Khan Sulayman Pasha is a large khan in the Old City of Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

. Located in the walled city of Damascus on the eastern side of the Street Called Straight

Street Called Straight

The Damascus Straight Street is the Roman street that runs from east to west in the old city of Damascus, Syria. It was visited by St. Paul as recorded in the book of Acts and contains several interesting sights from the Roman, Christian and Islamic periods.Under the Greeks, the old city of...

, facing Suq al-Khayyatin and Al-Buzuriyah Souq

Al-Buzuriyah Souq

Al-Buzuriyah Souq is a historical souk located to the south of the Umayyad Mosque inside the old walled city of Damascus, Syria. The souk is famous for its spices vendors, and the many historical khans located along it, including Khan As'ad Pasha. On its southern end it meets Medhat Pasha Souq....

. It was built and named after Sulayman Pasha al-Azm

Sulayman Pasha al-Azm

Sulayman Pasha al-Azm was the governor of Damascus under the Ottoman Empire from 1733–37 and 1741-43. He belonged to the prominent Arab al-Azm clan and was the uncle of As'ad Pasha al-Azm who succeeded him as governor...

, the governor of Damascus, in 1732-36. The khan is popularly known as Khan al-Hamasina because traders from Homs

Homs

Homs , previously known as Emesa , is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is above sea level and is located north of Damascus...

used to rent its shops and warehouses.

Architecture

The khan is rectangular in plan and is composed of two levels of rooms overlooking a courtyard that was originally roofed with twin domes. The courtyard is twice as long as it is wide. It is framed by six arches, two along the long sides and one on the short sides, that span the two floors raised on six pillars. These arches used to support the domes, which sat on pendentives.

Shops occupy the lower floor of the khan. They open onto the courtyard with arched doorways and windows, and with round windows located between two archways. The upper floor is composed of individual rooms accessed from a gallery that wraps the courtyard on four sides. The khan is built with alternating courses of limestone and basalt.

The khan lost its intense activity towards the end of the nineteenth century and has since been used as a storage space and as a traditional nut-roastery factory.