A Brief History of Hammams

Vagabond Adventure06 Jun, 2025Travel

Hammams are a unique feature in the muslim world. They go back to its very earliest days. The first of them emerged in the palaces and desert castles of Damascus in the late 600s (AD) thanks to Mu’awiya, a cleric who founded the Umayyad Caliphate in Syria. If you look hard, you can still find ancient Hammam ruins in places like Qusayr 'Amra and Hammam al-Sarah. It didn’t take long for Mu’awiya’s idea to catch on. Hammams soon became a key part of Muslim culture from Mesopotamia and India clear across the Middle East and North Africa to Morocco and into Europe and Iberian Andalusia.