As far as Abu Nazir knew, his family has been making glass for 200 years: glassblowing in Syria is a very old trade. It was an important industry until cheaply produced objects came from elsewhere, and work like this started to be called 'craft', as a pejorative description for something that was only for decoration. Abu Nazir used to tell me that his trade was doomed, because the younger generation was not continuing the practice. Soon after he died, his son, who he had been teaching, also died suddenly, so the family shop closed. Although there are some places in Damascus where this kind of glassblowing still happens, not many remain.
Once in an antique shop in Paris, I saw two vases that I was told were from Venice. Later Abu Nazir made exactly the same vase, which he said was a traditional Syrian shape. I have one of his light fixtures on my living room ceiling in my apartment in Beirut, with the same shape and medallions as a lamp I saw in a hotel in Venice. For me, that is proof that a lot of Venetian glassblowing started in Damascus, and that the traditions of Syria continue to live on, far beyond the country itself.