Article about Damaskus by The Free Dictionary. Damascus(d. 1,5. 00,0. Beyond our home, school and workplace, Damascus Road Community Church offers opportunities to go near and far in sharing the Good News of Christ through tangible acts. Four Seasons Hotel Damascus offers the finest luxury accommodations in Syria with unrivalled service and amenities in a prime area of downtown Damascus. Syria and of its Damascus governorate, SW Syria, on the eastern edge of the Anti- Lebanon Mts. It is Syria's largest city and its administrative, financial, and communications center. Damascus stands in the oasis of Ghouta on the margins of the Syrian Desert, and is bisected by the Barada River. Manufactures include textiles, metalware, refined sugar, glass, furniture, cement, leather goods, preserves, confections, and matches. The city is served by a railroad, highways, and an international airport. Points of Interest. Damascus Univ. The old city lies south of the Barada, and the new town (greatly extended since 1. Points of interest include the Great Mosque (one of the largest and most famous mosques in the Muslim world), the quadrangular citadel (originally Roman; rebuilt 1. Muslim monastery, and Azm palace (1. Islamic art and architecture). There was a city on its site even before the time (c. B. C.) of Abraham. Abraham. Damascus was probably held by the Egyptians before the Hittite period (2d millennium B. C.) and was later ruled by the Israelites and Aram. Aram, ancient country and people centered in Damascus in S Syria between the 1. The Bible records constant contacts between the Hebrews and Aram. The Aramaeans spoke Aramaic, which is a term that refers to a family of languages, of which Syriac is a part... Click the link for more information. Tiglathpileser IIITiglathpileser III,d. B. C., king of ancient Assyria. He seems to have usurped the throne in 7. B. C. He bore the alternative name of Pul, by which he was known in biblical history (2 Kings 1. Click the link for more information. From the 6th to the 4th cent. Founded (c. 3. 12 B. C.) by Seleucus I, it soon replaced Babylon as the main center for east- west commerce through the valley... Click the link for more information.) gained control of the city, although the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt tried to wrest it from them. When Seleucid power waned, Tigranes. Tigranes, c. 1. 40 B. C.–5. 5 B. C., king of Armenia (c. B. C.–5. 5 B. C.), called also Tigranes I and Tigranes the Great. By an alliance with his father- in- law, Mithradates VI of Pontus, he was able to extend his conquests across Asia Minor... Click the link for more information. One of the cities of the Decapolis. 1,500,000), capital of Syria and of its Damascus governorate, SW Syria, on the eastern edge. Damaskus followed HARRIS, Mia Khalifa, SILLA and 197 others. Unmute @TaitEita Mute @TaitEita Follow Following Unfollow Blocked. Anmerkung zum Artikelgebrauch: Der Artikel wird gebraucht, wenn Decapolis. The others were (according to Pliny) Dion, Pella, Gadara, Hippos, Gerasa, Philadelphia, Damascus, Raphana, and Kanatha... Click the link for more information. It was on the road to Damascus that Paul. Paul,1. 90. 1–6. 4, king of the Hellenes (1. George II. He married (1. Princess Frederika of Brunswick. During Paul's reign Greece followed a pro- Western policy, and the Cyprus question was temporarily resolved... Click the link for more information. Damascus that he escaped persecution by being lowered down the wall in a basket. The Roman emperor Theodosius ITheodosius Ior Theodosius the Great,3. Roman emperor of the East (3. West (3. 94–9. 5), son of Theodosius, the general of Valentinian I... Click the link for more information. Roman temple of Zeus (1st cent. A. D.). After the permanent split (3. Roman Empire, Damascus became a provincial capital of the Byzantine Empire. The Arabs, who had attacked and sporadically held the city since before the time of Paul, occupied it permanently in 6. The city was then gradually converted to Islam, and the Christian church built by Theodosius was rebuilt (7. Great Mosque. Damascus was the seat of the caliphate under the Umayyads from 6. Abbasids made Baghdad the center of the Muslim world. Damascus thereafter fell prey to new conquerors—the Egyptians, the Karmathians, and the Seljuk Turks (1. Although the Christian Crusaders failed in several attempts to annex the city, they ravaged the rich alluvial plain several times while the Saracen rulers, notably Nur ad- Din. Nur ad- Din, 1. 11. Syria. He was the son of the conqueror Zangi, and he succeeded to power in 1. He defeated the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor and fought with Baldwin III of Jerusalem... Click the link for more information. Mesopotamia, of Kurdish descent... Click the link for more information. Damascus continued to prosper under the Saracens; its bazaars sold brocades (damask), wool, furniture inlaid with mother of pearl, and the famous swords and other ware of the Damascene metalsmiths. In 1. 26. 0 the city fell to the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. Hulagu Khan, 1. 21. Mongol conqueror, grandson of Jenghiz Khan. His brother Mangu, grand khan of the Mongols, directed him to quell a revolt in Persia. In 1. 25. 6, in the course of his successful campaign, his forces virtually exterminated the powerful Assassin sect... Click the link for more information., and it was sacked c. Timur. Timuror Tamerlane, c. Mongol conqueror, b. He is also called Timur Leng . He was the son of a tribal leader, and he claimed (apparently for the first time in 1. Jenghiz Khan... Click the link for more information., who took away the swordmakers and armorers. In 1. 51. 6, Damascus passed to the Ottoman Turks, and for 4. Ottoman Empire. There was a massacre of Christians by Muslims in 1. Great Mosque. E.(Thomas Edward Lawrence), 1. British adventurer, soldier, and scholar, known as Lawrence of Arabia. While a student at Oxford he went on a walking tour of Syria and in 1. British Museum archaeological expedition in Mesopotamia... Click the link for more information. Educated at Sandhurst, he saw active service in Bechuanaland (1. Zululand (1. 88. 8) and in the South African War... Click the link for more information. The third son of Husayn ibn Ali, sherif of Mecca, he is also called Faisal ibn Husayn. Faisal was educated in Constantinople and later sat in the Ottoman parliament as deputy for Jidda... Click the link for more information. However, once in Damascus, the British reneged on the promise. After the war the city became the capital of one of the French Levant States mandated under the League of Nations. Owing to broken promises about Arab control, Damascus in 1. Druze. Druzeor Druse, religious community of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, with important overseas branches in the Americas and Australia. The religious leadership prefers the name Muwahhidun (Unitarians)... Click the link for more information. When Syria and Egypt joined to form the United Arab Republic. United Arab Republic,political union (1. Egypt and Syria. The capital was Cairo. The two countries were merged (1. Southern (Egypt) and the Northern (Syria) Regions, with Gamal Abdal Nasser as president... Click the link for more information. Syria withdrew from the United Arab Republic in 1. In the Syrian civil war that began in 2. Damascus itself remained largely under control of government forces. Bibliography. See C. Thubron, Mirror to Damascus (1. Damascus (Arabic, Dimashq), capital of the Syrian Arab Republic. Chief commercial, industrial, financial, transportation, and cultural center of the country. Located in the Barada valley in the foothills of the Anti- Lebanons at the foot of Mount Kasiun at an altitude of 6. Average January temperature, 7. Annual precipitation, 2. Population, 8. 35,0. Most of the inhabitants are Arabs, but Kurds, Armenians, and other peoples also live in the city. The first information on Damascus dates to the 1. B. C. From the end of the 1. B. C. Later it became part of Assyria, the New Babylonian Kingdom, the Achaemenid Empire, the empire of Alexander the Great, the dominion of the Seleucids, and the Roman Empire. From the end of the fourth century A. D. Damascus was conquered in 6. Arabs. From 6. 61 to 7. Umayyad Caliphate. Damascus expanded considerably during this period and became one of the most important centers of Muslim culture and Eastern Christianity. After the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate and the transfer of the capital first to Anbar and then in 7. Baghdad, Damascus remained the principal city of the province of the same name. The city came under the sway of the Tulunids in the ninth century, the Fatimids from the tenth to the mid- 1. Seljuks in the second half of the 1. Ayyubids in the 1. It was seized in 1. Mamluks and captured in 1. Timur. During the Mamluk period (the 1. Damascus was a center for the caravan trade and handicrafts (fabrics, cold weapons, and jewelry), and it was a stronghold of Islam. From 1. 51. 6 to the end of World War I (1. Ottoman Empire. From 1. French mandated territory of Syria. Damascus was one of the centers of the Syrian National Uprising of 1. It has been the capital of independent Syria since 1. Damascus has a well- developed food- processing industry (a sugar refinery near the city and a brewery in Adhra, as well as chocolate, pasteurized milk, and tobacco- processing factories). There are also textile mills, a large glass plant, and cement, electric cable, drug, and television assembly plants. The city is a handicrafts center (articles made of gold, silver, copper, wood, and leather, as well as brocades and carpet weaving). Damascus has electric power plants. It is connected by railroad and by automobile highways with Beirut (Lebanon), Amman (Jordan), and the cities of Horns, Hama, and Aleppo. The city has an international airport. Monuments of ancient and medieval architecture have been preserved in Damascus. Some quarters have rectangularly laid out streets that date to the Seleucid era (3. B. C.). Surviving from the Roman period are a line of city walls (completed in the 1. Jupiter the Damascene, with a high Corinthian colonnade. Examples of medieval architecture include the Umayyad Mosque (7. Nural- Din Hospital (after 1. Madrasa al- Nuriyah (1. Saladin (1. 2th century), and the Adiliyah Madrasa (1. Other major medieval architectural monuments include the Zahiriyah Madrasa (1. Azm’s Palace (1. 74. Takiyah Sulaymaniyah Mosque (1. Sinan), and Dar- wishiyah Mosque (1. Nineteenth- century roofed markets have also been preserved (Suq al- Arwam and Suq al- Hamidiyah), as well as baths. Twentieth- century Damascus is expanding north and west. Damascus - Wikipedia. Damascus. It is now most likely the largest city of Syria, due to the decline in population of Aleppo because of the ongoing battle for the city. It is commonly known in Syria as ash- Sham (Arabic: . In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The city has an estimated population of 1,7. The Barada River flows through Damascus. First settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 6. 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. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries. Names and etymology. It is attested as Dima. The Akkadian spelling is found in the Amarna letters, from the 1. BC. Later Aramaic spellings of the name often include an intrusive resh (letter r), perhaps influenced by the root dr, meaning . Thus, the Qumranic. Darme. The Anti- Lebanon mountains mark the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range has peaks of over 1. However, in ancient times this was mitigated by the Barada River, which originates from mountain streams fed by melting snow. Damascus is surrounded by the Ghouta, irrigated farmland where many vegetables, cereals and fruits have been farmed since ancient times. Maps of Roman Syria indicate that the Barada river emptied into a lake of some size east of Damascus. Today it is called Bahira Atayba, the hesitant lake, because in years of severe drought it does not even exist. 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 neighbourhoods originally arose on roads leading out of the city, near the tombs of religious figures. In the 1. 9th century outlying villages developed on the slopes of Jabal Qasioun, overlooking the city, already the site of the al- Salihiyah neighbourhood centred on the important shrine of Sheikh Muhi al- Din ibn Arabi. These new neighbourhoods 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). 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 2. 0th century, newer suburbs developed north of the Barada, and to some extent to the south, invading the Ghouta oasis. 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 (. 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. Summers are dry and hot with less humidity. Winters are cool and somewhat rainy; snowfall is infrequent. Annual rainfall is around 1. October to May. Climate data for Damascus (1. Month. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Year. Record high . The Damascus region, as well as the rest of Syria, became a battleground circa 1. BC, between the Hittites from the north and the Egyptians from the south. 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. 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. Aram- Damascus. By the start of the first 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, centred on its capital Damascus. Noticing the agricultural potential of the still- undeveloped and sparsely populated area. 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. 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. This conflict continued until the early 8th century BC when Ben- Hadad II was captured by Israel after unsuccessfully besieging Samaria. As a result, he granted Israel trading rights in Damascus. In 8. 53 BC, 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, 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. Nonetheless, it remained the economic and cultural centre of the Near East as well as the Arameaen resistance. In 7. 27, 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 6. In 5. 72, all of Syria had been conquered by the Neo- Babylonians, but the status of Damascus under Babylon is relatively unknown. After the death of Alexander in 3. 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 . The Romans occupied Damascus and subsequently incorporated it into the league of ten cities known as the Decapolis. Still today the Old Town of Damascus retains the rectangular shape of the Roman city, with its two main axes: the Decumanus Maximus (east- west; known today as the Via Recta) and the Cardo (north- south), the Decumanus being about twice as long. The Romans built a monumental gate which still survives at the eastern end of Decumanus Maximus. The gate originally had three arches: the central arch was for chariots while the side arches were for pedestrians. 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. Circa 1. 25 CE the Roman emperor Hadrian promoted the city of Damascus to . The Roman architects brought together the Greek and Aramaean foundations of the city and fused them into a new layout measuring approximately 1,5. 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 (1. 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 neighbourhood. Roman Catholic historians also consider Bab Tuma to be the birthplace of several Popes such as John V and Gregory III. During Muhammad era. In his letter, Muhammad stated: . Be informed that my religion shall prevail everywhere. You should accept Islam, and whatever under your command shall remain yours. His army had previously attempted to capture the city in April 6. 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 6. Khalid ibn al- Walid's forces withdrew from Damascus to prepare for renewed confrontation. After the death of Caliph Ali in 6. Mu'awiya was chosen as the caliph of the expanding Islamic empire. Because of the vast amounts of assets his clan, the Umayyads, owned in the city and because of its traditional economic and social links with the Hijaz as well as the Christian Arab tribes of the region, Mu'awiya established Damascus as the capital of the entire Caliphate. Arabic was also established as the official language, giving the Muslim minority of the city an advantage over the Aramaic- speaking Christians in administrative affairs. Damascus itself was predominantly Aramaic with Arab speaking people. Abd al- Malik's successor, al- Walid initiated construction of the Grand Mosque of Damascus (known as the Umayyad Mosque) in 7. The site originally had been the Christian Cathedral of St. John and the Muslims maintained the building's dedication to John the Baptist.
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