A Jewish house in Damascus, Bayt Farhi

Bayt Farhi, a Sephardic palace in Ottoman Damascus, begun c. 1780
an ARCHES video
Speakers: Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis and Dr. Steven Zucker

[@pliniofreiregomes]

I had the chance to leave in Damascus for six magnificent years just before the war (2004-2010). Regretfully I never had the opportunity to visit Bayt Farhi. Thank you to let me do it now. Long live to the Syrian people! Long live to multiculturalism!

[@habibhamdo1338]

هل انت من الشام يا اخي انا من الشام

[@sylviacalabrese1152]

Two grandparents and my father were born in this house.

[@user-wv1uf7kl8b]

What is the connection between the totah family and the Farhi family in Damascus? Are you originally related to Moshe Eliyahu totah, who was the head of the Jewish community in Damascus in 1920. We have interesting information about the family from the end of the 19th century to the 30s of the twentieth century.

[@maheryounesekh6384]

Hello miss sylvia ! Is there any way to connect you plz I want to ask you about the house !plz reply! And thank u

[@sylviacalabrese1152]

I was mistaken, this is Bayt Farhi, belonged to my close cousins. Our family's house was Bayt Stambouli. Sorry, they look very much alike.

[@mohamadnaseebaldabbas9473]

@@sylviacalabrese1152 Beit Stanbuly is very similar to this house As a syrian I didn't know that it still exists untill I wachted a video of an syrian professor in damascene houses that talked about it Beit Istanbuli kzbin.info/www/bejne/iomWnWWNhc9sl7c Beit Lisbona kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHW6h41oit-GY80

[@alihaydarnar9543]

You guys are awesome

[@abbddos]

Generally, the Jewish quarter, or the Jewish alley, in Damascus included three groups of Jewish people. The Arab Jews, who originated from the area and they had typical Arab names. The Safardic Jews who fled the Spanish persecution during the 13th and the 14th centuries. They included families like Farhi, Lisbona... and yes, it literally means from Lisbon, Hanagid, Sbano and others. And finally the the Eastern European Jews, and they had families like Harrari, Cohen, Shemaya, Saloniki and others. Though the Farhi house was known as a wealthy man's house, it was not the most beautiful or the biggest, and there were other houses that were equally, if not more extravagant, like the Lisbona house and Shemaya house. The most famous Jewish house in Damascus could be Yusuf Umber house, which is oddly located outside the Jewish Alley. The Umber house is the biggest, and probably one of the most beautiful and most preserved houses in the old city. It is said that Yusuf Umber died without an heir, so according to the ottoman laws, the state inherited his property and converted it to a school, from which my grandmother graduated🙃🙃.. later on, when schools became abundant, the house was converted again as the administrative headquarters of the old city. There are many other houses in Damascus, inside and outside the old city that are vast and very beautiful to look at, like the house of Nizam, the house of Azm, not the Azm palace, and they are still there in the old city, and the house Sweid in Saruja, the houses of Nuri and Mousli(my mothers house when she was a child) in Midan that were knocked down in the 1970s. I myself lived in a traditional house in Midan, in the southern part of Damascus, outside the old city, and while it was beautiful in some ways, it was very expensive and exhausting to maintain the house, so we had to move out eventually. The high costs of maintaining traditional houses are forcing owners to either sell them or share them with investors to convert them into hotels or restaurants. The problem is that while investors like to take more "contemporary" approach to attract tourists and generate larger revenues, the surrounding environment in Damascus, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim is more religiously and socially conservative and do not approve that.

[@gabrielab5453]

My great uncle, Albert Cameo, the president of the Syrian Jewish community was attempting to restore Beit Farhi, prior to his passing in 2022.

[@brianwalsh9595]

People should make architecture like that

[@finnersmcspeed5646]

I cannot imagine how much history has been lost to us due to the war. It is very unfortunate.

[@iagonizante]

a beautiful building, i hope the syrian war will end soon

[@incfankorean5271]

Didn’t it end already?

[@L-mo]

@@incfankorean5271 no it’s ongoing, at a lower level than 2015-18 but the situation remains critical, especially in specific places.

[@incfankorean5271]

@@L-mo oh ok

[@fadiestifani8307]

İf you are really intrested in Syrian Houses in Damascus you should see Al Zaytouna, Nassan, Shahrayar,Azm,Bet Jabri,Anbar Hotels and palaces

[@archistudent6124]

can I visit them now? if I go to the old city?

[@ninja._.1050]

@@archistudent6124 Yes you can

[@supremereader7614]

You guys just keep getting better and better! Fascinating! Thank you 🙏

[@AlaaH]

Thankfully there are still plenty of Damscian homes that survived and hopefully more to be preserved and renovated in the future.

[@HansDunkelberg1]

Irrespective of the faith of the owners, the houses here presented share a strong similarity to the ones of the ancient Romans. They have atria, mosaics on the floors, and a decoration dividing the walls into often rectangular fields while grandiose imagery of big lines is avoided. Frescoes from rooms in Pompeii or in Herculaneum appear as close cousins of the wall decorations shown from 2:52.

[@alfatejpblind6498]

Exactly! This is why I love watching these damscene houses. Spanish Haciendas preserve the same roman design too. But of course, there are beautiful houses like this all over the mediterranean. The dream is to live in one of them one day…

[@73m98]

The part about reinvestment gave me hope

[@carmelagillan9821]

Hello to all of you, first time for me to see it, AMAZING History with personal stories. Huge Thank to Share with us. Bless you All 9.3.2022

[@stardude3396]

great video!

[@Sasha0927]

I love seeing unity (of faiths, cultures, etc). Bonus for the bursts of color! When did it become common and expected that houses be just a few colors with white walls? I guess it gives us a blank template to decorate from, but why shouldn't the house itself be decorative? Anyway, this playlist lacks no good thing: houses, statues, carvings out of mountainsides, plates, etc. So much to learn. 🙂

[@chrisk5651]

I knew a Christian from Iraq in the 1990s & she said that they also had carpeting on the floors which could be rolled up in warmer conditions so that bare feet on the bare stone floors would be cooler.

[@YouTube_Enjoyerlol]

Absolutely beautiful architecture, both in Jewish and Islamic homes.

[@brianpite0893]

The courtyard reminded me of the story of Ben Hur. Beautiful lesson. Thanks

[@marthavillegas6250]

Beautiful! Thank you for this video. 💙

[@gustavodamasceno4278]

Fascinating!

[@SelcukAskin]

Compare this with today’s tissue box architecture and instant simulacra tastes!

[@Simonsays7258]

Rich and powerful people today still own magnificent architecture. And poor people back then probably did live in tissue thin structures. Same difference.

[@koksalceylan9032]

The Ottoman Civilization was fantastic an Great

[@DJABranton]

These are ancestors of mine!

[@NKRAIEM]

Wow!

[@maxmenaktas]

proud of my ancestors as a turk hope to see more of these beautiful videos! thanks for the great work x

[@dylansh7]

Syrians are not Turks 😐

[@AlaaH]

This has nothing to do with Turks. stay away please

[@christofferraby4712]

In all fairness alot of these houses were built under Ottoman Turk rule but in Damascus there are some styles that were unique to Damascus originally.

[@henriaho2271]

2:26 🇱 🇪 🇬 🇴  𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎

[@gallaxylhlovehope1051]

I really love when people tried to rebuild old house in its original form but slightly different

[@shahmuhammadaly]

Morrocan Riads and mughal havelis are of the same architecture

[@barfridman]

ברוך אתה בבאך וברוך אתה בצאתך בזה השער לא יבוא צער לא לזקן ולא לטף ולא לנער