Syrian expatriate launches the Damascene Heritage Archive website

 Syrian expatriate researcher Hala Qasqas launched a website entitled “The Damascene Heritage Archive Project” with the aim of making it an open database in which all interested researchers can contribute to its content and benefit from what is published on.

The researcher told SANA that the project, which was launched from Canada, aimed at documenting the tangible and intangible heritage of Damascus city, indicating that membership is open to all within this project with the aim of exchanging knowledge to enrich the understanding of the history of Damascus.

Qasqas said “I set-up the site individually and it took nearly six months to arrange the technical operations. Then I contacted many researchers who are interested in documenting the heritage of Damascus including Imad Al-Armashi, who played a key role in documenting the architectural monuments of Damascus city, Elias Boulad, who writes about Damascus history with regard to its churches and Nabila Al-Qusi, who is interested in documenting prominent figures in Damascus”.

She added the participation is open for any researcher who wishes to publish his articles on the Damascene Heritage Archive website, as the site has been linked to social media pages, where all articles will be shared successively, and a series of videos, not exceeding two minutes, about Damascene archaeological sites, professions and arts will be prepared to be screened on the site’s YouTube channel to spread the site and attract the audience.

She pointed out that the site contains six main categories including the historical buildings one as it documents all the archaeological buildings in Damascus of all ages such as mosques, churches, schools, taverns, baths, cemeteries, markets and cafes, in addition to houses and palaces.

 The second category is the folklore one and it includes everything related to the visual arts presented by the Damascenes, such as the theater of shadow fiction, the storyteller, music and other arts, while shedding light on the names of the families that were famous for.

The traditional crafts is the third category and includes all traditional handicrafts that Damascenes were famous for, which were mentioned by the scholar Jamal Al-Din Al-Qasimi in his book “Dictionary of Damascene Industries” with black and white documentary images.

The fourth category of the site , chronicles prominent Damascene personalities or those who had a great impact on the history of Damascus , including princes, governors, clerics, scholars and notables, in addition to the gentlemen of Damascus.

As for the fifth category it reviews articles and books about the history and heritage of Damascus, with the possibility of downloading some new and old books and sources that any researcher can benefit from.

 “Image and Commentary”, which is the sixth category, is a rich archive of images that includes old black and white photos, and others that have been colored by professional specialists and modern colored photos, with a simple explanation of each image and specifying its source, identity and location.

“My primary goal is to set-up a research site based on articles and research documented with approved sources and references and to facilitate finding information for the interested reader without the need to acquire references and sources” the Syrian expatriate concluded.

Hala Qasas is a Syrian writer and researcher in Damascene heritage and Islamic architecture. She has five books and several research papers published in refereed Arab research journals.

Rawaa Ghanam