This medieval building on Tariq Bab al-Silsila preserves the site identified in Crusader records as Jerusalem’s meat market. Known today as Khan Abu Khadija…
This medieval building on Tariq Bab al-Silsila preserves the site identified in Crusader records as Jerusalem’s meat market. Known today as Khan Abu Khadija (خان أبو خديجة), it stands on the north side of the historic street, opposite al-Tashtamuriyya school and close to al-Kilaniyya. Tariq Bab al-Silsila forms the principal approach from the Old City markets towards Bab al-Silsila, one of the gates of al-Aqsa Mosque. The Crusaders’ meat market Palestinian historian and archaeologist Nazmi al-Jubeh identifies the property as the Crusaders’ Meat Market mentioned in medieval sources. Parts of the building were also examined during the architectural survey of the adjoining al-Kilaniyya, placing it within the commercial and institutional landscape that developed along this route. The market occupies a rectangular hall of more than 500 square metres, with another hall of comparable dimensions below it. Clearance work begun in 2015 uncovered a third level beneath the two already known. Sections of the lower spaces had been joined to al-Kilaniyya and neighbouring shops, while a central portion remained unused. From family market to Khan Abu Khadija The Abu Khadija family has held the property since the early twentieth century. Emad Abu Khadija recalled working there with his father, Ishaq, and his grandfather, Abdulrahman, when the premises were used for cleaning clothes and selling local goods. The business later passed through use as a grocery before its conversion into a restaurant and coffee shop. A substantial part of the upper level was restored for commercial use in 2017. The lower hall was also cleared and renovated, preserving the building’s earlier masonry and the successive levels beneath Tariq Bab al-Silsila.