Bayt Farhi and the Sephardic palaces of Ottoman Damascus in the late 18th and 19th centuries / by Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis ; with contributions by Ezra Ashkenazie, Jeffery Burden, George H. Lewis, Judith S. Mckenzie, and Jason Montgomery.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macaulay-Lewis, Elizabeth, author.

Series:

Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research ; v. 72.

Manar al-Athar monograph ; 4.

The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research ; volume 72

Manar al-Athar monograph ; 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Palaces--Syria--Damascus.

Palaces.

Courtyard houses--Syria--Damascus.

Courtyard houses.

Architecture, Domestic--Syria--Damascus.

Architecture, Domestic.

Jewish architecture--Syria--Damascus.

Jewish architecture.

Beit Farhi (Damascus, Syria).

Buildings--Syria--Damascus.

Buildings.

Syria--Damascus.

Physical Description:

xvi, 336 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), plans ; 29 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston, MA : American Schools of Oriental Research, [2018]

Summary:

One of the largest and most important palatial houses of late 18th- and early 19th-century Damascus, Bayt Farhi belonged to the Farhi family, who served as financial administrators to successive Ottoman governors in Damascus and Acre. Illustrated with extensive colour photographs, plans, and reconstruction drawings, the book brings to life the home environment of the lost elite Sephardic community of Ottoman Damascus. It will be an important resource for those studying the architecture, history, and culture of Syria and the Ottoman Empire. Bayt Farhi's outstanding architecture and decoration is documented and presented in this first comprehensive analysis of it and Damascus's other prominent Sephadic mansions Matkab 'Anbar, Bayt Dahdah, Bayt Stambouli, and Bayt Lisbona. The Hebrew poetic inscriptions in these residences reveal how the Farhis and other leading Sephardic families perceived themselves and how they presented themselves to their own community and other Damascenes. A history of the Farhis and the Jews of Damascus provides the context for these houses, along with the architectural development of the monumental Damascene courtyard house.

Contents:

The Farhi family and the Jewish community of Damascus in the 18th and 19th centuries

Monumental courtyard houses in Ottoman Damascus and Syria

Overview of the architecture of Bayt Farhi

The Bayt Farhi inscriptions / by Ezra Ashkenazie

Other 19th-century high status Jewish houses and their evolution

The Barrani courtyard

The Juwwani, middle, and service courtyards.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780897571005

0897571002

OCLC:

1013993090