Reason for the name
Named after its restorer the Mamluk Sultan Al-Zaher Barquq.
Builder
The original building is not known who its founder, but Sultan Al-Zaher Barqouq of Mamelukes renovated the Khan and allocated it for trade.
The Khan is located at the beginning of the Bab Al-Silasila road on the western side in the north of the road and in the middle of the big market.
The Khan shall consist of two floors, the first – the lower – Mamelukes of the Covenant, and contains two entrances in the northern and southern sides and height equal to the height of the Khan.
The two entrances lead to a semi-vaulted roofed corridor with ventilating holes and sunlight, the corridor leads to a courtyard or a round courtyard with rooms on the southern side of the square, two stone staircases parallel to each other lead to the second floor of the Khan, on the southern side of the floor is a stable, knotted.
The function of this floor was to receive the goods coming from the countryside to Jerusalem and a fold where animals (animals).
As for the second floor, it used for hospitality and reception of merchants coming from travel, it is Ottoman and its construction is similar to that of the first floor, it does not contain a stable, it has rooms that are slightly different and have similar entrances, the rooms separated by a corridor.
The rooms located in two rows: East and West, from the floor is a small room for prayer.
Since the construction of the building not dedicated to be Khana for sale and purchase, but in the Mameluke era began to use as Khan as the legitimate arguments of the Khan and the documents of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Khan income allocated to be a supporter of all projects for the maintenance of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, amounting to approximately 400 Golden Dinars; the Khan was the center of commercial life in Jerusalem, the work of the Khan based on valuing the goods and placing the taxes on them.
At one time, the Khan sold cheese, milk and ghee.
The Khan is famous for the fact that the road leading to it from the line of David attributed to it and extended from the big market until the beginning of the Jewish Quarter, but now the khan needs to be restored and maintenance because of neglect and there is overcrowding on it, which prevents restoration or expansion.
A hundred years ago, the Khan trade changed to shoe factories and now it abandoned and the merchants are no longer coming to it for sale.
Its use has turned into houses and stores for some poor Jerusalem families, which insist that they continue to be in Jerusalem, they are about 120 individuals.
Part of the Khan become Stores and shops for work, Jerusalemites despite the high taxes and arbitrary Judaization of the area, it is also called the Agency, Al-Mareai Agency, the Agency Khan and the House of Vegetables.
Khan in the past and present: old was a flourishing business center, but now it used as housing and stores for Jerusalemites.