Video: Mamdouh Bisharat .. Houses art exhibitions shorten the history of Jordan

Hamam Al-Assas - Amman

Have you ever seen a classic movie dating back to 1924 ?! Everything in this place feels like this, here is a time period that has shaped the face of sophistication and original architecture.

In the office of Duke Mamdouh Bisharat, where the arched windows and colored glass, and chandelier - which bears the fragrance of the past - hanging from the ceiling of the tallest house oldest downtown Amman.

Al Jazeera Net has toured the Omani Houses of the Grand Duke Mamdouh Al Bisharat to show us through its old Omani houses, which resemble the old Damascene and Jerusalem houses.

First House
Al-Jazeera Net met Duke Mamdouh Al-Bisharat, 81, in his office in the center of the old city of Amman. The stone building appeared crowded with local and foreign visitors, and everyone here tries to touch old pieces of statues, pictures and old paintings.

As a journalist I was very happy to touch a hard copy of Al-Qibla newspaper, the first Arabic newspaper issued in Makkah in 1916.

The old era here is not only limited to the material, where it reminds me of the old customs and tales. It would prefer to present the Nabulsi kanafah to its visitors by dropping a rope from the balcony of the building, which is placed in a brass dish down the street, where the oldest shop is located (Habiba 1952) The balcony is full of coffees and is heated by guests.

Central Post became "Haifa Hotel"
Al-Bisharat tells us about the history of this building. In 1924, one of the dignitaries of Amman - Abdurrahman Pasha Madi - built it to be leased later by the Emirate of Eastern Jordan to use it as a central post until the end of the 1940s. On behalf of the Haifa Hotel.

The opening of the nineties, until rented by Bisharat and reopened in 2001, to re-shine into the center of the old city after the abandonment and disappearance of globalization and modern architectural creeping face which reduced many of the art and tales.

Cultural incubator
The Diwan is a destination for creativity such as drawing, poetry, music, theater and literature, in addition to holding seminars on the history of the city and other events that return to the city center as a cultural and social incubator for the capital Amman.

When the border crossing of Gaber Naseeb was reopened, Yafta welcomed the decision and urged a spirit of brotherhood between the Syrians and the Jordanians.

Second House
We went to Beit al-Bisharat in Jabal al-Jufa, one of the oldest areas in the capital Amman, and abroad before entering the house, Bisharat refers to a column decorated with Roman-era inscriptions. He confirms that he saved the column and kept it in his house after someone intended to turn it into a heap.

The Roman column was an introduction to a collection of statues and antiques in the house of Bisharat, which many Omanis call Jordan's Ambassador to Jordan, for converting his property and land into a painting that collects all the possessions and traces he can record in the Jordanian Antiquities Department.

Once we walked home we felt that we were in an old museum full of antiquity.

Besharat notes that this house was established in 1932, after his father, Shibli al-Bisharat, summoned his Lebanese engineer from the city of Jerusalem for his design and construction.

No equipment was available at that time. The stones were placed in a manual quarry and the sand was passed on the camels.

Third House
From the center of the old city in the capital Amman to the north-west of it was our last destination, where the village of Umm al-Kundum, and the oldest homes in Jordan.

According to Bisharat, his grandfather Ibrahim al-Bisharat established it in 1860. It was built on three stages, the first of which included the construction of the five-room ground floor.

The second phase was blown up in 1880, the latter in 1900, and the upper two-bedroom building.

The house is still old, and it was impressive that the bathers opened the gate of the tall house with a iron key weighing more than a kilogram. As we drove inside, we looked in the lobby of the ceiling, to the left of which was a church for twenty people. On his right were rooms filled with pottery and colored tents Enchant the eyes of the beholder, not to mention the thickness of walls that exceed one meter.

Between Palestine, Egypt and Britain
Al-Bisharat was a student at the Bir Zeit school in Palestine until his family was forced to return to Amman after the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. He later joined the Bishop's School in Jabal Amman, and after three months moved to Cairo to study and work.

In 1956, Al-Bisharat went to live and study in the British capital London, after she was fascinated by the wave of culture and arts at the time, and the spread of libraries and art galleries in it, which led to the acquisition of many paintings and old books and brought with him to Jordan, because of the drawings and writings that express the eastern region.

Since then, Bisharat has been interested in acquiring everything that is old. His most important collection was the purchase of a rare copy of the Holy Qur'an - printed in 1788 - from the Irish Dublin auction.

Slices grow wheat
After his return to Jordan, Al-Bisharat worked as a farmer and wheat producer at his father's vast farm in Al-Muhaiba al-Fawqa (north of Jordan near the Yarmouk River) and his family farm in Umm al-Kundum, northwest of Amman.

The Bisharat family was one of the first families to import and use modern agricultural machinery to Jordan.

He recalls his days when his father exported hundreds of tons of wheat to Palestine on camels, some of which were traded with olive oil and famous Nabulsi soap.

Besharat provides tens of jobs for many of the poor who work in his farms and homes. He eats natural vegetables and produces dairy products for cows and sheep. He has a well-known house overlooking the Jordan River, adjacent to the borders of the occupied Palestinian territories in 1948. That region.

King calls him "Duke"
In 1974, the late King Hussein bin Talal invited Mamdouh Al-Bisharat to visit his farm in the great disappointment. Al-Bisharat prepared a lunch banquet in the open air.

But the cloud covered the sunny atmosphere and then brought many rains led to extinguish the fire and the replacement of seats and tables, then covered Balasharat King Hussein palm palm and took him to one of the corners of the farm to rain, so it was the king but called him "Duke" for his noble.