Damascus-SANA
You will not visit Old Damascus without being amazed at the place where details of charm and beauty, replete with the scent of history, met.
Mashrabiya is one of the most important colors of Islamic architecture, according to the head of the Directorate of Documentation and Studies in the Old Damascus Directorate, Engineer Naim Zabita, who explained to SANA that its history dates back to the thirteenth century during the first Abbasid era and spread in the Levant, Egypt, Hijaz, Iraq and Yemen.
Zabita said: “Mashrabiya is one of the traditional elements that top homes as an architectural element. It is often placed on the windows of the upper floors to block the view from the inside of the house and provide lighting and ventilation through the openings,” noting that its manufacture is an ancient craft engraved by skilled hands. Beautiful artistic and architectural.
Zabita explained that it was called “mashrabiya” in relation to the word “mashrabiya”, meaning the high rooms or the place from which water was drunk. To the Mashrabiya, and some suggest the reason for the name “Al Mashrabiya” is one of the types of wood from which the Mashrabiya is made.
Regarding its uses and functions, Mahmoud al-Mawqat, a resident of al-Qaymariya neighborhood in Old Damascus, explained that it is a place that exposes the house to the lane and is often placed at the main door of the Arab house in order to identify the knocker and eat the items in addition to its aesthetic and physical effect, as it beautifies the houses from the outside and allows the passage of air and light to the interior.
Mashrabiya industry relies on small wooden pieces that are carved in elaborate aesthetic forms, and are sometimes lined with colored glass. Brass corners are controlled using the “unloading” method, to be glued to special places of the wooden square, increasing its aesthetic value and increasing its solidity.
Maha al-Atrash
