Damascus: Hidden Treasures of the Old City

Rating:
Summary: Will delight students of Islamic culture
Review: Brigid Keenan's informative and highly recommended text comprising Damascus: Hidden Treasures Of The Old City, is enhanced throughout with 214 illustrations and photographs (171 in color) by Tim Beddow. This superb introduction to the architectural grandeur of Damascus incudes descriptions of individual houses and the people who built and lived in them. The amazing photographs reveal the facades, courtyards, alleyways , fountains and amazing interiors behind unassuming walls will delight students of Islamic culture, architecture, history, and lifestyles.

Rating:
Summary: poignant beauty
Review: This book documents a lifestyle that we can only know through writings and recollections, mostly by English expatriates and scholars. The houses themselves are gradually falling into decay, which is shameful, but which appears to be the fate of so many great architectural treasures of the past. I was charmed by the magnificence that one can sense (through the photographs), however dimmed by present squalor, and resolved that if I could, somehow, I would try to recreate the feeling; I know that's quite silly but even so it would be marvelous to have a fountain right by one's door and great trees growing inside one's living quarters. I loved the black, red, and white horizontal stripes and the mother-of-pearl-inlaid furniture, the inlaid Arab designs, the 20' ceilings and the beautiful arches. I also loved the recollections of Isabel and Richard Burton, and Jane Digby, these people were triumphantly confident and strode through life with none of the fright and nerves that we contemporary readers seem to have...and rightly so. I loved this book, and hopefully it will assist in the preservation of the great houses of Old Syria.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful must-have book for anyone who loves Damascus
Review: This book is a must for anyone who loves Damascus and is concerned about its deterioration. It's a must for any Damascene expatriate's living room coffee table book collection for sure. The photographs are absolutely stunning and the text is interesting and engaging. One flaw, however is that I would have liked to see the photographs and the text regarding specific houses cross-referenced, (perhaps in the appendix of houses' names in the back of the book) as photographs and texts about specific houses are scattered throughout the book and you have to find all the references yourself--very annoying. Other than that, it is a wonderful book for showing off a unique aspect of our beloved city. Some of these houses are being used as sets for Syrian soap operas-- look closely and you might recognize some!

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful must-have book for anyone who loves Damascus
Review: This book is a must for anyone who loves Damascus and is concerned about its deterioration. It's a must for any Damascene expatriate's living room coffee table book collection for sure. The photographs are absolutely stunning and the text is interesting and engaging. One flaw, however is that I would have liked to see the photographs and the text regarding specific houses cross-referenced, (perhaps in the appendix of houses' names in the back of the book) as photographs and texts about specific houses are scattered throughout the book and you have to find all the references yourself--very annoying. Other than that, it is a wonderful book for showing off a unique aspect of our beloved city. Some of these houses are being used as sets for Syrian soap operas-- look closely and you might recognize some!