Layout plan
[Picture source: © 2009 Stefan Knost] [Picture source: © 2009 Stefan Knost] The most important structure of the waqf is certainly the public bath, the hammam. The Hammam Raqban, dated by inscription to the year 981/1573,[1] (fig. 2) (fig. 3) follows the traditional layout that had become canonical centuries before this particular bath was constructed. This layout was altered later, however, probably in the first half of the 20th century in an effort to adapt to the changing needs of the hammam’s customers.[2] The entrance to the bath has traditionally been from the southern side of the suburb’s main alley. The entrance leads to the left into the mashlah, where the hammam’s clients undress and rest after bathing. Today, there is a second, much smaller mashlah on the right side of the entrance. The one to the left is a typical huge domed room with a fountain in its center. A plan from 2008[3] assigns the larger mashlah to women – today with a separate entrance to the east – and the smaller one to men, thus making today’s Hammam Raqban a ‘double hammam’ for simultaneous use by men and women. Following the traditional layout, the interior was constituted in three parts, first the barrani (‘exterior’) or mashlah. The ‘wastani’, the middle part with tepid temperatures. A small wastani was added later for male clients with douche cabins accessible from the small maslah to the west. The main wastani is a domed room with alcoves on the northern and western side and a separate room on the northern side, all equipped with washbasins. A narrow corridor leads from the main wastani to the juwwani, the inner hot room of the bath. This octagonal domed room is larger than the wastani, has four side-chambers (iwans) on each side and four alcoves (sing. khalwa) in each corner. All are equipped with washbasins. In the centre of the room, we find a rectangular heated platform used for resting. The oven (bayt an-nar) with the water reservoir is situated next to the juwwani, which is therefore heated by its vicinity to the oven and by the pipes of hot water that stretch beyond the juwwani to the barrani.[4]
Figure 4: Waqf Raqban, sabil and maktab [Picture source: © 2009 Stefan Knost] The beneficiaries of the endowment, the sabil and maktab next to the hammam, represent another interesting detail of the Waqf Raqban: The primary school was constructed above the public fountain. Other than in Cairo, where the combination fountain-school (sabilkuttab) was widespread in Mamluk and Ottoman times and developed a particular architectural form, in Aleppo only a few cases existed.[5] (fig. 4)
