More About Damascus

Damascus has the reputation of being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. There is firm evidence that in the third millennium Damascus was a population center of a civilization that was considerably prosperous and economically influential. The earliest reference to the city was found in Ebla (Tall Mardikh) in 1975: on one of the clay tablets discovered in the record depository of this site was the name “Dimaski.”

There is no real knowledge, however, of what Damascus was like in the third millennium. It is unclear what role it played, how prominent it was, and what the lifestyle of its peoples was. The documented history of Damascus starts half-way through the second millennium B.C., in the Amorite period. At the end of the second millennium, the city became the capital of a small, Aramaean principality. The Aramaeans, who were a semi-nomadic people who spoke a northern Arabian dialect of Arabic called Syriac, originated in the Arabian peninsula. They moved northwards in search of new prosperity and settled in the Fertile Crescent in successive waves. The abundant water supplies, moderate climate, and fertile soil made Syria an ideal place for settlement and the Aramaeans established small principalities throughout the area. Being a natural oasis irrigated by the river Barada, Damascus became a focal point for the Aramaean kingdoms, as documented in the Old Testament. They say it was known as “Dar Mesheq” (a well-watered place) and from this time onwards its size and importance increased.

The Assyrian nation to the east became a threat to the Aramaean kingdoms in the middle of the first millennium. Political relations between all the neighboring Aramaean kingdoms were good, and a federation was set up to counter the hostile advances of the Assyrians. The names of most of the Aramaean kings of Damascus who led their armies in the defense of the city are known. Ben Hadad II, allied with Hama, managed to conquer the armies of Salmanesar III (r. 858-824 B.C.) in the battle of Quarquar in 853 B.C. Ben Hadad’s successor, Hazael, could not stand up to Salmanesar’s armies as effectively and as a result the Assyrian army reached the Syrian-Phoenician coast in 841 B.C. After repeated Assyrian incursions, Damascus was besieged and taken by Hadad Nirari III.

It is most probable that the remains of the Aramaean city lie buried under the western part of the present day walled city.

This is true because the western part of the city is notably raised compared to the eastern part, forming a rough tell (a mound which has evolved due to repeated settlement throughout the centuries). Excavation of the area is impossible because of the architectural value of the buildings now situated on top of the Aramaean site. Consequently, information about the layout of the city is sparse.

The major buildings of the Aramaean city were the celebrated Temple of Hadad and the Royal Palace. The French scholar Sauvaget has mapped a likely plan of the city in the Aramaean period, showing that most of its main thoroughfares ran on lines similar to those of the present day Old City. The temple was built on the site that is now occupied by the great Omayad Mosque, and was dedicated to the storm god, Hadad.

After the capture of Damascus by Tiglath Pileser III, the Assyrian king, in 732 B.C., sovereignty passed into the hands of the Assyrians and subsequently to the Neo-Babylonians (Chaldeans) under Nebuchadnezzar in 572 B.C. Babylonian domination was cut short by the Persian king, Cyrus, who took the city in 538 B.C. and made Damascus the capital and military headquarters of the Persian province of Syria. The Macedonian general, Alexander the Great, and his armies swept through Syria and the Persian Empire in 333 B.C., marking a turning point in the history of Damascus: the beginning of an age of classical civilization in this area that lasted until 630 A.D. In its long history of domination by outside powers, it was the first time that Damascus had come under Western control.

Seleucus, Alexander’s successor, who came to power in 312 B.C., made Syria the heart of a huge empire that included all of Asia Minor up to Iran and Afghanistan. He made Antioch his capital, which thus supplanted Damascus as the most prominent political and economic center in the Fertile Crescent. Successive wars between the Seleucids and the Egyptian Empire under the Ptolemies meant that the control of Damascus passed rapidly from one side to the other.

The Greek occupation lasted for approximately 250 years, but few traces of this occupation remain in present day Damascus. When the Romans arrived, they built an entirely new city over the ruins of the ancient one.

In 64 B.C., the Roman statesman and general Pompeii annexed Syria and declared it a province of the Roman Empire. Certain principalities with large Arab populations, such as Palmyra, were given the right to retain a degree of autonomy. Until 635 A.D., Damascus and its surrounding area remained under the control of the Roman and Byzantine authorities. The city flourished as a result of the political stability that accompanied these administrations. Peace and stability brought about an economic boom, making Damascus an important cross-road on the east-west trade route. The Damascenes became the mercantile middlemen of the Roman Empire, marketing and distributing products between Europe and the Orient. As a result, Damascenes products, such as swords, glassware, and cloth, became renowned throughout the Empire. This prosperity led to a significant increase in population and consequently an expansion of the city. In the second century A.D., the Emperor Hadrian gave Damascus the status of metropolis, and it was raise to the rank of Colony under Alexander Severus. Under Emperor Diocletian, Damascus became the headquarters of the Roman army in the eastern Empire. By the end of Roman rule in Syria, Damascus had gained the distinction of being counted among the ten most prominent cities of the Roman Empire. The major architectural construction in Damascus during the Roman period was the Temple of Jupiter. Some of its remains can be seen at the far end of the Souq al-Hamidiyeh, in front of the Omayad Mosque, on the site of the Temple of Hadad.

It was during this period that Christianity was introduced in Damascus. It had already taken root by the time St. Paul (Saul of Tarsus) arrived in Damascus in approximately 34 A.D. It was on the road to Damascus that he had his vision that left him blinded and convinced him that he should not carry out his mission to arrest the Christians of Damascus. Paul was cured of his blindness by Ananias, who was later canonized. Damascus became an important center for Christians and the Bishop of Damascus became the second most important ecclesiastical figure after the Patriarch of Antioch.

The creation of the second imperial capital of the Roman Empire in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 330 A.D. and the emperor’s growing tolerance of Christianity marked the beginning of a new era in Damascus. With the break-up of the Roman Empire in ca. 395 A.D., Syria became a part of the eastern province of the Byzantine Empire. Strategically placed between Anatolia and Egypt, the two most important provinces of the Byzantine Empire, Damascus did not lose the status it had acquired during the period of Roman rule. Byzantine Damascus remained much the same as it had during the Roman period, except for the mass construction of churches. The most significant change was the transformation of the Temple of Jupiter into a cathedral dedicated to St. John the Baptist in the latter part of the fourth century A.D.

635 A.D. was a turning point in the history of Damascus. In March of that year, the city faced the onslaught of the Islamic armies led by Khalid ibn al-Walid. The Muslim invaders had traveled north from the Arabian peninsula, inspired by their new religion, and had come across little opposition on their way. Damascus was now subject to an empire of Eastern origin once again, after a thousand years of Western control. There was mass conversion to Islam, and Muslims and Christians are said to have prayed side by side in the Cathedral of St. John until the Muslims insisted on building the Great Mosque in the same place. The first decades of Islamic rule in Damascus are considered the “golden age” of the city. Damascus became in effect the capital of an empire that stretched from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River basin.

In 661 A.D., Damascus was made the capital of the empire by Muawiya Abu Sufian, who established himself as the fifth Caliph, or successor to the Prophet, and founded the Omayad Dynasty. This dynasty ruled Damascus for less than a hundred years, but made a significant contribution to the cultural and artistic heritage of the city. Although there are no remains of the splendid palaces that were built by the Omayad Caliphs, it is believed that over one hundred such structures were constructed during this period. Architectural plans of these palaces show that they had magnificent interiors with wall paneling made of the finest woods inlaid with ivory and mother of pearl. The central core of the city remained behind the old city walls, but suburbs like al-Shaghour, Midan, Qanawat, and al-Neiral sprung up to incorporate the expanded population.

In 750, the golden age of Damascus came to an abrupt end. The ‘Abbasids, a powerful Arab family of Meccan origin that had settled in eastern Iraq, swept down from the east with their armies and stormed Damascus with a vengeance, putting an end to Omayad rule. The new rulers, intent on eradicating all traces of Omayad rule, set about defacing the city and tearing down the beautiful buildings that had been constructed by the Omayads. The ‘Abbasids transferred the capital of the Islamic Empire to Baghdad, and Damascus became nothing more than a provincial town with a declining population and no political role to play. During the next three centuries, her physical appearance was further scarred by successive assaults and civil strife. Most of the city was burnt down, including the Omayad Mosque.

Political developments in 878 led to Tulunid rule in Damascus. A Turk from Bukhara, Ahmad ibn Tulun, was appointed in 868 as governor of Egypt by the ‘Abbasid Caliph, and he eventually became independent of ‘Abbasid authority except for the payment of an annual tribute to the Caliph. Having established himself in Egypt, he decided to extend his rule to Syria, and took Damascus in 878. >From this time until the take-over of the Fatamids in 969, Damascus witnessed a series of political comings and goings which were mostly accompanied by violence, shortages, and general instability. During their century in power, the Fatamids in turn were under constant attack by the Qarmatians, Turks, Byzantines, Mirdasids, and Seljuks. The constant physical batterings that Damascus suffered during this period undermined the stream-lined city planning that was the legacy of Roman and Greek rule. Self-contained and crowded quarters of the city established themselves randomly, and each quarter established an “Ahdath,” or local militia, to defend its people from the others.

The Fatamids finally lost control of Damascus to the Seljuks, a nomadic Turkish tribe originally from Turkestan, in 1076. For a time, Syria was split into northern and southern provinces ruled by two Seljuk brothers; Damascus was the capital of the smaller and weaker southern province (Aleppo was the capital of the north). Starting with Seljuk rule, Damascus experienced an artistic and architectural revival. Architects were commissioned to rebuild the city, which had fallen into considerable disrepair. The Citadel of Damascus was built in 1078 to house the ruler of Damascus and provide a military stronghold.

The First Crusade, which began in 1096, gave Syria the choice of siding with the Christians to repel the Fatamids, who were again attacking from the south, or siding with the hated Fatamids against the Christians, who captured one of the holiest cities in Islam, Jerusalem, in 1099. A short truce with the Christians ended when the armies of Damascus allied with Iraqi forces under Sharif al-Din Mawdud of Mosul to defeat Baldwin I near Lake Tiberias in 1113.

Nur al-Din (al-Ayyubi) appeared on the scene with his Muslim armies at the time of the Second Crusade. At the time, Damascus was heavily besieged by Baldwin III, Louis VII, and Conrad III. After Nur al-Din drove off the Crusaders, he made Damascus his military headquarters and achieved a rapprochement with the Fatamids. Nur al- Din was succeeded briefly by his eleven-year-old son, al-Malik Salih Ismael. But the boy’s regent tried to usurp his power, and was put down by Salah al-Din, who had been appointed Vizier by Nur al-Din and ruled Egypt. Salah al-Din founded the Ayyubid Dynasty in Damascus and, by his death in 1193, he had extended his control over an empire that included Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hijaz, Nubia, the Yemen, and Egypt. After Salah al-Din’s death, the empire was briefly split between his three sons, but united by al-Malik al-Adil, who transferred the Ayyubid capital to Cairo. By 1229, the Crusader leader, Frederick II, had secured Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth, and Ayyubid rule had degenerated into a series of dynastic disputes. In 1260, Damascus was overrun by the Tartar hordes of Houlagou, but was quickly recaptured by the new rulers of Egypt, the Mamlukes, led by Sultan Baybars.

The period between the Mamluke take-over in 1260 and the invasion of Tamurlane in 1400 was one of relative prosperity for Damascus. One after another, the Crusader states fell to the Mamlukes, and the newly acquired territory was incorporated into the Mamluke Kingdom and ruled from Cairo. The expansion of the city was the most marked physical change that Damascus underwent during this period.

In 1400, while the Damascene armies were in the south, in an unsuccessful revolt against Mamluke rule, Tamurlane took advantage of the city’s lack of defenses. His Mongol hordes almost completely destroyed the city and killed everyone they could capture. After a ransom of one million pieces of gold was paid, Tamurlane departed the ruins of Damascus, taking the surviving armorers with him. From thence forward, the famous Damascus swords were to be manufactured in Samarkand.

From 1516 to 1918, Damascus was part of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled from 1520 until 1566, divided Syria into the three vilayets (provinces) of Damascus, Aleppo, and Tripoli. Damascus became the administrative headquarters of the vilayet, which included the sanjaks of Gaza, Nablus, Palmyra, Sidon, Beirut, and Jerusalem. In 1634, the Ottomans were forced to cede governorship of Syria to a very powerful Lebanese warlord, Fakhr al-Din al-Maeni. He ruled the area with very little interference from the Ottoman government in Constantinople until Ottoman forces based in Damascus were ordered to destroy his power base. They were successful, and the Ottomans tightened control over the region. However, the 18th century governors, appointed from the Azem family, still could not end the armed incursions from Lebanon. In 1771, the Mamlukes captured Damascus once again, but they departed shortly thereafter. This left the city open to conquest by Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar of Acre, who forced the Ottoman Sultan to recognize him as governor of Damascus.

The 19th century witnessed the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire. In Damascus, the Ottoman governor, Selim Pasha, was executed by the townspeople in 1831 and, in 1832, Turkish forces were driven out of Syria by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of the self-proclaimed ruler of Egypt, Mohammed ‘Ali. Damascus was once again ruled by Egypt, until the British assisted the Ottomans in driving Ibrahim Pasha out in 1840. Damascus grew to twice its former size during the 19th century.

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers and lost. Syrian nationalists, however, conspired against the Turks and assisted Faisal, the son of the Sherif of Mecca, in capturing Damascus with British support. At the end of the war, the Kingdom of Syria, which included Lebanon and Palestine, was proclaimed, and Faisal was crowned king. The kingdom was short-lived, however, as the British had made a separate, secret agreement with the French, giving the latter the “right” to control Syria after the war. The newly-formed League of Nations gave the French the Mandate for Syria, and the French forced Faisal out of power in 1920. The people of Syria revolted against the French in 1925, 1936, and 1945, but didn’t regain their freedom from foreign rule until 1946. Damascus suffered heavy bombardments in the last year of the French Mandate.

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