Abstract EN:

The History of Urban Management of the Arab cities in the nineteenth and twentieth century is treated not so long ago. The term of “urban management” is huge and general. Each city, however, had its own and privet development, which coincide with its historical background. If we put away the history of these cities before the nineteenth century, we can identify three common points, where, the research combined them during its period: the Mediterranean, Ottoman control, and finally, the European colonial domination. Damascus, Cairo, Beirut and Tlemcen, lived somehow the same transformations that affected their systems of urban management. Our research sheds light on the city of Damascus itself. It deals with the study of the evolution of urban management during two essential periods of its modern history: the period of Ottoman reforms and the French mandate. The city knew two different political authorities, Yet it did not witness a clear break in its urban management between the two periods. Although the French imposed their direct authority on the city in July 1920, their Urban Organization influences the city of Damascus since the mid-19th century. This is due to the Ottoman Urban Organization which was mainly based on the French experience after the Revolution of 1789. These principles did not affect the urban development of Damascus alone. Alongside with them there was a significant presence of many engineers and Europeans technicians who participated directly and indirectly in the study and design of many of urban and architectural projects in the city. The essence of the two reforms, of the Ottoman and of the French, seems contradictory to some extent. The Ottoman reforms symbolize a period of occidentalization of the urban and architectural space of the city, the French reforms seem to sponsor the movement of “ retraditionalization “ in building the modern city. This is remarkably noticed in the Syrian building style during the period of 1920 until 1950. This architectural style represents the result of long years of transformations that affected both the architecture of Damascus and the Syrian society in general. Furthermore, the emergence of social conflict between supporters and opposition to foreign political policies and the social development of the city are important phenomena in the resulted transformations. Thus emerged a national intellectual current and modern, consisting of intellectuals, students, formed in European educational institutions. Architecture became one of the most important weapons of this trend. The city saw a rich and creative architectural activity which did not know before. The neoclassical style, neo-Ottoman, International and Syrian during the years 1920-1950, appear together, throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Where the formation and the preparation of Syrian Engineers in educational institutions in Istanbul, Beirut, Cairo and Europe had a major role in enriching the variety of styles. This research sheds light on the local and Westerner participants, on the internal and external conditions and on the results of both reforms: the ottoman and French, in the architecture and urban development of Damascus. The research is based on unpublished sources, written and graphic. In addition, it is relay on advanced field research. To conclude, the purpose of this research is not to give only historical information, but to go in-depth into the study of the urban restricting of the cities covered in the research, As well as an integral part of their future development