Image Gallery of Carpenters Market (Sūq al-Najjārīn, Ṭarīq al-Manjara), Zaytūn, Gaza

Please note that this section is work in progress. We continue to collect and analyse images. If you would like to share images, please write to Sarah Büssow.

The dominant building in the Carpenters Market of the Zaytūn neighbourhood was the Shamʿa Mosque (see Mubayyid 1995, 387). The Ottoman census of 1905 lists over a dozen carpenters (Ott. Turk. dülger or marangöz) in Zaytūn. The profession was among the most widespread in Gaza and there were carpentry workshops in all of Gaza's neighbourhoods. It appears that many of Gaza's carpenters enjoyed some social prestige. Interestingly, two carpenters of the Jāmiʿ al-Shamaʿ neighbourhood are registered with a note that describes them as fully literate in Arabic. Several others bore the title Hājj, showing that they had performed the Ḥajj Pilgrimage to Mecca, The son of one of these carpenters, Ḥājj Bakr al-ʾAlamī from the famous al-ʿAlamī family, became an Islamic scholar and teacher.-
According to Gatt's map of 1887, there was a second 'Carpenters Market' (Sūq al-Najjārīn), which formed part of the Grand Market (Sūq al-Kabīr) in the northeast of Zaytūn. JB