Function and design of bathhouses in Mamluk society (1250-1517)
Research Question
- What was the influence of Islamic regulations on these bathhouses’ design and daily functioning in society?
- What are the religious and social roles that the bathhouses played in the Mamluk society?
Project Description
This research project intends to analyze the relationship between the function and form of bathhouses ” الحمامات ” in the Mamluk era (1250-1517). Combining archaeological and textual sources and focusing on both the architecture and the functioning of these bathhouses, this research will present a comprehensive understanding of the Mamluk bathhouses’ religious and social roles and their impact on Mamluk society. The project integrates history and archaeology. It builds on my long experience in Mamluk archaeology in Cairo, where I studied, and in Damascus, where I worked as Director of the Department of Antiquities of Old Damascus, I collected and analyzed both material and textual sources.
Selected Publications
– Mamluk palaces and houses in Cairo (1250- 1516 CE), Brill Publishers (Koninklijke Brill NV), 2021. (Book in Arabic)
– Imperial Ideology and Architectural Heritage: Damascus under the Mamluk sultans (1260 – 1516 AD), Scientific article for my research project at Leiden University. In press, Brill Publishers, 2021. (an article in English, 125 pages)
– Archaeological Monuments of Islamic Civilization in Syria, The Islamic Education, Sciences & Culture Organization (ISESCO), Casablanca, Morocco. (Book In Arabic)