1 · POSITION
Khan al-Khayyatin, the khan of the tailors, is a Mamluk khan in the old city of Tripoli, built in the fourteenth century beside the Ezzedin baths. Tailors and dry-goods merchants still trade in its ground-floor shops. The register holds it as a khan in working use: the courtyard house where merchant and goods entered together, still doing its first job. [1, 2]
2 · THE BUILDING
Shops line the ground floor; on the restored upper floor a row of rooms looks down over them — the khan’s division of trade below and lodging above. A partial restoration was carried out in 1992. [1]
3 · A MAMLUK CITY
Tripoli’s old city is mainly Mamluk, a knot of narrow streets built for defence, where jewellers, perfumers, tanners, soap-makers and tailors still work. Beside the tailors’ khan stands the Khan as-Saboun, built in the early seventeenth century as Ottoman barracks and long since the city’s soap khan. [2]
4 · WHY THE REGISTER HOLDS THE CITY
The register calls Tripoli the most important missing hospitality city of its region, because its khans, souqs and baths bear on the receiving of strangers more directly than any of the coast’s crusader castles. This khan is the evidence the city offers most plainly. [2]
5 · ⚑ CANDOUR
⚑ The khan is dated to 1341 by a travel guide and to the fourteenth century by the restoration record; the year is not independently confirmed. The plan of the upper rooms is described from the restoration record, not from a visit. [1–2]
Sources & Further Reading
Sources checked 22 October 2026.