Khan Dannun also contains a refugee camp, the Khan Dannun camp, and is one of ten Palestinian refugee camps in Syria recognized by UNRWA. According to UNRWA statistics the camp had a population of 7,841 in 1998.[2] According to UNRWA the population of the camp in June 2008 was 9,479 persons and 2,192 families.[3]
History
Khan Dannun was originally a large khan ("caravansary") completed in 1376 by the Mamluk governor of Damascus, Manjak al-Yusufi,[4] during the reign of the Bahri Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban.[5] The khan was designed by Ali ibn al-Badri, known as muhandis ash-Sham ("engineer of Damascus.")[6] The name "Dan nun" is the colloquial version of "Dhul-Nun,"[7][8] a highly venerated 9th-century Muslim figure. He is considered to be the early patriarch of the Sufis.[7] Khan Dannun became a stopping point on the hajj ("pilgrimage to Mecca") caravan route after al-Kiswah, and before Ghabaghib.[9]
The khan, with exception of its vaults, was built in the traditional basalt masonry typically found in the old structures in Hauran.[4] It consisted of an open, square-shaped courtyard, the center of which had been occupied by livestock. Surrounding the courtyard were arcades built atop lodging apartments which served as accommodation for visitors.[10] The courtyard was flanked by circular basalt towers.[7] Inside the khan was a small prayer room with mihrab niche which indicated the direction of Mecca.[11] A marsh was formed in front of the khan's gate as a result of an eastern-flowing rivulet.[7]
When traveler John Lewis Burckhardt visited the site in the early 19th-century, the khan was in ruins.[10] Khan Dannun was one of the stops on the Damascus-Hauran line of the Hejaz Railway.[12]
Constable, Olivia Remia (2004). Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0521819180.
Masterman, E. W. G. (1897). "The Damascus Railways". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 29 (3): 198–200. doi:10.1179/peq.1897.29.3.198.
Meinecke, Michael (1996). Patterns of Stylistic Changes in Islamic Architecture: Local Traditions Versus Migrating Artists. New York University Press. ISBN9780814754924.
Museum With No Frontiers (2000). The Umayyads: The Rise of Islamic Art. AIRP. ISBN187404435X.
Newbold, Captain (1846). "On the site of Ashtaroth". The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. 16. Murray: 331–338. doi:10.2307/1798240. JSTOR 1798240.
Ibn Taghribirdi (1955). William Popper (ed.). University of California publications in Semitic philology. Vol. 15–17. The University of California Press.
Syria
