JABAL QASIYUN BY FREDERIC GADMER

FREDERIC GADMER (1878-1954)

Jabal Qāsiyūn (1,151 m -3,776 ft)
Syria

Autochrome Lumière process, 1921, Albert Kahn Museum, Paris 

Mountain 

Jabal Qāsiyūn (1,151 m - 3,776 ft) or Mount Qasioun (Arabic: جبل قاسيون‎‎ ) is a mountain overlooking the city of Damascus, Syria, part of the Anti-Lebanon Range of mountains (Arabic: Al-jabal Ash-sharqī, or Lubnān Ash-sharqī, Anti Liban in french).  As the city has expanded over the years, some districts have been established on the foot of the mountain. 

The mountain has been heavily entrenched with Syrian government forces since the start of the Syrian Civil War. The mountain is also host to an endemic species of iris, Iris damascena, which can be found on the steep eastern slopes, at an altitude of 1,200 m (3,900 ft) above sea level. 

Jabal Qāsiyūn is known to be a sacred mountain, a place in which several stories written in the Bible as well as in Quran took place.  

On the slopes of Jabal Qasiun is a cave steeped in legend. It is said to have been inhabited at one point by the first human-being, Adam; and there are various stories told about Ibrāhīm (Abraham), and 'Īsā (Jesus) also having prayed in it. 

It is mentioned however in Medieval Arab history books as having been the place where Qābīl (Cain) killed Hābīl (Abel).  It was known for hundreds of years as a place where prayers were immediately accepted, and especially in times of drought rulers of Damascus would climb to the cave and pray for rain. Because of the murder that took place there, claimed to be the first committed, it is called Maghārat al-Dam (the Cave of Blood).  

According to Sunni Muslims, Mount Qasioun is the site of the miḥrābs (prayer niches) of the 40 arch-saints, known as the Abdāl, who are said to pray the night vigil prayers every night. A small mosque has been built over the Cave of Blood containing these miḥrābs.

Further down the mountain from the 'Cave of Blood', there was another cave known as Maghārat al-Jūˁ (the Cave of Hunger). Stories about this cave are somewhat confused. Al-Harawī, who lived in the 13th century, wrote that it is said that forty prophets died there of hunger. At present, the cave has been concealed by surrounding houses, but that spot is called al-Juyūˁīyah (the Place of the Hungry').

On another flank of the same mountain is yet another cave, which has come down in local legend as being the cave of the Seven Sleepers, mentioned in early Christian sources, as well as in the Quran, where they are known as the Aṣḥāb al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave). This is rather dubious, however, and it is only one of many caves in this part of the world that share the claim. 

A madrassah has been built over the cave, but pilgrims are still granted access.
Source: 
- Mount Qasioun Wikipedia page 

The photographer 

Frédéric Georges Gadmer was born in 1878 in France into a Protestant family;  his father, Leon, son of Swiss émigré, was confectioner, and his mother, Marie Georgine, was unemployed. Before World War II, he follows his family in Paris and works as a photographer for the house Vitry, located Quai de la Rapée. As an heliogravure company, it performs work for the sciences and the arts, travel and education. In 1898 Gadmer completed his military service as a secretary to the staff then recalled in 1914 at the time of mobilization. In 1915, he joined the newly created  "Photographic Section of the Army" and carried pictures on the front, in the Dardanelles, with General Gouraud, then in Cameroon. In 1919, at age 41, he was hired as a photographer byAlbert Khan for his project called "Archives of the Planet". He finds there his comrades of   "the film and photographic section of the army" Paul Castelnau and Fernand Cuville. Soon as he arrived, he made reports in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Palestine. It was the first to make a color portrait of Mustafa Kemal, leader of the Young Turks. In 1921, he returned to the Levant with Jean Brunhes, the scientific director of the Archives of the Planet. The same year, he attended General Gouraud, appointed High Commissioner in Syria. Operator and prolific photographer, specializing in distant lands and landscapes, it covers Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, Algeria and Tunisia. In 1930, he accompanied Father Francis Aupiais in Dahomey. He also works in Europe. In 1931, at the request of Marechal Lyautey, he photographies the Colonial Exhibition. It is one of the last person to leave the  "Archives of the Planet" threatened by the Albert Kahn's bankruptcy in 1932. He then worked at the famous french newspaper L'Illustration and carries postcards for Yvon. He died in Paris, unmarried, in 1954 and is buried in Saint-Quentin, as his parents.

Source: 

- Frédéric Gadmer in the Médiathèque Albert Kahn

About the  "Autochrome Lumière" Photos

The autochrome is a photographic reproduction of process colors patented December 17, 1903 by Auguste and Louis Lumière french brothers. This is the first industrial technique of photography colors, it produces positive images on glass plates. It was used between 1907 and 1932 approximately an particularly in many pictures of the World War I. A important number of photographs of mountains and landscapes around the world was made with this technique, particularly in the for  the Project "The archives of the planet" by Albert Kahn.