Damascus: Makers of Drainpipes (qasāṭilī)
Date: c. 1890-1906
Arabic: qasāṭilī
Pipes in a variety of sizes are made from red earth (al-turrāb al-aḥmar) which is mixed with water and produced by the means of a unique hollowed-out mold. Later, the product is dried in the sun and subsequently baked in a special oven (furn). These pipes are used to transport water from reservoirs to houses and other buildings. This craft is considered important in Damascus, and thus the work of the pipe maker is highly valued and profitable
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. 351 (chapter 274).