8vo. 207 pp., [6], 20 b/w plates, 2 folding plans, tables, French text, publisher’s original wrappers, biblio, index, copy in mint condition, Institut Francais De Damas, Damascus, 1990.

Synopsis

The waqf constituted in Aleppo by al-Ḥāǧǧ Mūsā Al-Amīrī, in the middle of the 18th century, gave rise to a deed of foundation. It includes numerous descriptions that can be clarified by comparing them with the constructions to which they apply, when they can be found and provided that they have not undergone any major modification. This confrontation of written sources and archaeological data sheds light on the meaning of the vocabulary relating to constructions and particularly to houses and their different parts, and to grasp in its topographical reality, the extension and the structure of a large waqf of the Eighteenth century. The study that we present here is an introduction to a larger work in preparation, which will be based on more numerous sources and will extend to other fields of the history of the city. In other words, our conclusions are provisional in the sense that they will be clarified or nuanced. Only the exceptional interest of this text led us to publish it now with its commentary.