Location of the Quarter and its Inhabitants
General top view of a courtyard house in Banqusa in the Old City of Aleppo [Picture source: © 1989 Anette Gangler] General top view of a courtyard house in Banqusa in the Old City of Aleppo [Picture source: © 1989 Anette Gangler] Banqusa is located right outside the city’s eastern wall (fig.1). Since hundreds of years, an important trade road has led from the centre eastwards, out of town, eventually forking off in a north-eastern and south-eastern direction. Today there is a wide breakthrough route that borders the area to the north while the west is defined by the axis of the city’s eastern wall and what today is called the Bab al-Hadid Street. Along this eastward route, a small suburb evolved into a city district with hammams, khans and a lively suq around the Friday mosque of Banqusa, which was built in 1368.
Figure 1: Map of the Old City of Aleppo showing the location of Banqusa east [Picture source: © 1993 Anette Gangler] This suq serves both the local inhabitants and the rural population who commute to the city to get provisions, passing the place on their return to their villages in the direction of Manbij or Raqqa. Today shared taxis await passengers in front of the mosque. Therefore, commerce consists largely of agricultural products and services. By contrast, much of Jubb Qarman, the southern part of the area under investigation, is marked by strictly residential use, which has developed around al-Bakri Mosque.
Jubb Qurman
A detailed, house-by-house inventory was made of Jubb Qarman, which had approximately 1400 inhabitants at the end of the 1980s. At that time, the majority of the inhabitants were lower middle class. Most were born in that district or moved there from rural areas in the east. Working men included merchants (28%), craftsmen (24%), state employees and teachers (15%). Butchers made up a relatively large percentage (13%) because Aleppo’s slaughterhouse used to be located nearby, to the south. A small proportion of women (10%) performed sewing and embroidery work at home. The study also showed that the courtyard houses were less likely to be inhabited by extended families, but more and more by nuclear families.
Quarter’s Urban Structure
The structure of the quarter has been characterized by an arrangement of adjoining courtyard houses, which are accessed via alleys and cul-de-sacs. Each system of cul-de-sacs forms a hara, i.e. clusters traditionally marked by family relationships.
The quarter was probably already inhabited during the pre-Islamic period, but became ever more important in the 13th century, during Mamluk rule. The archetypal courtyard house design can be dated as far back as the ancient near-east period but the quarter’s extant buildings cannot be traced back much further than 300 years. This construction style is characterized by closed outer walls at the property borders and an arrangement of the rooms towards the inner courtyard. The walls of the inner courtyard can thus be regarded as facades. Since the outer walls are largely closed, the courtyard houses can be built so they adjoin one another.
Aleppo’s traditional residential houses are built from locally quarried limestone.
The courtyard houses can be flexibly adapted to the city’s varying economic fortunes and to changes in the family units’ living conditions. Over the years – sometimes centuries – individual buildings in the complex urban structure may have been divided or expanded, destroyed or rebuilt, depending on social and economic circumstances. In the course of this development, even main entrances may be moved. Many houses have obtained their present appearance and shape at different construction periods – usually without the involvement of architects, only by the building craftsmen.
Buildings: 2110 and 2111
Figure 2: Floor plan of houses 2110 and 2111 [Picture source: © 1993 Anette Gangler] Alterations of this kind are noticeable in two neighbouring houses with the cadastral numbers 2110 and 2111. Around 1900, two related families lived in these houses, with seven more families residing in the immediate vicinity. As late as 1930, both buildings were owned by a man who bequeathed them to his wife, a daughter and three sons. In 1949, house 2111 was sold to another family. At the time of our visit, in 1987, their descendants lived in the house as an extended family, consisting of grandparents, a married son with his family and a daughter.
Back in 1942, house 2110 was sold to a new owner, who passed it on to three women, eleven sons and six daughters in 1987. Of these, two sons lived in the house with their wives and seven children in 1987.[1]
Both properties consist of small courtyard buildings of different ages that are characteristic of the quarter (fig.2). Located north-west of al-Bakri Mosque, they are accessed from a short cul-de-sac to form a small hara made up of four fairly small plots of about 180 to 230 m² (fig. 3).
Figure 3: Houses’ plot size [Picture source: © 1993 Anette Gangler] Only portions of House 2111 erected between 1700 and 1850 remain intact (period 1 described below, see fig. 4).
Figure 4: Jubb Qurman quarter’s time periods [Picture source: © 1993 Anette Gangler] Today the building consists of a relatively large sunken courtyard with a well, accessible from the alleyway. The courtyard provides access to four rooms, all built in different styles, indicating that they were constructed in different periods. The eastern section of the house consists of an older part with a vaulted ceiling and a more recently erected two-storey structure (fig. 5). The western section is comprised of two one-storey rooms accessed from the courtyard (fig. 6- 9). An inscription above the entrance dates it to 1888, which suggests it was not the original entrance.
Figure 10: Section 2-2 of houses 2110 and 2111 [Picture source: © 1993 Anette Gangler] To the south, the adjacent building 2110 has a uniform construction style from the period between 1850 and 1900 (period 2). Perhaps it was erected at the same time as the above-mentioned entry to house 2111. It consists of a slightly smaller courtyard which is at the same level as the alleyway and bordered by rooms on three sides. The eastern section of the house has two storeys, while the one-storey southern part is dominated by a smaller iwan (fig. 10).
The northern and southern sections of the house have a barrel-vaulted basement which is lit and ventilated by small windows looking onto the courtyard (fig. 11- 13). The simple interior design of the rooms segmented by the windows and wall niches matches that of the facade.
Figure 11: House 2110 - southern facade [Picture source: 1989 Anette Gangler] 
Figure 12: House 2110 – eastern facade [Picture source: 1989 Anette Gangler] 
Figure 13: House 2110 [Picture source: 1989 Anette Gangler] 