In Arabic Islamic cities the quarters (hara, mahalla) have always playing an important role as a unit of social life. But we have only a few speculative hypotheses-based on insufficient information-as to the external composition and the internal structure of these quarters. al-Salihiya Quarter in the suburbs of Damascus began as a settlement of the Qudama family, members of the Hanbali Law School who migrated to Damascus from Palestine after its capture during the Crusades. I have already clarified the history of its development in the Ayyubid period (570/1174-658/1260) in my previous article "The Urbanization of the Suburbs of Damascus" (The Toyo Gakuho, vol. 68, nos. 1・2, 1987). In this article I attempt to examine the composition of al-Salihiya Quarter and the role of the 'ulama' (religious and legal scholars) in the Mamluk period (648/1250-922/1517). In this period al-Salihiya Quarter comprised some thirty to forty smaller quarters called hara, which developed around such religious institutions as madrasa (college) and jami' (Friday congregational mosque). These were separated from one another and each contained an average of 20 houses and 140 persons, that is, one-sixth as many as a typical quarter of the old city intra muros. Some major quarters of them had large suqs (markets) and khans (caravansaraies), and al-Salihiya Quarter formed its own market independent of the old city. Religious institutions, e.g. madrasas, managed themselves by means of the waqf endowment and they engaged various offficials like nazir (administrator) and mudarris (professor). They paid such high officials as professor salaries ranging between 60 and 100 dirhams per month and provided all such officials and students with food, clothes and lodging through the waqf endowments, and periodically doled out special provisions to the poor as well. Professors were appointed by the Governor of Damascus. A scrutiny of all the professors appointed at the madrasas in al-Salihiya Quarter reveals the following salient features; 18% held plural offices of professor concurrently, and 23% held the offices of qadi (judge). The former office was regarded as a stepping stone to the latter. From the second half of 8th/14th century, prominent families began to inherit and then monopolize the offices of professor. There thus occurred many intense struggles for these offices among the 'ulama' during the 9th/15th century. The office of professor became both nominal and lucrative among them, particularly among the 'ulama' of the Shafi'i Law School, the most influential school in the Mamluk period. In opposition, the Hanbalis maintained their posture as religious leaders, defending the inhabitants of al-Salihiya Quarter in the Mongol invasion of 699/1300, then representing them in peace negotiation with Timur in 803/1401. Furthermore, some Hanbalis criticized the other 'ulama' for living on the salaries from waqf endowments. But in the first half of 9th/15th century, the 'Umariya madrasa, -the oldest and largest in al-Salihiya Quarter as well as the base for the Hanbalis-was opened to the four Sunni law schools in accordance with the demand of the Shafi'is. Thereafter, the Hanbalis were also involved in the trends of the age. At the end of the Mamluk period, most of the religious institutions in al-Salihiya Quarter were devastated owing to embezzlement of waqf endowments by nazirs and other officials, and also began deterioration of its smaller quarters. Ironically, it was the very lucrativeness of these offices which had pervaded since the 8th/14th century that caused the embezzlement and destruction as an inevitable consequence. Most 'ulama' were assimilated into the hierarchy of each law school and lost their influences as religious leaders of the inhabitants. Instead, outlaw groups called zu'r set up political movements of

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