Damascus ( , , commonly
known as الشام ash-Shām also known as the "City
of Jasmin" ) is the capital and largest city of Syria
as well as
one of the country's 14 governorates. The Damascus
Governorate
is ruled by a governor appointed by the Minister of
Interior. In addition to being
one of the oldest
continuously inhabited city in the world, Damascus is a major
cultural and religious center of the
Levant.
Currently, the city has an estimated population of about 1,669,000.
Unofficial estimates often assume a much larger population. Located
in southwestern Syria, it is the center of a large metropolitan
area of four million people.
Geographically embedded on the eastern
foothills of the Anti-Lebanon
mountain range, Damascus experiences a semi-arid
climate due to the rain shadow
effect. The Barada
River
flows through Damascus.
First settled in the 2nd millennium BCE, it was chosen as the
capital of the
Umayyad Caliphate
from 661-750.
After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power
was moved to Baghdad
.
Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only
to regain significant importance in the
Ayyubid and
Mamluk periods.
During
Ottoman rule, the city decayed
completely while maintaining a certain cultural prestige. Today, it
is the seat of the
central
government and all of the
government ministries. Damascus was
chosen as the
2008 Arab
Capital of Culture.
Etymology
Damascus cityscape
The name of Damascus first appeared in the geographical list of
Thutmose III as T-m-s'-q in the 15th
century BC.In
Arabic, the city is
called دمشق الشام (
Dimashq al-Shām), although this is
often shortened to either
Dimashq or
al-Shām by
the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbors.
Al-Shām is an Arabic term for
north
and for Syria (Syria—particularly historical
Greater Syria—is called
Bilād
al-Shām— , "land of the north"—in Arabic.) The
etymology of the ancient name "Damascus" is
uncertain, but it is suspected to be pre-
Semitic. It is attested as in
Akkadian, in
Egyptian, ( ) in
Old Aramaic and
Dammeśeq ( ) in
Biblical Hebrew. The
Akkadian spelling is the earliest attestation, found in the
Amarna letters, from the 14th century
BC. Later
Aramaic spellings of the
name often include an intrusive
resh
(letter
r), perhaps influenced by the root
dr,
meaning "dwelling".
Thus, the Qumranic
Darmeśeq ( ), and Darmsûq ( ) in Syriac.
History
Early settlement
Carbon-14 dating at Tell Ramad on the
outskirts of Damascus suggests that the site may have been occupied
since the second half of the seventh millennium BCE, possibly
around 6300 BCE. However, evidence of settlement in the wider
Barada basin dating back to 9000 BCE exists, although no
large-scale settlement was present within Damascus walls until the
second millennium BCE. The city is considered to be the
oldest continuously
inhabited city in the world.
The Damascus region, as well as the rest of Syria, became a
battleground between the
Hittites from the
north and the
Egyptians from the
south, ending with a signed treaty between
Hattusili and
Ramsis II
where the former handed over control of the Damascus area to
Ramesses II in 1259 BCE. The arrival of
the
Sea Peoples around 1200 BCE marked
the end of the
Bronze Age in the region
and brought about new development of warfare. Damascus was only the
peripheral part of this picture which mostly affected the larger
population centers of ancient Syria. However, these events had
contributed to the development of Damascus as a new influential
center that emerged with the transition from the Bronze Age to the
Iron Age.
Damascus is mentioned in
Genesis
14:15 as existing at the time of the
War of
the Kings. According to the 1st century Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus in his twenty-one
volume
Antiquities of the
Jews, Damascus (along with
Trachonitis), was founded by
Uz, the son of
Aram. Elsewhere, he stated:
Nicolaus of
Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says thus:
"Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a
foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon,
called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got
him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and
went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land
of Judea, and this when his posterity were become a multitude; as
to which posterity of his, we relate their history in another
work.
Now the name of Abraham is even still famous in the
country of Damascus; and there is shown a village named from him,
The Habitation of Abraham.
Damascus was part of the ancient
province
of
Amurru in the
Hyksos
Kingdom, from 1720 to 1570 BC. Some of the earliest
Egyptian records are from the 1350 BC
Amarna letters, when Damascus-(called
Dimasqu) was ruled by king
Biryawaza.
Aram-Damascus
Damascus is not documented as an important city until the arrival
of the
Aramaeans,
Semitic nomads from
Mesopotamia, in the 11th century BCE. By the
start of the 1st millennium BC, several Aramaic kingdoms were
formed, as Aramaeans abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and formed
federated tribal states. One of these kingdoms was
Aram-Damascus centered around its capital
Damascus. The Aramaeans who entered the city without battle,
adopted the name "Dimashqu" for their new home. Noticing the
agricultural potential of the still-undeveloped and sparsely
populated area, they established the water distribution system of
Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels which maximized the
efficiency of the river Barada. The same network was later improved
by the Romans and the Umayyads, and still forms the basis of the
water system of the old part of the city today. The Aramaeans
initially turned Damascus into an outpost of a loose federation of
Aramaean tribes, known as Aram-Zobah, based in the
Beqaa Valley.
The city would gain preeminence in southern Syria when Ezron, the
claimant to Aram-Zobah's throne who was denied kingship of the
federation, fled Beqaa and captured Damascus by force in 965 BCE.
Ezron overthrew the city's tribal governor and founded the
independent entity of Aram-Damascus. As this new state expanded
south, it prevented the
Kingdom of
Israel from spreading north and the two kingdoms soon clashed
as they both sought to dominate trading hegemony in the east. Under
Ezron's grandson,
Ben-Hadad I (880-841
BCE), and his successor
Hazael, Damascus
annexed
Bashan (modern-day
Hauran region), and went on the offensive with
Israel.
This conflict continued until the early 8th
century BCE when Ben-Hadad II was
captured by Israel after unsuccessfully besieging Samaria
. As a
result, he granted Israel trading rights in Damascus.
Another
possible reason for the treaty between Aram-Damascus and Israel was
the common threat of the Neo-Assyrian Empire which was attempting
to expand into the Mediterranean
coast. In 853 BCE, King Hadadezer of Damascus led a Levantine coalition, that included forces from the
northern Aram-Hamath kingdom and troops supplied by King Ahab of Israel, in the Battle of
Qarqar
against the Neo-Assyrian army. Aram-Damascus
came out victorious, temporarily preventing the Assyrians from
encroaching into Syria. However, after Hadadzezer was killed by his
successor, Hazael II, the Levantine alliance collapsed.
Aram-Damascus attempted to invade Israel, but was interrupted by
the renewed Assyrian invasion. Hazael ordered a retreat to the
walled part of Damascus while the Assyrians plundered the remainder
of the kingdom. Unable to enter the city, they declared their
supremacy in the Hauran and Beqa'a valleys.
By the 8th century BCE, Damascus was practically engulfed by the
Assyrians and entered a dark age. Nonetheless, it remained the
economic and cultural center of the Near East as well as the
Arameaen resistance. In 727, a revolt took place in the city, but
was put down by Assyrian forces. After Assyria went on a wide-scale
campaign of quelling revolts throughout Syria, Damascus became
totally subjugated by their rule. A positive effect of this was
stability for the city and benefits from the spice and incense
trade with
Arabia. However, Assyrian
authority was dwindling by 609-605 BCE and Syria-
Palestine was falling into the orbit of Pharaoh
Necho II's Egypt.
In 572, all of Syria
had been conquered by the Neo-Babylonians, but the status of Damascus
under Babylon
is relatively unknown.
Antiquity
Damascus first came under western control with the campaign of
Alexander the Great that swept
through the Near East. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC,
Damascus became the site of a struggle between the
Seleucid and
Ptolemaic empires. The control of the city
passed frequently from one empire to the other.
Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander's
generals, made Antioch
the capital of his vast empire, which led to the
decline of Damascus' importance compared with new Seleucid cities
such as Latakia
in the north. Later, Demetrius III
Philopator rebuilt the city according to the Greek hippodamian
system and renamed it Demetrias.
In 64 BC, the
Roman general
Pompey annexed the western part of Syria. The Romans
occupied Damascus and subsequently incorporated it into the league
of ten cities known as the
Decapolis
because it was considered such an important center of Greco-Roman
culture. According to the
New
Testament,
Saint Paul was on the road
to Damascus when he received a vision, was struck blind and as a
result converted to
Christianity. In
the year 37,
Roman Emperor Caligula transferred Damascus to
Nabataean control by decree.
The Nabataean king
Aretas IV Philopatris ruled
Damascus from his capital Petra
.
However, around the year 106, Nabataea was conquered by the Romans,
and Damascus returned to Roman control.
Damascus became a metropolis by the beginning of the second century
and in 222 it was upgraded to a
colonia by the Emperor
Septimius Severus. During the
Pax Romana, Damascus and the
Roman province of Syria in general began to prosper.
Damascus's importance
as a caravan city was evident with the trade routes from southern
Arabia, Palmyra
, Petra, and the
silk routes from China all converging on it. The city
satisfied the Roman demands for eastern luxuries.
Little remains of the architecture of the Romans, but the town
planning of the old city did have a lasting effect. The Roman
architects brought together the Greek and Aramaean foundations of
the city and fused them into a new layout measuring approximately
by , surrounded by a city wall. The city wall contained seven
gates, but only the eastern gate (Bab Sharqi) remains from the
Roman period. Roman Damascus lies mostly at depths of up to five
meters (16.4 ft) below the modern city.
The old
borough of Bab
Tuma
was developed at the end of the Roman/Byzantine era
by the local Eastern
Orthodox community. According to the
Acts of the Apostles, Saint Paul and
Saint Thomas both lived in that
neighborhood.
Roman Catholic
historians also consider Bab Tuma to be the birthplace of several
Popes such as
John
V and
Gregory III.
Islamic Arab era
After most of the Syrian countryside was annexed by the
Rashidun Caliphate during the reign of
Caliph
Umar, Damascus itself was
conquered by the
Arab general
Khalid ibn
al-Walid in September-August 635 CE. His
Arabian army had previously attempted to
capture the city in April 634, but without success. With Damascus
now in Arab hands, the Byzantines, alarmed at the loss of their
most prestigious city in the Near East, had decided to wrest back
control of it. Under Emperor
Heraclius,
the Byzantines fielded an army superior to that of the Rashidun in
manpower. They advanced into southern Syria during the spring of
636 and consequently Khalid ibn al-Walid's forces withdrew from
Damascus to prepare for renewed confrontation.
In August, the two
powers met along the Yarmouk River
where they a fought a major battle which ended in a decisive
Arab victory, solidifying the latter's rule in Syria and
Palestine.
While
Arabs administrated the city, the population of Damascus remained
mostly Christian—Eastern Orthodox
and Monophysite—with a growing community
of Arab Muslims from Mecca
, Medina
, and the
Syrian Desert. The governor
assigned to the city which had been chosen as the capital of
Islamic Syria was
Mu'awiya I. After the murder of Caliph
Ali in 661, Mu'awiya installed himself as the caliph of
the expanding Islamic empire. Because of the vast amounts of assets
his clan, the
Ummayads, owned in the city
and because of its traditional economic and social links with the
Hijaz as well as the
Arab Christian tribes of the region, Mu'awiya
established Damascus as the capital of the entire
Caliphate. With the ascension of Caliph
Abd al-Malik in 685, an Islamic coinage system
was introduced and all of the surplus revenue of the Caliphate's
provinces were forwarded to the treasury of Damascus.
Arabic was also established as the official
language, giving the Arab minority of the city an advantage over
the Greek-speaking Christians in administrative affairs.
Abd
al-Malik's successor, al-Walid initiated construction of the
Grand Mosque
of Damascus
(known as the Umayyad Mosque) in 706. The
site originally had been the Christian Cathedral of St. John and
the Muslims maintained the building's dedication to
John the Baptist. By 715, the mosque was
complete. Al-Walid died that same year and he was succeeded by
Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik
then
Umar II who each ruled for brief
periods before the reign of
Hisham in 724.
With
these successions, the status of Damascus was gradually weakening
as Suleiman had chosen Ramla
as his
residence and Hisham, Rusafa
.
Following
the murder of the latter in 743, the Caliphate of the
Umayyads—which by then stretched from Spain
to India
—was
crumbling as a result of widespread revolts. During the reign of
Marwan II in 744, the capital of the
empire was relocated to Harran
in the
northern Jazira region.
The dome of Damascus' treasury in the
Umayyad Mosque
On August 25, 750, the
Abbasids, having
already beaten the Umayyads in the
Battle of Siffin in Iraq, conquered
Damascus after facing little resistance.
With the heralding of
the Abbasid Caliphate, Damascus became eclipsed and subordinated by
Baghdad, the new
Islamic capital. Within the first six months of Abbasid
rule, revolts began erupting in the city, albeit too isolated and
unfocused to present a viable threat. Nonetheless, the last of the
prominent Umayyads were executed, the traditional officials of
Damascus ostracized, and army generals from the city were
dismissed. Afterward, the Umayyad family cemetery was desecrated
and the city walls were torn down, reducing Damascus into a
provincial town of little importance. It roughly disappeared from
written records for the next century and the only significant
improvement of the city was the Abbasid-built treasury dome in the
Umayyad Mosque in 789. In 811, distant remnants of the Umayyad
dynasty staged a strong uprising in Damascus that was eventually
put down.
Ahmad ibn Tulun, a dissenting
Turkish governor appointed by the Abbasids, conquered Syria,
including Damascus, from his overlords in 878-79. In an act of
respect for the previous Umayyad rulers, he erected a shrine on the
site of Mu'awiya's grave in the city.
Tulunid rule of Damascus was brief, lasting only
until 906 before being replaced by the
Qarmatians who were adherents of
Shia Islam. Due to their inability to control the
vast amount of land they occupied, the Qarmatians withdrew from
Damascus and a new dynasty, the
Ikhshidids, took control of the city. They
maintained the independence of Damascus from the Arab
Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo and the Baghdad-based
Abbasids until 967. A period of instability in the city followed,
with a Qarmatian raid in 968, a Byzantine raid in 970, and
increasing pressures from the
Fatimids in
the south and the Hamdanids in the north.
Damascus Domes
The Shia Fatimids gained control in 970, inflaming hostilities
between them and the Sunni Arabs of the city who frequently
revolted. A Turk,
Alp Takin drove out the
Fatimids five years later, and through diplomacy, prevented the
Byzantines from attempting to annex the city. However, by 777, the
Fatimids under Caliph
al-Aziz, wrested back
control of the city and tamed Sunni dissidents. The Arab
geographer,
al-Muqaddasi, visited
Damascus in 985, remarking that the architecture and infrastructure
of the city was "magnificent," but living conditions were awful.
Under al-Aziz, the city saw a brief period of stability that ended
with the reign of
al-Hakim (996-1021). In
998, Hundreds of Damascene leaders were rounded up and executed by
him for incitement. Three years after al-Hakim's mysterious
disappearance, the Arab tribes of southern Syria formed an alliance
to stage a massive rebellion against the Fatimids, but they were
crushed by the Fatimid Turkish governor of Syria and Palestine,
Anushtakin al-Duzbari, in 1029. This
victory gave the latter mastery over Syria, displeasing his Fatimid
overlords, but gaining the admiration of Damascus' citizens. He was
exiled by Fatimid authorities to Aleppo where he died in 1041. From
that date to 1063, there are no known records of the city's
history. By then, Damascus lacked a city administration, had an
enfeebled economy, and a greatly reduced population.
Seljuk and Ayyubid rule
With the arrival of the
Seljuk Turks in
the late 11th century, Damascus again became the capital of
independent states. It was ruled by
Abu Nasr
Duqaq starting in 1079. The Seljuks established a court in
Damascus and a systematic reversal of Shia inroads in the city. The
city also saw an expansion of religious life through private
endowments financing religious institutions (
madrasas) and hospitals (
maristans).
Damascus soon became one of the most important centers of
propagating Islamic thought in the Muslim world. After Duqaq's
death in 1104, his mentor (
atabeg),
Tughtekin, took control of Damascus and
the
Burid line of the Seljuk dynasty.
Under Duqaq and Tughtekin, Damascus experienced stability, elevated
status and a revived role in commerce. In addition, the city's
Sunni majority enjoyed being a part of the larger Sunni framework
effectively governed by various Turkic dynasties who in turn were
under the moral authority of the Baghdad-based Abbasids.
While the
rulers of Damascus were preoccupied in conflict with their fellow
Seljuks in Aleppo and Diyarbakir
, the Crusaders—who arrived in the Levant in 1097—conquered Jerusalem
, Mount
Lebanon
and Palestine.
Duqaq seemed to have been content with Crusader rule as a buffer
between his dominion and the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt.
Tughtekin, however, saw the Western invaders
as a viable threat to Damascus which, at the time, nominally
included Hims
, the Beqaa
Valley, Hauran, and the Golan Heights a part of its
territories. With military support from Sharaf al-Din
Mawdud of Mosul
, Tugthekin
managed to halt Crusader raids in the Golan and Hauran.
Mawdud was assassinated in the Umayyad Mosque in 1109, depriving
Damascus of northern Muslim backing and forcing Tughtekin to agree
to a truce with the Crusaders in 1110.
In who withstood a
siege of the
city during the
Second Crusade in
1148.
In
1154 Damascus was conquered from the Burids by the famous Zengid atabeg
Nur ad-Din of Aleppo
, the great
foe of the Crusaders. He made it his
capital, and following his death, it was acquired by
Saladin, the ruler of Egypt, who also made it his
capital. Saladin rebuilt the citadel, and it is reported that under
his rule the suburbs were as extensive as the city itself.
In the years following Saladin's death in 1193, there were frequent
conflicts between different
Ayyubid
sultans ruling in Damascus and Cairo. Damascus was the capital
of independent Ayyubid rulers between 1193 and 1201, from 1218 to
1238, from 1239 to 1245, and from 1250 to 1260. At other times it
was ruled by the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt.
Damascus steel gained a legendary reputation
among the
Crusaders, and patterned steel is
still "damascened". The patterned Byzantine and Chinese silks
available through Damascus, one of the Western termini of the
Silk Road, gave the English language
"damask".
Mamluk period
Ayyubid rule (and independence) came to an end with the Mongol
invasion of Syria in 1260, and following the Mongol defeat at
Ain Jalut in the same year,
Damascus became a provincial capital of the
Mamluk Empire, ruled from Egypt, following the
Mongol withdrawal. The
Black Death of
1348-1349 wiped out perhaps as much as half of the city’s
population.
In 1400
Timur, the
Turco-Mongol conqueror, besieged Damascus. The
Mamluk sultan dispatched a deputation from Cairo, including
Ibn Khaldun, who negotiated with him,
but after their withdrawal he put the city to sack.
The Umayyad
Mosque
was burnt and men and women taken into
slavery. A huge number of the city's artisans were
taken to Timur's capital at Samarkand
. These were the luckier citizens: many were
slaughtered and their heads piled up in a field outside the
north-east corner of the walls, where a city square still bears the
name
burj al-ru'us, originally "the tower of heads".
Rebuilt, Damascus continued to serve as a Mamluk provincial capital
until 1516.
Ottoman rule
In early 1516, the
Ottoman Turks,
wary of the danger of an alliance between the Mamluks and the
Persian
Safavids, started a campaign of
conquest against the Mamluk sultanate. On 21 September, the Mamluk
governor of Damascus fled the city, and on 2 October the
khutba in the Umayyad mosque was pronounced in the
name of
Selim I. The day after, the
victorious sultan entered the city, staying for three months. On 15
December, he left Damascus by Bab al-Jabiya, intent on the conquest
of Egypt. Little appeared to have changed in the city: one army had
simply replaced another.
However, on his return in October 1517, the
sultan ordered the construction of a mosque, tekkiye and mausoleum at the shrine of Shaikh
Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi in al-Salihiyah
. This was to be the first of Damascus' great
Ottoman monuments.
The
Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief
occupation by Ibrahim Pasha of
Egypt
from 1832 to 1840 . Because of its
importance as the point of departure for one of the two great
Hajj caravans to Mecca, Damascus
was treated with more attention by the Porte
than its size might have warranted — for most of this period,
Aleppo was more
populous and commercially more important. In 1560 the Tekkiye
al-Sulaimaniyah
, a mosque
and khan for pilgrims on the road to
Mecca, was completed to a design by the famous Ottoman architect
Sinan, and soon afterwards a madrasa
was built adjoining it.
Under
Ottoman rule,
Christians and
Jews were
considered
dhimmis and were allowed to
practice their religious precepts. The
Damascus affair that took place in
1840 was an incident in which the accusation of
ritual murder was brought against
members of the Jewish community of Damascus.
In addition the
massacre of
Christians in 1860 was also one of the most notorious incident
of these centuries, when fighting between Druze and Maronites in
Mount
Lebanon spilled over into the city. Several thousand
Christians were killed, with many more being saved through the
intervention of the Algerian exile
Abd
al-Qadir and his soldiers (three days after the massacre
started), who brought them to safety in Abd al-Qadir's residence
and the citadel. The Christian quarter of the old city (mostly
inhabited by Catholics), including a number of churches, was burnt
down. The Christian inhabitants of the notoriously poor and
refractory Midan district outside the walls (mostly Orthodox) were,
however, protected by their Muslim neighbours.
American Missionary E.C. Miller records that in 1867 the population
of the city was 'about' 140,000, of whom 30,000 where Christians,
10,000 Jews and 100,000 'Mohammedans' with fewer than 100
Protestant Christians.
Modern
In the early years of the twentieth century, nationalist sentiment
in Damascus, initially cultural in its interest, began to take a
political colouring, largely in reaction to the
turkicisation programme of the
Committee of Union and
Progress government established in Istanbul in 1908. The
hanging of a number of patriotic intellectuals by
Jamal Pasha, governor of Damascus, in Beirut and
Damascus in 1915 and 1916 further stoked nationalist feeling, and
in 1918, as the forces of the
Arab
Revolt and the
British army
approached, residents fired on the retreating Turkish troops.
Damascus in flames as the result of
the French air raid on October 18, 1925.
On 1 October 1918, the forces of the
Arab
revolt led by
Prince Faysal
entered Damascus. The same day, Major A.C.N. 'Harry' Olden DSO, of
the 10th
Australian Light Horse Regiment as part of the 3rd Light
Horse Brigade vanguard from the British
Yeomanry Mounted Division entered
the city and accepted its surrender from the Turkish appointed
Governor Emir Said (installed as Governor the previous afternoon by
the retreating Turkish Commander). A military government under
Shukri Pasha was named. Other British
forces including
T. E. Lawrence
followed later that day, and
Faisal ibn
Hussein was proclaimed king of Syria.
Political tension
rose in November 1917, when the new Bolshevik government in Russia
revealed
the Sykes-Picot Agreement
whereby Britain and France had arranged to partition the Arab east
between them. A new Franco-British proclamation on 17
November promised the "complete and definitive freeing of the
peoples so long oppressed by the Turks." The
Syrian National Congress in March
adopted a democratic constitution.
However, the Versailles Conference had granted
France
a mandate over Syria, and in 1920 a
French army commanded by the General Mariano Goybet crossed the Anti-Lebanon
Mountains, defeated a small Syrian defensive expedition at the
Battle of Maysalun and entered
Damascus. The French made Damascus capital of their
League of Nations Mandate of Syria.
When in 1925 the
Druze revolt in the
Hauran spread to Damascus, the French
suppressed it brutally, bombing and shelling the city on
May 9,
1926.
As a result the area
of the old city between Al-Hamidiyah Souq
and Medhat Pasha Souq
was burned to the ground, with many deaths, and has
since then been known as al-Hariqa
("the fire"). The old city was
surrounded with barbed wire to prevent rebels infiltrating from the
Ghouta
, and a new
road was built outside the northern ramparts to facilitate the
movement of armored cars.
On 21 June 1941, Damascus was captured from the
Vichy French forces by the Allies during the
Syria-Lebanon campaign. In
1945 the French once more bombed Damascus, but on this occasion
British forces intervened and the French agreed to withdraw, thus
leading to the full independence of Syria in 1946 . Damascus
remained the capital. With the influx of Iraqi refugees beginning
in 2003 and funds from the Persian Gulf, Damascus has been going
through an economic boom ever since.
Geography
Damascus
lies about inland from the Mediterranean Sea
, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. It lies on a plateau above
sea-level.
The old
city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south
bank of the river Barada which is
almost dry(3 cm left). To the south-east, north and north-east
it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to
the Middle Ages: Midan in the south-west,
Sarouja
and Imara in the north and
north-west. These districts originally arose on roads
leading out of the city, near the tombs of religious figures.
In the
nineteenth century outlying villages developed on the slopes of
Jabal
Qasioun
, overlooking the city, already the site of the
al-Salihiyah district centred around the important shrine of Sheikh
Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi. These new
districts were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim
refugees from the European regions of the Ottoman Empire which had
fallen under Christian rule. Thus they were known as
al-Akrad (the Kurds) and
al-Muhajirin (the
migrants). They lay two to three kilometres (2 mi) north
of the old city.
From the
late nineteenth century on, a modern administrative and commercial
centre began to spring up to the west of the old city, around the
Barada, centred on the area known as al-Marjeh
or the meadow.
Al-Marjeh soon became the name of what was initially the
central square of modern Damascus, with the city hall on it. The
courts of justice, post office and railway station stood on higher
ground slightly to the south.
A Europeanised residential quarter soon
began to be built on the road leading between al-Marjeh and al-Salihiyah. The commercial and administrative centre of
the new city gradually shifted northwards slightly towards this
area.
In the twentieth century, newer suburbs developed north of the
Barada, and to some extent to the south, invading the Ghouta oasis.
From 1955
the new district of Yarmouk
became a second home to thousands of Palestinian
refugees. City planners preferred to preserve the
Ghouta as far as possible, and in the later twentieth century some
of the main areas of development were to the north, in the western
Mezzeh
district
and most recently along the Barada valley in Dummar in the
northwest and on the slopes of the mountains at Berze in the
north-east. Poorer areas, often built without official
approval, have mostly developed south of the main city.
Damascus
used to be surrounded by an oasis, the
Ghouta region
(الغوطة ), watered by the Barada river. The Fijeh spring,
west along the Barada valley, used to provide the city with
drinking water. The Ghouta oasis has been decreasing in size with
the rapid expansion of housing and industry in the city and it is
almost dry. It has also become polluted due to the city's traffic,
industry, and sewage.
Climate
Snow in Damascus
Damascus has a
semi-arid climate,
due to the
rain shadow effect of
the Anti-Lebanon mountains. Summers are dry and hot with less
humidity. Winters are cool and rainy or snowy. January maximum and
minimum temperatures are and , lowest ever recorded being . The
summer August maximum and minimum temperature are and , with the
highest ever recorded being . Annual rainfall is around 20 cm
(8 in), occurring from November to March.
Economy
Four Seasons Hotel
The historical role that Damascus played as an important trade
center has changed in recent years due to political development in
the region as well as the development of modern trade. Most goods
produced in Damascus, as well as in Syria, are distributed to
Countries of the Arabian peninsula. Damascus also holds an annual
international trade exposition in the fall since 1955.
Damascus has the potential for a highly successful tourism
industry. The abundance of cultural wealth in Damascus has been
modestly employed since the late 1980s with the development of many
accommodation and transportation establishments and other related
investments. Since the early 2000s, numerous boutique hotels and
bustling cafes opened in the old city which attract plenty of
European tourists and Damascenes alike.
The real-estate sector is booming in Damascus. Real-estate adviser
Cushman & Wakefield
listed Damascus office space as the eighth most expensive in the
world in 2009. The office market in Damascus is rather immature and
the demand for premium office space surpasses supply. However, new
supply of office space is expected to be delivered in 2009.Damascus
is home to a wide range of industrial activity, such as
Textile,
food
processing,
Cement and various Chemical
industries. The majority of factories are run by the state,
however, limited
privatization in
addition to economic activities let by the
private sector were permitted starting in the
early 2000s with the liberalization of trade that took place
.Traditional handcrafts and artisan copper engraving are still
produced in the old city.
The Damascus stock exchange formally opened for trade in March
2009.
Demographics
The population of Damascus in 2004 was 1,552,161 according to the
2004 official census conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics
(CBS) in Syria. However, according to the 2007 estimates released
by the CBS, the population of Damascus was estimated at 1,669,000
in 2007. Population grew by 7.52% between 2004 and 2007 as a direct
calculation which corresponds to an annual population growth of
2.51%.
The
metropolitan area of Damascus includes the cities of Duma, Harasta
, Darayya
, Al-Tall and Jaramana
. The lack of official population statistics
in these cities makes it hard to estimate the population of the
wider metropolitan area around Damascus, which is well over 2
million inhabitants.
People
The majority of the population in Damascus came as a result of
rural-urban migration. It is believed
that the local people of Damascus, called Damascene, are about 1.5
million.
Religion
The majority of the inhabitants of Damascus—about 75%—are
Sunni Muslims.
It is believed that there are more than
2,000 mosques in Damascus, the most well-known being the Umayyad
Mosque. Christians-especially Syriac-Assyrians represent
15% of the population, and there a number of Christian districts,
such as Bab
Tuma, Kassaa, and Ghassani, with
many churches, most notably the
ancient Chapel of
Saint Paul
. There is a small
Jewish community namely in what is called
Haryet il-yahoud the Jewish quarter,they are the remnants
of an ancient and much larger
Jewish
presence in Syria, dating back to Roman times.
Historical sites
A quiet square in old Damascus.
Damascus has a wealth of historical sites dating back to many
different periods of the city's history. Since the city has been
built up with every passing occupation, it has become almost
impossible to excavate all the ruins of Damascus that lie up to
below the modern level.
The Citadel of Damascus
is located in the northwest corner of the Old
City. The Street Called Straight
(referred to in the conversion of St. Paul in Acts 9:11), also known as the
Via
Recta
, was the decumanus
(East-West main street) of Roman Damascus, and extended for over
. Today, it consists of the street of Bab Sharqi and the
Souk Medhat Pasha, a covered market.
The Bab Sharqi
street is filled with small shops and leads to the
old Christian quarter of Bab
Tuma (St. Thomas's Gate). Medhat Pasha
Souq is also a main market in Damascus and was named
after Medhat Pasha,
the Ottoman governor of Syria who renovated the Souk.
At the
end of the Bab Sharqi street, one reaches the House of
Ananias
, an underground chapel that was the cellar of
Ananias's
house.The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one
of the largest mosques in the world, and one of the oldest sites of
continuous prayer since the rise of Islam. A shrine in the
mosque is said to contain the head of
Husayn ibn Ali and the body of
St. John the Baptist. The mausoleum
where
Saladin was buried is located in the
gardens just outside the mosque.
Sayyidah Ruqayya Mosque
, the shrine of the yongest daughter of Husayn ibn Ali, can also be found near the
Umayyad Mosque. Another heavily visited site is Sayyidah
Zaynab Mosque
, which is the tomb of Zaynab bint Ali.
The walls and gates of Damascus
The Old City of Damascus is surrounded by ramparts on the northern
and eastern sides and part of the southern side. There are seven
extant city gates, the oldest of which dates back to the Roman
period. These are, clockwise from the north of the citadel:
- Bab al-Saghir
(The Small Gate)
- Bab al-Faradis
("the gate of the orchards", or "of the
paradise")
- Bab al-Salam
("the gate of peace"), all on the north boundary of
the Old City
- Bab
Tuma ("Touma" or "Thomas's Gate") in the north-east
corner, leading into the Christian quarter of the same
name,
- Bab
Sharqi ("eastern gate") in the east wall, the only one to
retain its Roman plan
- Bab
Kisan
in the south-east, from which tradition holds that
Saint Paul made his escape from Damascus, lowered from the ramparts
in a basket; this gate is now closed and a chapel
marking the event has been built into the
structure,
- Bab al-Jabiya
at the entrance to Souk Midhat Pasha, in the
south-west.
Other areas outside the walled city also bear the name "gate":
Bab al-Faraj,
Bab Mousalla and
Bab
Sreija, both to the south-west of the walled city.
Churches in the old city
- Virgin Mary's Cathedral.
- House of Saint Ananias.
- Chapel of Saint Paul.
- The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Zaitoon (Olive) Alley.
- The Damascene Saint Johan church.
- Saint Paul's Laura.
- Saint George's Syriac Orthodox Church.
File:Damascus-Ananias chapel.jpg|House of
Saint AnaniasFile:A church in damascus.jpg|A church in the
old cityFile:St George Syriac orthodox church in Damascus.jpg|Saint
George's Syriac Orthodox Church.
Islamic sites in the old city
Madrasas
Sheraton Damascus
Old Damascene houses
Khans
A street in Old Damascus
Threats to the future of the old City
Due to the rapid decline of the population of Old Damascus (between
1995-2005 more than 20,000 people moved out of the old city for
more modern accommodation), a growing number of buildings are being
abandoned or are falling into disrepair. In March 2007, the local
government announced that it would be demolishing Old City
buildings along a stretch of rampart walls as part of a
redevelopment scheme. These factors resulted in the Old City being
placed by the
World Monuments
Fund on its 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in
the world. It is hoped that its inclusion on the list will draw
more public awareness to these significant threats to the future of
the historic Old City of Damascus.
Current state of old Damascus
In spite
of the recommendations of the UNESCO
World
Heritage Center:
- Souk El Atik, a protected buffer zone, was destroyed in three
days in November 2006;
- King Faysal Street, a traditional hand-craft region in a
protected buffer zone near the walls of Old Damascus between the
Citadel and Bab Touma, is threatened by a proposed
motorway.
- In
2007, the Old City of Damascus and notably the district of Bab Tuma have been recognized by The World Monument Fund as
one of the most endangered sites in the world.[1004]
Subdivisions
al-Merjeh square
Ministry of Tourism
Damascus is divided into many districts. Among them there
are:
|
Damascus Districts |
| 1 |
Abbasiyyin |
| 2 |
Abu Rummaneh |
| 3 |
Amara |
| 4 |
Bahsa |
| 5 |
Baramkah |
| 6 |
Barzeh |
| 7 |
Dummar |
| 8 |
Jobar |
| 9 |
Kafar Souseh |
| 10 |
Malki |
| 11 |
Mazraa |
| 12 |
Mezzeh |
| 13 |
Midan |
| 14 |
Muhajreen |
| 15 |
Qanawat |
| 16 |
Rukn Eddeen |
| 17 |
Al-Salihiyah |
| 18 |
Sarouja |
| 19 |
Sha'alan |
| 20 |
Shaghoor |
| 21 |
Tijara |
Education
Damascus is the main center of education in Syria.
It is home to
University
of Damascus
, which is the oldest and by far the largest
university in Syria. After the enactment of legislation
allowing private secondary institutions, several new universities
were established in the city and in the surrounding area,
including:
Transportation
al-Hejaz Station
The main
airport is Damascus International
Airport
, approximately away from the city center, with
connections to many Asian, European, African, and
recently, South American
cities.Streets in Damascus are often narrow, especially in
the older parts of the city, and speed bumps are widely used to
limit the speed of vehicles.
Public transport in Damascus depends extensively on
minibuses. There are about one hundred lines that
operate inside the city and some of them extend from the city
center to nearby suburbs. There is no schedule for the lines, and
due to the limited number of official
bus
stops, buses will usually stop wherever a passenger needs to
get on or off. The number of buses serving the same line is
relatively high, which minimizes the waiting time. Lines are not
numbered, rather they are given captions mostly indicating the two
end points and possibly an important station along the line.
Proposed Metro Green Line
The former main railway station of Damascus was al-Hejaz railway
station, about 1 km west of the old city. The station is now
defunct and the tracks have been removed, but there still is a
ticket counter and a shuttle to another train station in the south
of the city which now functions as the main railway station.
In 2008, the government announced a plan to construct an
underground system in Damascus with opening time for the green line
scheduled for 2015. The green line will be an essential West-East
axis for the future public transportation network, serving
Moadamiyeh, Sumariyeh, Mezzeh, Damascus University, Hijaz, the Old
City, Abbassiyeen and Qaboun Pullman bus station. A four-line metro
network is expected be in operation by 2050.
Culture
2008 Arab Capital of Culture
Damascus was chosen as the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture. The Arab
Capital of Culture is an initiative undertaken by UNESCO, under the
Cultural Capitals Program to promote and celebrate Arab culture and
encourage cooperation in the Arab region. The preparation for the
festivity began in February 2007 with the establishing of the
Administrative Committee for “Damascus Arab Capital of Culture" by
a presidential decree.
Food and Drinks
Tea and
Turkish
coffee are the most common beverages in Damascus.
Museums
File:Damascus-National-Museum.JPG|National
Museum of Damascus
File:October war panorama.jpg|October War
Panorama Museum
Sports
Popular sports include
football,
basketball,
swimming and
table
tennis. Damascus is home to many sports clubs, such as:
The
fifth and the
seventh Pan
Arab Games were held in Damascus in 1976 and 1992
respectively.
Leisure activities
A Damascus coffeehouse
Coffeehouses, where—in addition to
Arabic
coffee and tea—
hookahs (water pipes) are
served, proliferate Damascus.
Card games,
tables (
backgammon variants), and
chess are activities frequented in cafes.
Tishreen Park is by far the largest park in Damascus. It is home to
the yearly held Damascus Flower Show. Other parks include Aljahiz,
Al sibbki, Altijara and Alwahda.
Damascus' Ghouta (Oasis) is
also a popular destination for recreation. There are several
recreation centers in Damascus including several stadiums, swimming
pools and golf courses. Also,
The Syrian Arab Horse
Association in Damasacus offers a wide range of activities and
services for horse breeders and riders.
Nearby attractions
- Madaya
: a small
mountainous town well known holiday resort.
- Bloudan
: a town located 51 kilometers north-west of the
Damascus, its moderate temperature and low humidity in summer
attracts many visitors from Damascus and throughout Syria, Lebanon
and the Arab Gulf.
- Zabadani
: a city in close to the border with
Lebanon. Its mild weather along with the scenic views, made
the town a popular resort both for tourists and for visitors from
other Syrian cities.
- Maaloula
: a town dominated by speakers of Western Neo-Aramaic.
- Saidnaya
: a city located in the mountains, 1500 metres
(0.938 miles) above sea level, it was one of the episcopal cities
of the ancient Patriarchate of
Antioch.
Born in Damascus
International relations
- Main article: List of twin
towns and sister cities in Syria
Twin towns — Sister cities
Damascus is
twinned with:
Gallery
File:Ummayad Mosque at night.jpg|Umayyad
Mosque at nightFile:Spice shop in
Damascus.jpg|Spice shop in Old DamascusFile:Umayyad
square.jpg|Umayyad
Square
File:Umayyad Mosque-Minaret of the
Bride.jpg|Umayyad MosqueFile:Azem Palace window.jpg|Window at
Azem
Palace
File:Bakdash2.JPG|Traditional Damascene
ice creamFile:Cham Palace Hotel Damascus.jpg|Cham Palace
HotelFile:Office Building Damascus.jpg|Office building in
DamascusFile:Downtown Damascus.jpg|Downtown
DamascusFile:Old-Arabic-Houses-Damascus.JPG|Old houses of
DamascusFile:Carpet cleaning Damascus.jpg| Carpet Cleaning in the
Umayyad Mosque's courtyardFile:Umayyad Mosque partial facade.jpg|
Mosaic Work on the Umayyad Mosque's facadeFile:Old-Arabic-House-Damascus.jpg|Azem PalaceFile:سوق-الحميدية.JPG|Al-Hamidiyah SouqFile:Sabe' bahrat-square.JPG|Sabe' Bahrat
square in Damascus, Central Bank of Syria
can been seen in the
backgroundFile:Damascene antique shop .JPG|Damascene antique
shopFile:Western Temple gate Damascus.jpg| Western Temple
gateFile:Damascus old car.jpg|It's very common to see old cars in
DamascusFile:Traditional Damascene restaurant.jpg|Traditional
Damascene home turned into a restaurantFile:Souq Medhat
Pasha1.jpg|Souq Medhat Pasha
Bibliography
- Jill, Duchess of Hamilton, First to Damascus: The story of
the Australian Light Horse and Lawrence of Arabia (2002) ISBN
0-7318-1071-6
- Yohanan Aharoni & Michael Avi-Yonah, "The MacMillan Bible
Atlas", Revised Edition, (1968 & 1977 by Carta Ltd.).
- Stefano, Cammelli, Il Minareto di Gesù, Bologna, Il
Mulino, 2006
- ICOMOS Heritage at Risk 2001/2002: Damascus, A
Major Eastern Mediterranean Site at Risk
- Syria, Historic Damascus: The Destruction of the
Old City
References
- http://damascus.org.sy/
- List I, 13 in J. Simons, Handbook for the Study of Egyptian
Topographical Lists relating to Western Asia, Leiden 1937. See
also Y. AHARONI, The Land of the Bible: A Historical
Geography, London 1967, p147, No. 13.
- (in Book Reviews) Ancient Damascus: A
Historical Study of the Syrian City-State from Earliest Times Until
Its Fall to the Assyrians in 732 BC., Wayne T. Pitard. Review
author: Paul E. Dion, Bulletin of the American Schools of
Oriental Research, No. 270, Ancient Syria. (May, 1988), p.
98
- The Stele Dedicated to Melcarth by Ben-Hadad of
Damascus, Frank Moore Cross. Bulletin of the American
Schools of Oriental Research, No. 205. (Feb., 1972), p.
40.
- Moore, A.M.T. The Neolithic of the Levant. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University, 1978. 192-198. Print.
- MacMillan, pp. 30–31
- Islamic city. Encyclopædia
Britannica.
- Ellen Clare Miller, 'Eastern Sketches - notes of scenery,
schools and tent life in Syria and Palestine'. Edinburgh: William
Oliphant and Company. 1871. page 90. quoting Eli Jones, a
Quaker from New England.
- subsequently mentioned in dispatches
- Central Bureau of Statistics General Census of Population and Housing
- Syrian News Agency: Syrian Population Estimated at 19,405 Million
- http://damascus.org.sy/?d=298
- Beatties and Pepper, 2001, p. 102.
- http://www.saha-sy.org/
- Ross Burns, Damascus: A History - Page 59
- K. Müller &c Fragmenta historicorum graecorum vol. 3 p.344.
- M. Walsh, ed. Butler's Lives of the
Saints(HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1991), pp.
403.
- Donald E. Wagner. Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine
and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000
- Moubayed, Sami. Steel and Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped
Syria, 1900-2005. Seatle, WA: Cune Press, 2005. Print.
- Moubayed, Sami. Steel and Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped
Syria, 1900-2005. Seatle, WA: Cune Press, 2005. Print.
- Moubayed, Sami. Steel and Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped
Syria, 1900-2005. Seatle, WA: Cune Press, 2005. Print.
- La Cooperación Directa en el Ayuntamiento de
Córdoba - Córdoba City Council Web
- International Relations - São Paulo City Hall -
Official Sister Cities
- International Relations - São Paulo City Hall -
Official Sister Cities
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