Name

Qasr al-ʿAzm

Address
Damascus
Geographical Hierarchy
Coordinates (WGS 84)
Author and Date of Entry
Sarah Keller 2024
Information about the Building

Qasr al-ʿAzm, or Azem Palace, the largest and oldest completely preserved private residence in Damascus, was built in 1163 AH / 1749–50 AD by the Ottoman governor of Damascus, Asʿad Pasha al-Azem. In 1925, the building was badly damaged by the bombing of French troops during the Syrian uprising. In the following years, the palace was reconstructed and restored. The destroyed stucco and glass windows were replaced with simple plain-glazed windows (cf. Bali, p. 55).

In his La Civilisation des Arabes, 1884, Gustave Le Bon published an interior view of the qāʿa and a detail of a qamariyya.

Literature

Azem Palace (1985). In S. Cantacuzino (ed.), Architecture in Continuity (pp. 165–169). New York: Aperture.

Bali, J. (2016). Différentes approches de « restauration » en Syrie : de Michel Ecochard aux projets de l’Aga Khan Trust pour la Culture [Master’s thesis, University of Geneva]. https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:96215

Le Bon, G. (1884). La civilisation des Arabes. Paris: Firmin-Didot.