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Panoramic Views > North > Tripoli

Tripoli: Khan el Saboun

Tripoli! – One of those cities that preserve their ancient medieval character, every nook and cranny, every street, alley and place of worship redolent with nostalgia! The people conserve their traditional society with its morals, usages, customs and relationships. One sees the traditions, feasts, trade, barter and communication rooted in the work done in common. There are the bazaars, known here as souq, with places for every craft, the souq of the tailors, of the jewelers, of the copper beaters, of the soap makers and of the carpenters, to mention only a few.

Even where food is concerned, one finds alleys devoted separately to the butchers, the pastry cooks, the fishmongers, the poultry mongers, and the dealers in kitchen utensils. Just as in certain cities one finds districts devoted to schools, libraries, bookshops, and printing presses, so one still finds in Lebanon villages of printers with dozens of large presses always busy and provided with every accessory. There are villages where workers of one kind dominate, for example cooks and chefs, or stonemasons, or tinsmiths.

But when one visits Tripoli there are hundreds of places where one wants to stop and to stare. There are inns and restaurants, alleys and remains, various localities, the Citadel, Church Street, the mosques and the bazaars of the copper beaters and carpenters, with Souq al-Haraj. There is the old rest-place, Khan, for caravans, the Turkish baths, the cafés and the sea-front which is the joy of anglers.

Let us stop in the center of Tripoli, not far from the mosque, to the left of the street of the jewelers. There you will find yourself within a large building which in Ottoman times was a military arsenal, but now is known as Khan as-Saboun. All around the inner court there are two-story buildings with arcades that were certainly not originally constructed for their present-day use, as places for the manufacture of soap, saboun in Arabic. The work here is strictly a pre-industrial craft. Tripoli is surrounded by olive groves stretching as far as the eye can see, from the district of Koura to that of Akkar, and from these the finest quality of olive oil may be drawn in abundance.

The craftsmen who make the soap have looked for ways of fabricating soap that is colored or perfumed and shaped in many ways; apart from the traditional square blocks one may find soap formed into ovals, spheres, flowers, fruits, and even certain kinds of birds and animals, while there are also fanciful forms thought up by the makers to satisfy the whims of their clients. There is a wide range of traditional soaps, with kinds also that are vegetal, scented with mint, rose, violet, amber or camomile. In addition, there are on sale various bathroom accessories.

By entering this one-time Khan, one may see how the soap is made and the bars are shaped and cut. One may also see old photographs showing the man who laid the foundations of this skill and hear explanations about the different techniques of the craft.

There is an idea going around that there should be a soap museum created in Tripoli like the one existing in Sidon. It is fascinating to see how the bars of soap are displayed in circles, with walls rising high, or in different geometrical forms. At present, with all the detergents and industrially produced soaps, the market for soap so good for the skin made with olive oil is declining, so the craftsmen of Khan as-Saboun are perfecting a soap which is “bio-friendly”.

Making a halt at the Khan in Tripoli and seeing the inside is most instructive. But it is fair to add that there are many families in Lebanon who still make their own soap at home, just as they bake their own bread, with their own particular recipes governing the exact proportions of oil, water and soda.

William Matar
Translation from the French: K.J. Mortimer


- Khan el Saboun: >> View Movie << (2010-10-15)

 

 


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