Damascus: Wood Gatherer

Date: c.1890-1906

Arabic: ḥaṭṭāb

The wood gatherer collected material from plantations after the woodcutter (kissār or kassār) had finished his work. This was loaded onto the back of camels, horses, and donkeys and sold on the streets of Damascus. See also: Woodcutter (kissār or kassār) and Charcoal burner (faḥḥām).

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), pp. 386-87 (chapter 312).

See also: 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. 559.