Village in Rif Dimashq, Syria
Khan Dannun (Arabic: خان دنون, also spelled Khan Danun, Khan Dunnun or Khan Dhul-Nun) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Markaz Rif Dimashq District of the Rif Dimashq Governorate. Located south of Damascus, nearby localities include al-Taybah to the west, Muqaylibah to the northwest, al-Kiswah 5 kilometers to the north and Khiyarat Dannun to the east. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Khan Dannun had a population of 8,727 in the 2004 census.[1]
Khan Dannun also contains a refugee camp, the Khan Dannun camp, and is one of ten Palestinian refugee camps in Syria recognized by UNRWA. According to UNRWA statistics the camp had a population of 7,841 in 1998.[2] According to UNRWA the population of the camp in June 2008 was 9,479 persons and 2,192 families.[3]
History
Khan Dannun was originally a large khan ("caravansary") completed in 1376 by the Mamluk governor of Damascus, Manjak al-Yusufi,[4] during the reign of the Bahri Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Sha'ban.[5] The khan was designed by Ali ibn al-Badri, known as muhandis ash-Sham ("engineer of Damascus.")[6] The name "Dan nun" is the colloquial version of "Dhul-Nun,"[7][8] a highly venerated 9th-century Muslim figure. He is considered to be the early patriarch of the Sufis.[7] Khan Dannun became a stopping point on the hajj ("pilgrimage to Mecca") caravan route after al-Kiswah, and before Ghabaghib.[9]
The khan, with exception of its vaults, was built in the traditional basalt masonry typically found in the old structures in Hauran.[4] It consisted of an open, square-shaped courtyard, the center of which had been occupied by livestock. Surrounding the courtyard were arcades built atop lodging apartments which served as accommodation for visitors.[10] The courtyard was flanked by circular basalt towers.[7] Inside the khan was a small prayer room with mihrab niche which indicated the direction of Mecca.[11] A marsh was formed in front of the khan's gate as a result of an eastern-flowing rivulet.[7]
When traveler John Lewis Burckhardt visited the site in the early 19th-century, the khan was in ruins.[10] Khan Dannun was one of the stops on the Damascus-Hauran line of the Hejaz Railway.[12]
In 1949, following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, a Palestinian refugee camp called Khan Dannun was set up in the town.[13] In 2009 a new sewage project for Khan Dannun, funded by the European Commission, was finished.[14]
Syria
