Damascus: Menders of Vessels

Date: c. 1890-1906

Arabic: mukharris
These people are engaged with the craft of repairing broken vessels such as al-ṣīnī, al-māliqī and al-ballūr. The items could only be mended if they were broken into a few pieces. As this period found an increase in trade and the value of vessels had decreased, so has the need and profitability for the mukharris decreased, and there were not many mukharris existing during this period.

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. 322-33 (chapter 342).