Damascus: Makers of Coloured Glass Windows

Date: c.1890-1906

Arabic: qamarjī

This artisan created windows by setting small pieces of coloured glass into a decorative frame made from stucco. The pieces of glass were cut using a small tool containing a piece of diamond (almāsa). The craft was evidently most in demand in the winter months and generated satisfactory profits. See also: Glassworker (zajjāj).

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. 363 (chapter 289).

See also: Milwright, Marcus. “Glass and Glassworking in Damascus during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries”, Journal of Glass Studies 56 (2014): 208-11.