Damascus: Tanners
Arabic: Dabbāgh
Date: Twelfth to sixteenth centuries
The tanners operated in an area outside of the walls of the Old City, near Bāb Tūma. There was a mosque in the vicinity of the tanneries. Information is drawn from the work of Ibn ʿAsakir (d. 1176) and al-Almawi (d. 1573). See also: Saddle makers; Skinners; Cobblers.
Citation: Elisséeff, Nikita. “Corporations de Damas sous Nūr al-Dīn: Matériaux pour une topographie économique de Damas au XIIe siècle”, Arabica 3.1 (1956): pp. 66, 76.
Date: 1930s
Traditional tanneries were disappearing in Syria in the 1920s and 1930s, though some remained in Aleppo. The tanning industry relied largely on local livestock, mostly sheep and goat, though the hides of cows, buffalo, and camel were also processed. Tanned hides were also imported into Syria. See also: Shoe Makers; Curriers.
Citation: Hakim, George, “Industry”, in Himadeh, Saʿid B., ed., Economic Organization of Syria (Beirut: The American Press, 1936. Reprinted New York: AMS Press, 1973, pp. 159-63, tables XXVII–XXVIII.
Tanners