Khan Dannun was originally a large
khan ("
caravansary") completed in 1376 by the
Mamluk governor of
Damascus, Manjak al-Yusufi, during the reign of the
Bahri Mamluk sultan
al-Ashraf Sha'ban. The
khan was designed by Ali ibn al-Badri, known as
muhandis ash-Sham ("engineer of Damascus.") The name "Dan nun" is the
colloquial version of "
Dhul-Nun," a highly venerated 9th-century
Muslim figure. He is considered to be the early patriarch of the
Sufis. Khan Dannun became a stopping point on the
hajj ("pilgrimage to
Mecca") caravan route after al-Kiswah, and before
Ghabaghib. The
khan, with exception of its vaults, was built in the traditional basalt masonry typically found in the old structures in
Hauran. The courtyard was flanked by circular basalt towers. A marsh was formed in front of the ''khan's'' gate as a result of an eastern-flowing rivulet. In 1949, following the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, a
Palestinian refugee camp called Khan Dannun was set up in the town. In 2009 a new sewage project for Khan Dannun, funded by the
European Commission, was finished. ==References==