Author(s)

EMAN ASSI

Abstract

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the evolution of the central hall plan in the city of Nablus, Palestine, and the city of Salt in Jordan. Both cities were southern Ottoman frontiers in the late nineteenth century. They both became the capital of Liwa Al Balqa, a regional administration center connected to Al Bab Al Ali in Istanbul. This situation allowed Salt City to transform from rural to urban settlement and allowed the city of Nablus to increase its trade network with the surrounding villages to become one of the most important regional centers in Palestine. This paper argues that the emergence of a central hall plan in the southern Ottoman frontiers was influenced by merchants who redefined the urban economy and landscape in the region. One key aspect is to search for the dynamic relationship between rural–urban and merchant–peasant dimensions during that time. The paper will focus on typological and morphological analysis of both cities during the twentieth century. It will discuss similarities and differences between the two cities and how their social urban morphologies have developed as a response to the dynamic relationship between the merchants and rural context.

Keywords

urban economy, modern heritage, cultural exchange, Ottoman history, central hall house