Damascus: Wooden Case Makers

Date: c. 1807

Spanish traveler Domingo Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich (d. 1818), better known by his pseudonym Ali Bey al Abbasi, remarks on the importance and prominence of carpenters, especially of those who produced cases to pack agricultural goods and items produced by the industries found in Damascus. These cases were formed of rough boards nailed together, and Ali Bey claims that a large quarter of the city was occupied entirely by these shops. See also: Carpenter; Cabinet-Maker; Sawyer; Maker of Palanquins.

Citation: al-Abbasi, Ali Bey. Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, and Turkey. Between the Year 1803 and 1807 (Philadelphia: Printed for John Conrad, at the Shakespeare building, by James Maxwell, 1816. After London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1816), II, p. 307.