Bab al-Jinan ( ar, بَاب الْجِنَان, Bāb al-Jinān), meaning the ''Gate of Gardens'', was one of the gates of
Aleppo that used to lead to gardens on the banks of the
Quwēq river.
The gate is thought to have been built by
Sayf al-Dawla
ʿAlī ibn ʾAbū l-Hayjāʾ ʿAbdallāh ibn Ḥamdān ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taghlibī ( ar, علي بن أبو الهيجاء عبد الله بن حمدان بن الحارث التغلبي, 22 June 916 – 9 February 967), more commonly known ...
during his possession of Aleppo between 944 and 967. The gate provided access to the great palace of Halba and gardens that Sayf al-Dawla had built outside the city.
[Bianquis (1997), p. 105][Humphreys (2010), p. 537] The gate was referred to by
Al-Muqaddasi in 985 as ''The Watermelon Gate'', and noted by
Alexander Russell in his 1756 book ''
The Natural History of Aleppo
''The Natural History of Aleppo'' is a 1756 book by naturalist Alexander Russell on the natural history of Aleppo. In 1794 his half-brother, Patrick Russell, revised and expanded the text in a second edition. The book is significant for its qua ...
''.
The gate was demolished around 1900 in order to widen the road.
There used to be numerous exchangers and storage houses for goods near the gate, and a pine dating back to the 16th century. The gate had a tower called the "serpent tower" in which was said to be a talisman capable of protecting from serpent bites. Bāb Jnēn today is the site of a traditional
souk.
References
Bibliography
*
*
Ayyubid architecture in Syria
Jnēn
Demolished buildings and structures in Syria
{{Islam-stub