Development over time and the mosque’s endowment
[Picture source: © 1996 Anne Mollenhauer] [Picture source: © 1996 Anne Mollenhauer] The development of the mosque buildings after its foundation is difficult to retrace. Meinecke has already argued that, in its early stage, two main construction phases can be identified. During the second stage, the minaret and the portal would have been added to the mosque.
We do not have much information on the architectural development of the mosque since Mamluk times. We may suppose that – as with other buildings – general wear and tear, along with destruction caused by war, disorder or natural disaster, affected the mosque as well. We know Jamiʿ al-Mihmandar was affected by the destructive earthquake of 1237/1822. Tabbakh informs us that the earthquake destroyed the structures around the courtyard, with the exception of parts of the qibliyya. He continues to state that competent administrators of the Kawakibi and Tarmanini families managed to reconstruct the eastern and northern riwaqs, built a room (hujra) in the northern arcade with ablution facilities inside that was also used as a place for prayer in winter. In addition, and to increase the mosque’s revenues, they constructed shops along the street façade of the mosque. All this took several decades and was only completed in the early 20th century.[1]
The mosque’s endowment developed over centuries. new assets were acquired by the endowment while others were lost, whether through legal exchange or simply because they were ruined. Most of the initial endowments from the 14th and 15th centuries were – it seems – gradually lost. In many cases only the ‘ground’ remained and was rented out with hikr contracts.
We possess an account of the mosque’s endowment from the year 1165/1751-52: Of those resources that Ghazzi mentions from the initial endowments, none can be identified in that account. The mosque possesses real estate property only in the neighbourhoods close to the mosque: 8 shops (dukkan) in the suq inside Bab an-Nasr, one shop next to the mosque, one qasariyya next to the mosque and a soap factory (masbana). The mosque’s expenses are rather modest -- employing an imam, khatib and muezzin, in addition to the administrator (mutawalli). Additional expenses included candles, lamp oil, mats, some minor renovations, costing in total 195.5 piasters. The administration of the endowment lies in the hands of a woman, a certain Sitt Fatima, not uncommon for mosque endowments in Ottoman times.[2] In 1230/1814-15, we find among the payments 110 piasters for the restoration of the minaret. Compared to 1166/1752-53, the property structure had changed again to a certain degree. We find now a coffee shop (qahwa-khane), but unfortunately lack details about its location, and a quarter of the Hammam as-Sultan next to the citadel. The plot on which the Mahkamat al-Kubra stands is still in the waqf’s possession; a hikr payment of 8.5 piasters is mentioned in this account.[3]
We can observe the same development that is typical for most urban mosques; particularly mosques which are under the control of a permanent community or a notable family (cf. Sharaf Mosque, Mushatiyya Mosque). Their endowment develops in a dynamic and, depending on the ability of its administrators, prosperous way.
Some interesting details are known concerning the mosque’s employees. Around 1800, the imam received a yearly sum of 45 piasters, one of the highest recorded for an imam in Aleppo at that time.[4]
Another interesting and unusual fact demonstrates that the Mihmandar Mosque’s relationship with the mahkama continued. The mosque’s preacher (khatib) Sayyid ʿAbd al-Qadir Halawi Zada received, in addition to his salary from the mosque’s waqf, 4 piasters per year from the revenues of the courthouse, as a document from 1217/1803 specifies.[5]
