Ibrahim Farhat

Description (The direction towards Mecca (Qibla) is described as eastern and other directions are named accordingly)

A small roughly rectangular enclosure, measuring approximately 33 x 9 – 10.5 metres, slightly irregular (with the back, i. e. western, wall set at an angle). In the southern side is an open-fronted roofed area divided into two rooms with the roof supported on a pillar with triangular brackets that appears like a wooden structure plastered over. The rest of the lot is an open courtyard.
The main (eastern) façade is built of ashlar stone, other walls are built of rubble stone. The façade is in a style typical of the 1940s that uses simplified motifs of Islamic (primarily Mamluk) art composed in a way visibly inspired by modernist and Art Deco aesthetics. The middle section containing the entrance portal is slightly taller than the rest of the façade, from which it projects slightly, with the crowning courses overhanging on a two-tiered frieze of simple muqarnases. The corners of this section are topped with simple “pomegranate” bulbs. The undecorated rectangular entrance door is covered with a flat arch of angularly joggled vissoirs. The door-leaves are panelled, with no architectural ornamentation. Over the door is a marble panel with an incised inscription stating that the funerary enclosure belongs to Hagg [person who performed the pilgrimage to Mecca] Ibrahim Farhat and his children, and gives the date 1947 (Miladi only). There are traces of a much wider panel in plaster, apparently originally framed in moulding, which has been removed. It is not clear how it related to the present dedicatory inscription.
On both sides of the portal projection, the walls form very shallow recesses framed with shallow corner projections, with a simplified muqarnas frieze on top. Each of the side sections contains a single window. The windows are identical, but placed asymmetrically: the northern (right) one is in the middle of its recess, while the southern one is off-centre, placed on the left side. The undecorated window openings are covered with stone flat arches like these over the door, and have small ledges at the bottom, supported on a simplified muqarnas frieze, with simple brackets to the sides. The windows are fitted with simple iron grilles of simple motifs deriving from Art Nouveau / Art Deco style. There is no crenellation on top of the facade, but the blocks in the top course of masonry are chamfered, vaguely suggesting a battlement