Damascus
(Arabic Dimashq), capital and chief city of Syria , in southwestern
Syria, on the Barada River, near the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in the southwestern
part of the country. The greater part of Damascus, including the rectangular
ancient city, is on the south bank of the Barada modern suburbs extend from the
north bank.
Damascus has long been an
important commercial center. In former times it was famous for dried fruit,
wine, wool, linens, and silks. Damask, a type of patterned fabric, was named for
the silk fabrics woven in Damascus. The city was notable also for the
manufacture and transshipment of damascened steel sword blades, which were
exceptionally hard and resilient. Today the city is the trading center for figs,
almonds, and other fruit produced in the surrounding region. Industries in
Damascus include handicrafts, such as the weaving of silk cloth and the making
of leather goods, filigreed gold and silver objects, and inlaid wooden, copper,
and brass articles. Among the city's other manufactures are processed food,
clothing, and printed material.
The streets of the city, with the exception of
the “street called Straight” (mentioned in the Bible in Acts 9:11), on which
Saint Paul is supposed to have lived, are crooked and narrow. The houses
frequently combine a splendidly decorated interior with a plain and somber
exterior. The walls fronting the street are usually without windows.
Damascus has more than 200 mosques, of which
70 are still in use. Of these, the Umayyad Mosque, or Great Mosque, is the most
important. Said to have been a heathen temple, it was converted into a Christian
church at the end of the 4th century. It then contained what was believed to be
the head of Saint John the Baptist and was named the Cathedral of Saint John.
Other noteworthy mosques are the Sinani-yah, with a striking green-tiled tower,
and the Tekkeyah, which was founded in 1516 on the riverbank west of the city as
a refuge for poor pilgrims. The National Library, the National Museum, and the
University of Damascus (1923) are in the city.
Damascus is one of the world's oldest
continuously inhabited cities. According to 15th-century BC
Egyptian inscriptions, Damascus was the capital of a city-state. In 732 BC
Damascus was conquered by the Assyrians, under Tiglath-pileser III, and in 333
and 332 BC it fell to Alexander the
Great. After the death of Alexander in 323 BC,
Damascus became part of the Seleucid Kingdom. It was conquered by Pompey the
Great in 64 BC.
Christianity was introduced into Damascus
during the 1st century AD, and the
city became the seat of a bishop's diocese. In 635 it was taken by Muslim Arabs,
and for a time before the foundation of Baghdad in 762, the city was the
residence of the caliphs and was greatly adorned and fortified. In 1076 Damascus
was seized by the Seljuk Turks and in 1154 it fell to the Egyptians. Damascus
was the headquarters of Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, during the Third
Crusade. In 1401 the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane pillaged and burned the city. It
was soon rebuilt and in 1516 was wrested from Egypt by the Ottoman Turks.
Damascus was returned to Egyptian rule by Ibrahim Pasha in 1832; in 1841 it was
restored to the Ottoman Empire as part of Syria. In 1860, the city witnessed
some sectarian fighting between Muslims and Christians, the Ottoman authorities
where blamed of doing nothing to stop the fighting.
During World War I
(1914-1918), Turkish and German troops, directing their operations against the
Suez Canal, were based in Damascus. In 1918 the city was captured by combined
forces under British Field Marshal Edmund Henry Allenby and the Arab leader who
became Faisal I, king of Iraq. Faisal later attempted to make Damascus the
capital of an independent Arab state, and in March 1920 he was proclaimed king
of Syria by a Syrian congress meeting in Damascus. In July the French, who had
been granted a mandate over Syria by the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers,
occupied Damascus. Between 1925 and 1927, the French were driven out of Damascus
twice during the Great Syrian Revolution; each time, they reoccupied the city
after heavy bombardments that left large parts of the Old City in ruins and many
civilians killed. Following the defeat of France by Germany in 1940, during
World War II, the pro-German Vichy government of France established in Damascus
a colonial regime favorable to Germany. In 1941 a combined Allied French and
British force attacked Syria and took Damascus, which became the capital of
independent Syria in 1946. Population estimates today exceed 3 million people.
