The best museums Damascus

The Jaqmaqiya Jaqmaqiya was raised in the 1438 th century by the Mameluke governor of Damascus, Jaqimaq al-Argunsawi, who was then Sultan in Cairo from 1452 to. The facade is in black, pink and white. Inside, a central courtyard with a fountain is covered with a richly decorated ceiling worn by columns.

The decorative function of calligraphy, essential in the arts of Islam, is illustrated by the variety of media used: ceramic, stone, paper, metal, glass… On a stage on the right of the entrance, there are very beautiful copies of the Koran. The interest of this museum lies in its playful side, the game of recognizing styles of calligraphy (including the very old coufique, toulouth and naskhi). The lack of explanation unfortunately makes the visit a little tedious.

Of Persian origin, bimaristan, founded by Noureddin in 1154, hosted both a medical school and a care house. The Centre of Care disappeared in the th, the creation of a separate national hospital. The teachers who have exercised it have experienced a wide spread in the Arab world. There was a "vanguard" medicine. The care was free, the patients returned home with a little nest to help them recover. Some mental illnesses were even treated with music.

The small door to the north is strangely surmounted by a Roman lintel and mouqarnas (among the first visible in Syria). A first room contains naturalized animals. The Cour courtyard, very sober, is surrounded by three iwan. Iwan was reserved for teaching and consultations. The iwan to the south, reserved for prayer, contains a beautiful mihrab. The doors are surmounted by claustras in remarkable walls stucco.

Three rooms illustrate the considerable advance of the Islamic world in science and medicine in the Middle Ages.

This recent museum, mainly dedicated to the Roman period, presents a superb collection of mosaics and statues discovered in the region. The presentation panels are very pedagogic and the proposed course follows chronological order. Some sculptures fully value artists'ability to deal with a material as thankless as basalt: the lintel with continuous decoration (room 6), from Jerash (7 th century), or busts in room.

Among the mosaics presented from Bosra, two main panels are particularly expressive: Artemis surprised the bath by Actéon and Venus at his toilet.

The calligraphy section presents some examples of safaïtique writing. Part of the floor is devoted to the Druze folklore.