The following excerpt is taken from Dorothea Duda. "Painted and lacquered woodwork in Arab houses of Damascus and Aleppo", in Lacquerwork in Asia and Beyond: Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia No. 11, ed. William Watson (London: Percival David Foundation, 1981), pp. 247-9:

There existed an old tradition of using lacquer for the final treatment of painted wooden surfaces in the Near East. The lacquer used probably came from the Mediterranean Sandarak cypress (Tetraclinis articulata), a fine scented resin having been exported to Europe by medieval Arab physicians for medical treatment and for burning as incense.

More plentifully preserved are the painted and lacquered wooden interiors of the Ottoman period in both Istanbul and in Anatolia, in mosques, private houses and palaces. This style of decoration was transmitted from Istanbul to the whole of the Balkans and to the Maghrib.

In Damascus and Aleppo alike, all houses had flat roofs. Also in Damascus the ‘ataba (threshold) room rose above the roofs and received light from up there by rows of windows on all four sides. The houses had two floors, but the main liwans (halls) rose through both floors. So these rooms offered agreeable dimensions, and cooler ventilation in the summer. Marble panelling, relief ornamentation, mosaics, tiles and manifold patterns by incrustations of coloured pastes of plaster gave a serene and gay aspect to these old town houses, especially in Damascus. Again and again, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, European travellers were charmed by the delightful Aleppine and Damascene houses and enthusiastically described them in their reports. The inhabitants of these palaces were the pashas or governors of the Ottoman administration with their families, Syrian landowners, the gentry, and wealthy Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian merchants.