فن العمارة في العهد العثماني ٢_a .. كتاب العمارة العربية الاسلامية

And colored stones. The best example of the Ottoman khans is Asaad Pasha Khan in Damascus, built in the middle of the eighteenth century, and the Customs Khans (sixteenth century) and Al-Wazir Khans (seventeenth) in the city of Aleppo (Plan 31).

Among the facilities that received care and development during the Ottoman era are public baths, as well as houses and palaces. It is noted that these latest facilities have become noticeably wider, and even more beautiful and well-maintained in amenities. The interior appearance of the courtyards and rooms is luxurious and attractive, rich in decorations of every kind, but the exterior facades overlooking the street are poor and simple and do not arouse any interest.

The palace or large house consists of several wings, one for the family, another for guests, a third for service, and a small bathroom similar to public bathrooms, in terms of its organization and sections. In each wing there is a heavenly courtyard with a pool of water and tree and flower beds in the middle. It is overlooked by a wide iwan or portico with arches and columns (plans 34 and 35). The building consists of underground cellars and two floors, ground and upper. There are many halls on the ground, some of which rise above the surface of the ground, and you can ascend to them by several stairs. Internally, it consists of three wings (tazrat) resembling iwans that surround the threshold and rise above it. In the middle of the threshold, we often find a water basin, and a salsabil in one of the walls made of attractive colored marble, on which water also flows. This is because the ground floor rooms were made to adapt to the summer season, while the upper floor rooms were made away from humidity, more exposed to the sun’s rays, and equipped with beautiful fireplaces to suit winter life.

Syrian cities still maintain many of these palaces and houses, which are called Levantine houses, because of the ancient and similar traditions they contain. Some of them were turned into museums to preserve them, and some of them were extended the hand of renewal, taking their ceilings, bays and marble to be installed in modern palaces in Syria or in Lebanon, and some of them have reached the present state. America and Europe.

Second: In terms of architectural elements: domes and domes have become the common element in covering. It replaced gabled roofs or vaulted vaults.

As for arches or arches, a new form has become widespread. We decided to call it the advanced Persian arch. We previously knew the Persian arch, which appeared in the Abbasid era and then ceased to be used in Syria. It is an arch, that is, composed of two parts, the vertical one is straight and the lower one is convex. As for the new Ottoman arch, the straight part became slightly concave towards the outside (compare the arch of Bab Baghdad in Raqqa, Photo No. 19 and the arches of the Sulaymaniyah Hospice, Photo No. 84.).

There was less use of arches, traditional forms in buildings of previous eras. A segmented semicircular arch, i.e. one whose opening is less than half the circle, was also used in doors and windows.

As for the columns, the use of muqarnas capitals was widespread, in many forms that were not known before (Photo No. 82). Muqarnas in general remained an indispensable element in the arches of public buildings’ gates and sometimes in the corners of domes in order to secure the transition between the different levels.

Third: In terms of decorative elements: We find colored porcelain panels called glazed become an important element in covering and decorating interior walls, and in limited places on facades, such as placing panels of them above doors and windows, and the paving of these panels consists of beautiful decorative themes with their colors and shapes (Photo No. 85). .

We had known ceramics used before that in the Mamluk era in a very limited way. We saw an example of it in the Al-Tiruzi Mosque in Damascus in the fifteenth century. Its use in wall coverings was known in earlier eras in Iran, and it also spread in Andalusia and the Maghreb.

But the ceramic industry developed during the Ottoman era in terms of workmanship, shape, and decorative themes. They are square tiles (the length of the tile is 23 cm), on which decorative themes are painted, which are often plant veins and flowers, in which the colors blue and green predominate. The panels are covered with a transparent layer of glass to protect the colorful designs.

The ceramic industry flourished during the Ottoman era, and many factories were established in Syria, the most important of which were in Damascus and Aleppo, in addition to its famous factories in Kutahya, Rhodes, and Isnik.

In addition to tile as a new element of decoration, traditional elements remained used in Syrian buildings. Among these, we mention marble mosaics (mashqaf), stones engraved with geometric designs, and alternating colored stones and marble in the courses of the facades. And the plaster windows covered with stained glass, with a development in their decorative themes (Photo No. 86).

A new type of mosaic became popular, known as “blaq,” executed in a new way by engraving decorative motifs on the stones and then filling them with a special type of colored mortar. This type of mosaic decoration began to adorn the interior facades and walls of rooms in most houses and palaces (Photo No. 100).

Wood decoration also developed. Carving and perforation work decreased, and instead, painted wood decorated with colorful drawings and covered with gold, known as Persian, became widespread. It is used in the ceilings of rooms and in wall cladding, especially in palaces and residential homes. We now see artistic paintings in it among the decorations that cover this wooden cladding. Pictures of famous cities, or scenes from nature, and vessels filled with fruits or flower energies, surrounded by bands of verses of poetry and Quranic verses in beautiful golden script.

As for the ceilings, they became decorated and colored like a piece of carpet (Photo No. 98).