3/08/2005

Every Living Thing

Clean drinking water from Ein al-Fijeh spring was first introduced into Damascus by Governor Hussein Nazem Pasha in 1906. The Committee of Ein Al-Fijeh Water, which was established by politician and national leader Loutfi al-Haffar , started in 1922 to lay infrastructure to deliver drinking water to all Damascus. The project was completed in 1932. The Committee's headquarters in An-Nassr Street occupy a beautiful building that was erected in 1942 and decorated by the beautiful artwork of Mohamad Ali Khayat and calligraphy of Mohamad Badawi Al-Dirani. The script on the top is a verse from the Holy Quran:

"And we made from water every living thing"

9 comments:

Yaman said...

That really is a very beautiful building! And a good verse to match it, too!

Anonymous said...

very beautiful architecture

Anonymous said...

Very beautiful architecture ,nice work.
it is a pity that the architecture of today is not at the same level.

x said...

Very nice building, I'm surprised at how clean it is, in contrast to Al-Abed building. I guess it's the abundance of water!

Anonymous said...

I think that everyone who visits this blog knows that Damascus is truly a beautiful capital city and has some amazing history, culture and architecture like this building here.
For anybody who is interested there is a NEW book called DAMASCUS by GERARD DEGEORGE published very recently by a company called FLAMMARION. ISBN: 2080304569
This book is about $100/£50 and is avilable from good e-tailers like amazon.
It is about the art & architecture of Damascus and has photos, charts, architectural plans and other useful things. Gerard Degeorge has also written a 3 VOLUME history of Damascus but I think that unfortunately it is written only in French as this chap is French. Degeorge is actually a scrupulous historian and his academic writings can be a bit overwhelming but he is an expert in Islamic art and architecture having also published books on Islamic tiles and the Islamic art and architecture of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva in modern day Uzbekistan!

Anonymous said...

Faraz, thanx for posting the book Damascus, I wanna add a little note that the book is also available on www.amazon.com for $59.85 which is a lot cheaper than $100.00 for those interested, Amazon.com is very secure, I've already purchased a few times from them. it's still sorta expensive..!

Anonymous said...

Ahmad is right. On amazon.com the price is $59.85 and on amazon.co.uk it is £35.00 (after a discount!)
In fact there is another excellent & fascinating book on Islamic art and architecture which covers the WHOLE Muslim world: Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iran, India, Malaysia/Indonesia, Central Asia etc.
The details are as follows:
ISLAM: ART & ARCHITECTURE
Editors: MARKUS HATTSTEIN, PETER DELIUS
ISBN: 383311178X
Publisher: KONEMANN

The price on amazon.co.uk after a discount is £17.49 - a very good price for a comprehensive book with excellent photographs and writing/commentary!

Ayman Haykal said...

Thanks for the info, Faraz. I didn't know about this book before.

Ayman Haykal said...

Thanks for the info, Faraz. I didn't know about this book before.