World War 2, Middle East Damascus, Hospice Sulamaniyah, WALKER, 2/28 Battalion, 1942

1942
Overview

Jim Walker standing in Damascus street near Hospice Sulamaniyah

Historical information

The hospice is a huge building in Damascus, in an area that used to be called “Al-Marj Al-Akhdar” or “Al-Marjah”. Hospice Sulaymaniyah consists of two groups of buildings, western and eastern, with a total area of about 11,000 square meters. The most prominent characteristic of the style of the hospice is its two slender minarets, which resemble obelisks or two pencils due to their extreme slenderness, a style that was not common in Damascus until that era.
It was built by the famous Turkish engineer Mimar Sinan, who died in 966 AH by order of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and engineer Mulla Agha supervised its construction. It was named after Sultan Suleiman.
The place of the hospice was the palace of Sultan al-Zahir Baybars, known as the “Ablaq Palace” Sultan Suleiman stayed there during his stay in Damascus in the year 932 AH / 1517 AD. He demolished it and started in the year 962 AH / 1554 AD to build the Hospice Sulaymaniyah. It was completed in the year 967 AH / 1559 AD.
After the establishment of the Syrian University in Damascus in 1934, part of its building was used to teach dentistry, and then it was used as the headquarters of the Civil Police magazine's printing house. During the era of the French occupation, the forces of General Gouraud settled there, and it was later used as an Islamic Sharia school. Itwas adopted as the headquarters of the Military Museum, and as a museum of folk traditions, where Syrian products are displayed with small workshops to introduce these products; such as the manufacture of glass, silverware, leather, carpets, antiques and other handicrafts.

Details

Details

Registration number
cwa-org-32-P1980.219.1g
Item type
Year
Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

Organisation Details
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