Damascus: Engravers of Inscribed Plaques

Date: c.1890-1906

Arabic: qitaʿjī (vowelling unclear)

The qitaʿjī  is a person who makes their living by engraving the ḥadīth of the Prophet onto plaques. The plaques are made by diverse materials such as crystal glass (ballūr) and gilded wood (al-khashb al-mudhahhab)

Citation: al-Qasimi, Muhammad Saʿid, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, and Khalil al-ʿAzm (al-Azem), Dictionnaire des métiers damascains, ed., Zafer al-Qasimi. (Le Monde d’Outre-Mer passé et présent, Deuxième série, Documents III, Paris and Le Haye: Mouton and Co., 1960), p. 359 (chapter 283).
Discussed in: Milwright, Marcus. “Wood and Woodworking in Late Ottoman Damascus: An Analysis of the Qāmūs al-Ṣināʿāt al-Shāmiyya”, Bulletin d’Etudes Orientales 61 (2012): p. 550.