Bab al-Faraj ( ar, باب الفرج; "The Gate of Deliverance") also known as Bab al-Bawabijiyah ( ar, باب البوابجية) and Bab al-Manakhiliyah ( ar, باب المناخلية) is one of the

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

s of the old city of

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. The gate was built as part of a large program to re-fortify the city following its capture by Nur ad-Din Zangi in 1154.Allen, 1999
Bab al-Faraj
The twin gate crosses a bridge over a section of the Barada river that runs along the northern city walls of Damascus. The gate is notable for being the only surviving gate in the city that was built completely after the Muslim conquest of Damascus.Darke, 2006, p. 93.

History

The gate, located in the northern walls near the northeast corner of the

citadel A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. In ...

, was built by Nur ad-Din Zangi in 1154–55. Al-Malik al-Salih fortified the gate further in 1239–40 and added another gateway to the north of the original gate. Bab al-Faraj was rebuilt again in 1396–97 under the

Mamluk Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...

s. The gate was further renovated and restored in the 1980s.Burns, 2005, p. 218. The two separate gateways are connected by a narrow steel-roofed alley that serves nowadays as a souq for small hardware and keys. The northern gateway opens up to the modern street of al-Malik Faisal, and still serves as the main northwestern entrance to the old city. The eastern jamb on the original gate of Nur ad-Din Zangi is still visible, while the western one has been absorbed by the surrounding shops. The jamb is decorated with a combination of Aleppan-styled moldings and engravings of three-leaves without stems. The later additions of al-Malik al-Salih included a monolithic column re-used as a

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

, and the four

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

s above the relieving arch.

References

Notes Bibliography * * * {{coords, 33.513327, N, 36.303582, E, type:landmark_scale:500, display=title} Gates of Damascus Ayyubid architecture in Syria Zengid architecture