Sibat al-Qadi, a Covered Passage in Old Homs

Sibat al-Qadi is a vaulted passage in Bab al-Dreib, one of the old quarters of Homs. It joins two houses across the street. According to local sources it is the longest sabat in Syria at more than 20 metres. Several lanes pass beneath it. The building on top covers some 1500-1700 square metres.

What a sabat is

Sabat, or sibat, came into Arabic from Persian and means an eave or porch. In the old streets of Damascus and Homs it is the name for a room built between two houses with a lane running underneath. Homs is said to have about twenty of them; the Droubi and Hankan sabats, the 19th-century Jundi sabat east of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, and the Atassi sabat are among them.

What to see

Sibat al-Qadi is laid out as a cross where four lanes meet. Above it are rooms known locally as surfa. Inside, the surfaces carry carved patterns and muqarnas, the honeycomb vaulting of Islamic architecture. Niches cut into the walls to hold lanterns are still there. The stone paving under the passage is original. The state has repaired it several times. Outside, the ground is laid with round stone blocks.

Where the name comes from

According to a tradition handed down in the quarter, the sabat is about 450 years old and belonged to a wealthy family. In summer it gave shade. The local aghas, the notables of the quarter, sat here. The name al-Qadi, “the judge”, comes, according to an account given in 2008, from Tawfiq al-Rifai, who owned the building about a hundred years earlier. He was a judge. People in Homs forgot his family name and called him al-Qadi, and they sat with him under the sabat to settle their disputes.

What is next to it

Right beside the sabat is a shrine attributed to Wahshi and Thawban, companions of the Prophet. Mentioning both places helps when asking the way in the quarter.

Its condition today

Most of this information comes from an interview with the quarter’s mukhtar, the elected neighbourhood head, in 2008. At that time the houses around the sabat were still in their old state, and some residents wanted to replace them with new buildings. We have no confirmed source on its condition after the war years. Ask in the quarter before you go.