Architectural Description
[Picture source: © 2017 Rami Al-Afandi] [Picture source: © 2017 Rami Al-Afandi] Layout Plan
Khan al-Wazir is considered one of the largest and most important khans in the Old City of Aleppo. The diversity of its spaces, the richness of its adornment and the fact that it has preserved many of its original features give a clear idea about the development of commercial architecture in Aleppo during the Ottoman period, when Aleppo was the third largest city in the Empire after Istanbul and Cairo in terms of population, economic and urban development.
In terms of layout and facade design, Khan al-Wazir conforms to the local building traditions of Mamluk khans, which were incorporated into Aleppo’s 16th-century Ottoman khans. Before proceeding with the architectural description of the khan, it is worthy to mention that the trust deed was not only useful for confirming the patron and the date of the khan’s construction but also for identifying the functions of its different spaces.
In layout, the khan is a two-storey structure covering an approximate area of 4100m2 with its spaces arranged around a central courtyard. (Figure 6) The extreme irregularity of the plot has resulted in the remarkable shape of the courtyard, which is trapezoidal rather than square or rectangular. The entrance of the khan is located at the middle of its western wing. It leads to a vestibule upon which four shops and two small guarding rooms are opened. (Figure 7) The rooms on the ground floor are distributed along the four sides of the khan, overlooking the courtyard without a preceding portico. (Figure 8) The rooms are thus deep and consist of two sections: the inner one is devoted to storage while the outer one, which contains a fireplace, is for accommodation or commercial activities. The absence of the preceding portico on the ground floor is one design feature that appeared in Aleppo’s khansin the 17th century. Similar examples can be found in the later Khan al-Absi and Khan al-Haj Musa, both dated to the mid-18th century. The reason for this feature may have been related to the increasing need for storage spaces, arising from Aleppo’s changing role from a caravan trade intermediary to a center for raw materials and locally produced goods, starting from the second half of the 17th century. [9] Therefore, this feature can be considered a kind of functional adaptive design. The absence of porticoes necessitated the creation of small vestibules to provide access to the rooms at the corners of the khan. The eastern wing features a large corridor leading to the stable, which extends behind the rooms. (Figure 9) Instead of a mosque, a small domed water pool occupies the middle of the courtyard, slightly to the north of the entrance axis. [10] (Figure 10)
The first floor is accessed by three stairways: two on either side of the entrance vestibule (Figure 11) and one in the middle of the eastern wing facing the khan’s entrance. (Figure 12) Preceding porticoes articulate the upper floor behind which the rooms are set. The preceding porticoes have been built in two different types. The wide sections are covered with cross vaults supported by stone beams (Figure 13, 14), while the narrow sections are covered with flat stone slabs resting on Ottoman multi-centered arches and polygonal columns with muqarnas capitals. (Figure 15, 16) The space above the stable is occupied by a qaysariyya consisting of a corridor serving two rows of rooms. The upper western wing has no preceding portico. Instead, it consists of two rows of rooms accessed from a central corridor. (Figure 17, 18) A large hall of a cruciform plan, with a square domed central area and four iwans, punctuates this corridor above the entrance vestibule. (Figure 19) These types of halls appeared in the some khans built in 16th-century Aleppo, such as Khan al-Jumruk (1574) and Khan al-Hibal (1594). These halls have a strategic location as they overlook both the streets and the inner courtyards of the khans. Their original function is unclear, though they may have been used as reception areas by the waqf’s administrators or prestigious visitors. David analyzed the hall of Khan al-Jumruk and likened it to the grand reception hall (qa'a) found in the domestic architecture of the wealthy. [11]
The entrance to the khan has elaborately decorated facades, facing the exterior street and the interior courtyard respectively, and announcing the importance of the structure. In terms of composition, building techniques and decorative elements, these facades recall the formal conventions of the Mamluk commercial architecture in Aleppo. However, rather than reproducing these Mamluk norms they follow Ottoman modifications of these conventions, which had been well established throughout the 16th-century khans. Specifically, they strikingly resemble the entrance facades of Khan al-Jumruk (1574). [12] (Figure 20)
The entrance’s external facade is distinguished from the rest of the wall by a higher roofline. (Figure 21) The doorway and two upper windows are built with alternative courses of polychromic stones and framed with a thick band carved in geometric ornament. (Figure 22 -23) Between the two windows, there is a plain marble plate that may have been intended for an inscription. (Figure 24) In the upper section of the facade and just under the cornice, there are two small windows and a star-shape lunette set within a finely carved screen in a form of blind semi-circular arch. (Figure 25) Three roundels adorn the facade: one decorative shield above the marble plate and two roundels with feline figures on the two sides of the doorway. (Figure 26) In her discussion of Aleppo’s 16th- and 17th-century Ottoman architecture, Watenpaugh has particularly analyzed the usage of the feline roundels and highlighted how they have been recontextualized from their military-functional context to a new functional and architectural context as “a visual quotation from the city’s architectural history”. [13] This lavish facade is boldly interrupted by the massive exterior walls of the khan, which are plain and punctuated by small rectangular windows and an upper row of water spouts. (Figure 27- 28) To the north of the entrance, the public fountain of the waqf, which is no longer functional, is set within a double niche surmounted by delicately carved arches and flanked by two decorative shields. (Figure 3)
Figure 20: The external façade of Khan al-Gumruk’s entrance [Picture source: © 2011 Ruba Kasmo] 
Seen from within the courtyard, the facade of the entrance is equally lavish. (Figure 29- 30) It is framed by a decorative band of geometric ornamentation that ends with two engaged braided colonnettes at both sides of the doorway. Two recessed bays, strikingly similar to those on the interior facade of Khan al-Jumruk, are located above the doorway. (Figure 31- 32) Each bay contains a lower rectangular window framed with polychromic stones and a small upper window with an Ottoman multi-centered arch. (Figure 33) The bays are decorated with joggled stones, braided colonnettes and muqarnas strips. (Figure 34) In the center, a small round lunette is set within checkerboard frames while at the two upper corners of the facade there are two small windows set within wide frames of carved geometric ornament and checkerboard bands. (Figure 35- 36) In addition to this facade, the inner atmosphere of the khan is further enriched by the carved vegetal and geometric ornamentation above the windows and the doors of the rooms, (Figure 37- 38) different types of arches in the upper porticoes and columns with their muqarnas capitals.
Functional and Physical Modifications
Very little is known about the history or the function of Khan al-Wazir except that it was granted the monopoly of housing silk merchants from Baghdad, Basra and the Safavid Empire. [14] The fact that the khan was not associated with the accommodation of the European communities helped to preserve much of its original layout and decorations, unlike the other major khans in Al-Mdine. By the early 20th century it seems that the only major intervention was the construction of a two-storey block, dated by inscription to 1913, abutting the northern side of the covered water pool in the courtyard. (Figure 39)
The khan was restored during the French Mandate period. The consolidation works, supervised by the French architect Ecochard, were focused in the north-western and north-eastern sections of the khan. [15] (Figure 40 -43) In the 1950s, the eastern section of the khan’s northern wing was demolished to open the road through Khan al-Wazir Street that links the citadel’s perimeter to the Great Mosque. This section was rebuilt in the mid of the 1980s. The new section was compatible with the general layout of the khan and thus maintained its integrity. A secondary entrance was opened on the north-eastern corner of the new section. (Figure 6)
Footnotes
[9] For more information on the changing commercial role of Aleppo during the 17th century, see Masters, “Aleppo: the Ottoman Empire’s Caravan City,” 29-40.
[10] This pool was wrongly interpreted by several researchers to have been a small mosque and thus most probably the beneficiary of the khan’s revenue. However, the deed states clearly that it was a pool provided with water from the main channel system of the city. The deed also mentions several wells in the courtyard which do not exist today.
[11] David, Consulat de France, 20
[12] For a more detailed analysis of these facades and their similarities to the facades of Mamluk and 16th-century Ottoman khans in the city, see Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 192-194.
[13] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 203. Watenpaugh has discussed the possible architectural traditions that could have provided precedents for these felines within and outside Aleppo’s own architectural repertoire. She has particularly highlighted the similarities between these felines and the ones used in the Ottoman-period architecture of Mount Lebanon and the exchanging of workshops of stonemasons between the two locations. In Aleppo, she noticed the use of feline motifs in the military and defensive structures as an old tradition going back to the Hamdanid period. For the detailed analysis see pages 197-209.
[14] Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City, 190
[15] For more information on the consolidation works, check Michel Ecochard online archive on www.archnet.org.
