moroccans], whose chief a young black, was extremely civil to me. The castle is of a square form, each side being, as well as I can recollect, about one hundred and twenty paces in length. The entrance is through an iron gate, which is regularly shut after sunset. The interior presents nothing but an empty yard enclosed by the castle wall, within which are ranges of warehouses where provisions for the Hadj are deposited; their lat roofs form a platform behind the parapet of the castle wall, where sixteen or eighteen mud huts have been built on top of the warehouses, as habitations for the peasants who cultivate the neighbouring grounds. On the east side two miserable guns are planted. Within the castle there is a small mosque. There are no houses beyond its precincts’ (Burckhardt 1822, chapter 4, 19). Two points are of particular interest in Burkhardt’s narrative, irstly, he conirms the attribution of the fort to Sultan Selim and secondly the garrison was still only 12 men strong. The most detailed description of the fortress is given by Schumacher who visited Muzayrib in the 1880s. This description includes a detailed map of the castle and its immediate surroundings, including, the lake, village and lour mills. It states that the castle was rapidly falling into ruin, although it does mention some recently built mud and stone huts which were used to shelter pilgrims. It is noticeable that there is no mention of a garrison and a recently built set of barracks nearby is described as being in ruins. Schumacher’s interests in antiquities enabled him to identify a number of reused Roman and Byzantine masonry fragments, which had been incorporated into the fortress and mosque. In 1919, in the immediate aftermath of the First World War Muzayrib was visited by K. A. C. Creswell, when he was making a provisional list of historic buildings between Aleppo and Jerusalem. As the description is well written and has not been published before it is worth reproducing in full. ‘About a mile to the north of the railway station, and to the north-east of the lake is a khan, about 100 paces square, with a square tower at each angle, and a square tower of the same projection but less width in the centre of each face, except on the north side, where the centre of the façade is occupied by the entrance. The entrance has a pointed arch opening into a cross-vaulted passage, which leads, after two right angled turns into the great courtyard now littered with debris. Vaulted corridors, more or less ruined, run around the sides of the courtyard and the angle and intermediate towers are entered from them. This building is quite deserted and, although the interior is much ruined, I did not get the impression that the inhabitants of the neighbouring village had pillaged it for stone. This, however is an ever-present danger to be guarded against’ (Creswell 1917/18). Unfortunately Creswell’s prediction of stone robbing proved to be true. In 1988 Michael Meinecke described the building as heavily ruined and commissioned a survey of the site by Norbet Hagen and Emad Terkawi (Meinecke 1996, 47, 53 n. 43). Ten years later Machiel Kiel visited the fortress and described it as follows: ‘It is utterly ruined and more than two thirds of its masonry has disappeared carried off for modern buildings in the villages nearby’ (Kiel 2001, 104).