[2][3] The series chronicles the daily happenings and family dramas in a neighborhood in Damascus, Syria in the inter-war period under French rule when the local population yearned for independence.
[5] The Arab satellite channels broadcast special programming every night during Ramadan to try to capture audiences from among the families who have gathered together to eat and break the fast.
[5] Directed by Bassam al-Mulla and broadcast on MBC,[2] the first installment of the series, comprising 31 episodes, aired during Ramadan in 2006 and enjoyed broad viewership and a positive reception.
A third installment to be aired in Ramadan of 2008 was officially announced on al-Arabiya channel in October 2007, and focused on the post-marriage lives of the children of Abu Issam, the local doctor and barber.
Bab al-Hara depicts the last moments of Syrian society as it existed in its centuries-old Ottoman era make-up, just prior to the transition into colonial and post-colonial modernity.
The series' hearkening back to this era partially explains its massive popularity, an expression of the Arab world's nostalgia and yearning for a revolution[3] that came after the cataclysmic turmoil and cultural identity crisis ushered in by the colonial period.