The Museum of Popular Traditions in Deir ez-Zor

The Museum of Popular Traditions in Deir ez-Zor is a small ethnographic museum showing the clothes, tools, jewellery and household goods of the people of the Euphrates valley. It is not the Deir ez-Zor Museum, which holds the region’s archaeology: this is a different building with a different collection. It fills 19 rooms on two floors of a government house built in 1930. The sources for this page describe the museum as it was before 2010; whether it is open today could not be confirmed.

Who founded it

The scholar Abdul Qadir Ayyash, from Deir ez-Zor, founded it in 1957 at his own expense. Alongside the tools and clothing used in the Euphrates valley, he collected books, documents and photographs.

The building

The building went up in 1930, under Taj al-Din al-Hasani, as a government house, and later became a courthouse. In 1983 it was turned into a national museum, where finds from excavations in the province were gathered. In 1996, when the archaeology collection moved to its own building, it was given over to popular traditions. The building covers 428 square metres.

What is inside

• A hall of men’s clothing.
• A reconstruction of an old sitting room.
• A hall on Bedouin life.
• Old clocks.
• Work by painters from Deir ez-Zor.
• A hall of prayer beads, daggers and firearms.
• Kitchenware and ceramics from the late Ottoman period.
• Women’s silver jewellery and bathhouse objects from the 19th century.

Two of the rooms were set aside as restoration workshops.

Getting there and how long it takes

In the city centre, on the street between the main square and the Old Bridge, al-Jisr al-Atiq. Sources on the old souqs count the museum as part of the Old Saray group of buildings, so it fits into the same walk as the souqs. An hour is enough.

What not to miss

The silver jewellery from the 19th century. Seen on the same day as the ancient jewellery in the archaeology museum, the comparison makes itself.

The museum today

The sources describe the museum as it was before 2010. What happened to the collection and the building after 2011, and whether the museum is open today, is something this page cannot confirm. Ask in Deir ez-Zor before you go.