The historic Islamic baths of North Africa and their survival into the 21st century

伊斯兰公共浴室或土耳其浴室一直是伊斯兰城市的重要公共设施。每天需要祈祷五次，并进行主要的沐浴，这意味着土耳其浴室可以在伊斯兰城市的各个地方使用，并精心融入城市结构。它们的重要性和规模因其所处的位置而异：靠近主要清真寺、集市和神学教学中心的那些规模较大，而那些与住宅集群紧密的城市结构结合在一起的则较小，通常位于公共烤箱、科兰尼学校和附近清真寺等社区设施旁边。它们在任何城市内的位置和数量也受到现有供水系统和/或水井和天然泉水的可用性的影响。作为一种制度，伊斯兰公共浴室自19世纪以来一直在衰落。由于新的城市发展，许多历史悠久的土耳其浴室已经关闭，年久失修或被完全摧毁。该研究项目是申请人对非斯、大马士革和阿勒颇历史悠久的公共浴场已经开展的工作的延伸（由人权委员会资助，见第5页）。这些先前的研究项目记录了现存的和仍在运营的历史公共浴室，并揭示了空间内部组织的变化、建筑特征以及这些建筑今天被使用和感知的方式。这项研究旨在记录北非少数幸存的历史上的伊斯兰公共浴室的例子，将研究扩展到更广泛的地理区域。五个世界遗产城市，分别位于埃及、利比亚、突尼斯、阿尔及利亚和摩洛哥，作为案例研究，以了解这种建筑类型从11世纪到19世纪在连续地理区域的发展。因此，这项研究将强调和解释这种建筑类型发展的区域差异，以及它在21世纪的使用和感知方式。入选的五个北非世界遗产城市分别是：开罗、的黎波里、突尼斯、阿尔及尔和马拉喀什。值得注意的是，这项研究并不涉及考古遗址，而是涉及公共浴场的历史例子，这些公共浴场已经成功地继续运营到21世纪（或者最近已经关闭）。研究将由申请人（法语和阿拉伯语流利）和一名全职博士后研究助理进行。研究小组将在五个城市中的每一个城市连续四个星期进行实地工作，实地工作将在两名当地技术人员的协助下进行，他们将从当地负责所研究城市的保护和修复的组织中招聘。将进行实地测量，以制作建筑物的测量图。这将辅以对建筑及其空间的全面摄影调查。将与建筑用户和管理者进行面对面的访谈，以调查与历史悠久的公共浴室相关的当前看法和做法。这些建筑物的档案和历史记录将在Awqaf当局查阅，Awqaf当局是拥有大多数这些建筑物的宗教捐赠当局。这项研究的结果将与建筑师、建筑历史学家、社会学家、人类学家和城市规划者以及对地中海遗产保护感兴趣的国际组织（如联合国教科文组织和欧盟）的广泛受众相关。该研究还将解决公共浴室领域的主要学术研究缺口，并将帮助各种利益相关者制定可持续保护、修复或适应性再利用这种建筑类型的未来战略。

The Islamic public bath or hammam has been an important public facility in Islamic cities. The need to pray five times a day, and carry out major ablutions, meant that hammams were available in various parts of the Islamic city and carefully integrated into the urban fabric. Their importance and size varied according to their location: those next to major mosques, bazaars and theological teaching centres would be large in size whereas those integrated within the tight urban fabric of residential clusters would be smaller and usually located next to neighbourhood facilities such as the public oven, the Coranic School and the neighbourhood mosque. Their location and number within any city was also affected by the existing water distribution system and/or the availability of wells and natural springs. As an institution, the Islamic public bath has been in decline since the 19th century. Many historic hammams have been closed, fallen into disrepair or have been completely destroyed as the result of new urban developments. This research project is an extension of the work already carried out by the applicant on the historic public baths of Fez, Damascus and Aleppo (funded by AHRC, listed page 5). These previous research projects documented the surviving and still operating historic public baths and revealed variation in the internal organisation of spaces, the architectural features and the way these buildings are used and perceived today. This research aims to document the few surviving examples of historic Islamic public baths across North Africa, extending the research to a much wider geographic area. Five Word heritage cities, one in each of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco are selected as case studies in order to provide an understanding of the development of this building type from the 11th to the 19th century across a continuous geographical area. As such the research will highlight and explain regional variations in the development of this building type and the way it is used and perceived in the 21st century. The five world heritage North African cities that have been selected are: Cairo, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers and Marrakech. It is important to note that this research does not deal with archaeological sites but rather with historic examples of public baths that have managed to continue to operate into the 21st century (or have very recently been closed). The research will be conducted by the applicant (who is fluent in French and Arabic) and a full-time post-doctoral research assistant. A period of four continuous weeks will be spent in each of the five cities by the research team and field work will be carried out with the assistance of two local technicians who will be recruited from the local organisations dealing with the conservation and rehabilitation of the city being studied. Physical surveys will be carried out to produce measured drawings of the buildings. This will be complemented by a comprehensive photographic survey of the buildings and their spaces. Face-to-face interviews will be carried out with the building users and managers in order to investigate current perceptions and practices associated to the historic public baths. Archives and historical records of these buildings will be consulted at the Awqaf authority which is the religious endowment authority that owns most of these structures. The results of this research will be relevant to a wide audience of architects, architectural historians, sociologists, anthropologists and urban planners as well as international organisations with an interest in the safeguard of the Mediterranean heritage such as the UNESCO and the EU. The research will also address a major academic research gap in the area of public baths and will help various stakeholders in developing future strategies for the sustainable conservation, rehabilitation or adaptive re-use of this building type.