Damascus's history in bricks and mortar

The alleys, tombs, churches and mosques in Damascus, the city that is mentioned in manuscripts from about 6000BC, all hold portions of the history of humanity.

Among its historic buildings, this oldest inhabited capital in the world has one structure that embodies the past 150 years — the Maktab Amber, or Amber school.

The construction of Maktab Amber, which now houses the Old City Civic Department, was begun by one of the city's elite families — the Al Kuwatly — in the mid-1860s.

Owing to financial setbacks and their subsequent inability to repay a bank loan, the Al Kuwatlys transferred ownership of the house to their accountant, a Jew named Yousuf Amber.

As Amber, too, was unable to repay the loan, the government took possession of the building and converted it into a public school.

According to Gassan Hariri, head of the Old City Civic Department, the recession that hit Damascus in the mid-1860s changed the face of the city.

One of the changes was that the Al Kuwatlys' house ended up as Damascus's first public school. “Who said recession is always bad?'' Hariri said.

The Maktab Amber now offers a window on the 19th-century architectural style of Damascus. “After a series of modifications and renovations, the building has finally become the Culture Palace of Damascus, where hundreds of cultural and art activities are held every year.

"The Old City Civic Department is also housed in it. All the events are aimed at reflecting the richness of the city and the peaceful nature of its social fabric.

"And it is true that no place could convey the civil message of Damascus better than the Maktab Amber, thanks to the architecture and the simplicity that is reflected in every corner of the place,'' Hariri said.

Since 1979, Damascus has figured on Unesco's list of World's Heritage sites, he said. Local authorities and international organisations have worked to preserve the architectural fabric of the city and the Maktab Amber figured in the preservation efforts.

“Considerable efforts were made to preserve the building and to highlight its architectural identity. Today [the] Maktab Amber is a symbol of the high-class society that Damascus supported in the past two centuries [and] reflects its values and relations with the surroundings,'' Hariri said.

“The building has four semi-independent sections connected internally by yards that have traditional fountains in the middle.''

Although the sections are linked through corridors, the design reserves a certain level of independence for each section. The first section of the house — the one right after the door — is meant for the guards.

This is followed by the guest house, called salamlik. Then comes the quarters for women, called haramlik (from hareem or the women of the house). The last section, khadamlik, forms the servants' quarters and has four rooms, Hariri said.

The main feature of the house, which is similar to other Arab houses, is its “closed'' exterior and “open'' interiors. The Maktab Amber has no windows looking onto the outside, while each of its 41 rooms has a window and door opening into the interior.

“The most beautiful and largest section of the house is the one designated for the family. It has a spacious yard with a big fountain in the middle. Fruit trees and traditional grape scaffolding that can be seen in most houses in the Levant are seen in Maktab Amber too.

"Water supply to the house — as in other houses in the Old City — is through a highly sophisticated and intelligent system that channels water from the spring of Al Fija. This system distinguished the city from the others in the Middle East,'' Hariri said.

Another feature of the house, he said, is its modest gate, which does not match the size of the property and the class of its intended occupants.

“The size of the gate and the design of the front door do not reflect or justify the size of the building and the importance of its owners. This was not an exception in Damascus of old times,'' he said.

Generally, houses in Damascus and many other Islamic cities in the region are known for their modest façades and front gates.

This is meant to emphasise the modesty of the owners and the intention not to show off that they are privileged in a way that might hurt their neighbours, Hariri said.

“Houses of the poor and the rich look almost alike from outside, while the size of the house, the decoration of their floors, arches, ceilings and the materials used in the interior decoration vary from one house to another based on the financial status of their owners,'' he said.

Nabeel Al Kuwatly, the elder of the Al Kuwatly family now, told Weekend Review that he was proud to see the house, which was designed and built by the family some 150 years ago, still standing in excellent shape to reflect the noble values embraced by the family and the majority of Damascenes at the time of its construction.

“My family had always opted to stay close to their roots and refused to distinguish themselves from their neighbours. The property was meant to house the extended family of my grandfather's cousin. The size of the property and the number of sections and rooms was dictated more by the family's needs rather than by social status.

"Even though the Al Kuwatly family never really lived in the property, and references to their ownership of the place are limited, it is public memory and the people's love that have kept linking the house with the Al Kuwatly,'' Al Kuwatly said.

“The fact that the house was converted to a school from which the leaders of society and the country graduated, makes me more proud of the family contribution by building the house.

"In that way, I feel we have contributed to the development of society and the country. It is much nobler than having a nice house bearing the name of the Al Kuwatly family.''

The Maktab Amber timeline

• The spacious house is a symbol of the palaces of the Damascene bourgeoisie in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. It is located in the heart of the Old City near the Umayyad Mosque and spreads over 5,000 square metres. It is 10 to 20 times larger than any house in the area.
  
• The construction of the house was started in the
  mid-1860s. It is believed that the first owner was the head of the Al Kuwatly family, the grandfather of former Syrian president Shukri Al Kuwatly (1891-1967), who borrowed 42,000 Ottoman gold lira from a bank in Istanbul to finance the construction of the house.
  
• But before construction was completed, the Al Kuwatlys suffered reverses in business as a recession hit the Damascus markets. That forced them to halt the work and stop repayment of the loan.
  
• The ownership of the property was then
  transferred to a rich Jewish Damascene, Yousuf Amber, who worked for the Al Kuwatly family as an accountant.
  
• Amber undertook to pay back the loan and
  continued construction of the house. However, he
  too failed to repay as agreed. This resulted in the transfer of ownership to the Ottoman government of that time.
  
• The Ottoman authority in Damascus ordered the building be converted to a school (Royal Preparatory School-Maktab Amber) in 1886. The “Royal'' in the name was to differentiate the new school from the military schools, the only form of public education known in the empire.
  
• The institution played a crucial role in the enlightenment of Damascene society. Prominent Syrian figures, who were later involved in the uprising against the Ottomans and the French colonies, graduated from this school from 1905 to 1936.
  
• After Syria's independence from France in 1946, the school was converted into a school of arts for women, that taught them the arts of home economics and domestic handicraft.
  
• The building was abandoned for some time before it was refurbished in 1980 to be converted into the cultural palace of the capital. At present, the building houses the civic department of the Old City.