The Mosque of Hisham ibn Ammar

A small mosque on the line of Souq Midhat Pasha, between Khan Jaqmaq and Khan al-Zayt. It was built in 1427 by a chancery secretary of Damascus. From the souq the only part you see is the minaret, and even that is hard work: the awnings of the market always get in the way.

Getting there

Follow the covered line of Souq Midhat Pasha past Khan Jaqmaq; a few steps west the mosque sits inside the row on the left. To find the minaret, look for a gap between the awnings — standing in the middle of the souq and looking straight up tends to work.

Whose name it carries

Popular usage attributes the mosque to Hisham ibn Ammar, a hadith scholar and Quran reciter of Damascus who died in 245 of the Hijri calendar, that is 859, and people say he is buried inside it. The Ottoman-era historian al-Muhibbi instead recorded it as the mosque of the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. Qutayba al-Shihabi, who catalogued the monuments of Damascus, does not accept that second attribution and traces its spread to the Ottoman period. So the name at the door is what has been handed down, not a settled fact.

What to see

The octagonal shaft of the minaret. Three separate bands run across the stone: a geometric weave low down, a carved inscription strip in the middle, and a course of muqarnas above. Each face carries a pointed-arch niche, and one of them holds a window behind an iron grille. The gallery is wooden and eight-sided, with a white drum and a pointed cap on top.

What most people miss

The inscription strip in the middle band. From the lane it reads as a single texture, but close up there are stretches where the letters still hold; on most Mamluk minarets in Damascus this band has worn away.

How long it takes

Fifteen minutes. The mosque is small and set inside the market; Khan Jaqmaq and Souq Midhat Pasha belong to the same walk.