Khan al-Tujjar ( ar, خان التجار, , Merchant's Caravanserai) is a 15th century caravanserai in the

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

city of Nablus. Situated in the Old City, it has been noted as the finest khan in the region.

History

During the Ottoman period in Palestine, from the 16th to 19th centuries, it was the most prestigious and expensive strip of commercial real estate in Nablus,Doumani, 1995, p. 27. and along with Khan al-Wikala, constituted the key commercial center of the city. The shops of Khan al-Tujjar carried a variety of cloth from throughout the Islamic world and merchants from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

, and Aleppo paid regular visits to the marketplace. In his memoirs, Muhammad Izzat Darwazah recalled that "In Nablus, shops were confined, or mostly confined, to a caravansary called Khan al-Tujjar, in the middle of Nablus." In the 1850s, Reverend John Mills wrote of Khan al-Tujjar saying, "The principal bazaar is arched, and is very large and fine for Nablus. It is the finest, by far, in Palestine, and equals any, as far I observed, in the largest towns of the Turkish Empire." The significance of the khan was also attributed to its central location in the city, dividing it in half physically, but also psychologically between "easterners" and "westerners"—labels still used today. During the

Nabi Musa Nabi Musa ( ar, ٱلنَّبِي مُوْسَى, An-Nabī Mūsā, meaning "The Prophet Moses", also transliterated as Nebi Musa) is a mosque and a Palestinian locality in the Jericho Governorate of Palestine, in the West Bank, believed to contai ...

festival, Arab youth would descend upon Khan al-Tujjar shouting slogans praising their part of the city. In the middle of the khan they would play a game in which they would face off and make forays into the other side, with the aim capturing more "prisoners". Khan al-Tujjar was a place for celebrating holidays and festivals. During Mawlid, merchants would decorate the floor of the khan with carpets and the walls with textiles, including silk. Flowers and sweets were put on tables brought from their homes on the occasion. Khan al-Tujjar was recently restored, and its shops attract visitors from throughout the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. The Yasmeen Hotel is adjacent to Khan al-Tujjar.Al-Yasmeen Hotel
at Hotel Contacts.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Khan Al-Tujjar (Nablus) Commercial buildings completed in the 15th century 15th-century establishments in the Mamluk Sultanate Buildings and structures in Nablus Caravanserais in the State of Palestine