Inside Old Homs's House

Syria though Ages

 

it seems that, since hundred thousands years ago, people were eager to settle at the Euphrates banks the Assi (orantes) river valley in Syria, and among gardens of pines and oaks. The people from the first stone ages – such as Chilean & Ashouli period – have resided at the area where some very old tools such as scraper, manual axes and Clint stone plates have been fund out.

 

Moving to the Mesolithic (medium Stone Age) and Neolithic (modern stone age), we surly see in this area - Euphrates area in Syria --- the oldest population settlement and residency have ever found. This has been really discovered while having protected the ruins and antiquities available at the Euphrates dam site.

 

The scientific mission at Tall Mrebet site, located at Euphrates river, west to Tabaqa (presently Thawra) city, have discovered a location in which human resided since eleven thousand years ago, which in turn considers to be the oldest stable residency known up to day. That human used to live in circle big rooms made out of mud, wood along with some stone, where we find that the ceilings or covers of these rooms used to be made out of branches or the animal leathers.

 

At Tall Abu Hurira, not too far from Tall Mrebet, antiquities have been found out there belonging to the same age, the nineth C BC. But those immigrants coming from Euphrates site or those original people have not in their minds that they are going to build up at the Euphrates banks location, presently called Tall Hariri, 100 km west of al-Bokamal county, a very big civilization belonging to the third Millennium BC. Ascribed to Mary city.

In 1933, just for the our fair luck, through excavations still in progress, this important site is still on up to day; as a matter of fact, this site indicated out various levels, layers and premises. Many thousands of muddy inscriptions tablets have enriched our knowledge about the ancient history of this area and indicated that the Euphrates regions, as well as Egypt used to have the ancient civilization and population settlement in the world.

 

Mary used to occupy the prominent place in history of Euphrates regions. In 1935 a palace belonging to the 02nd Millennium BC, has been discovered under which in 1964 another palace belonging to the Pre- Sargon reign (which means from 2700 – 2350 BC)

 

Another layer again has been discovered belonging to Ninava the 5th, which means fourth Millennium BC.

 

Out of the pre– Sargon age, Shamash, Dagan, Ashtar and Ninni Zaza temples have been discovered there.

 

At the second period, the big palace of the city which has been fully destroyed after a sweeping war launched by Hammorabi in 1750 BC. has been discovered. At that time, Hamorabi, has destroyed his enemy Zimiri Lim, the king of Mary. Flourish and importance distinguished city reached up at the age of that king has no more existed .

 

From this big palace, Zimiri Lim, used to control big part of the Middle East, and at the same time, the destiny of many people were used to be in his hand up to be occupied by Babylon army.

 

Upon excavation, more than twenty thousand inscriptions and slabs written in cuneiform style and Akkadian languages, have been found out along with other various statues made out of mud and stone; one of them is a splendid statue representing the beautiful female-singer Urnina of the temple Ninni Zaza, Lamji Mary statue, statue of the fortune-teller, Ashtar statue, the calf Statue and Eidi Naroum, Eiko Shamagan statue the flour miller which has founded at Ashtar temple.

 

The most two important and greatest findings of Zimri Lim belonging to the 2nd Millennium BC, have been the statue of The Goddess of spring, and the statue of Eshtob Eilom, along with head cut-off statue of Eidi Eilom

 

At the court-yard, remaining of a colorful wall-paint decorated portraying a festival scene, with King Zimri Lim standing worshipfully in front of goddess of war Ashtar, which was in her costumes erected on her lion-symbol; with other views we may see the Springs goddess and Palms goddess.

 

During 1975 , a significant discovery of cultural historical importance existed at Tall Merdikh, surely it is the discovery of Ebla City. Two rooms containing 17 000 of clay-documentary inscriptions were found in one of the meeting halls of the royal palace third Millennium BC- of Ebla, the biggest and most ancient city in the world.

 

These inscriptions, which carried original texts written in Amorit, Canaanite, and Sumerian old Syrian languages, were filed on wooden shelves as exactly as any modern library nowadays.

 

The initial reading showed that these clay-documents were the lists of Ebla's old trades, royal laws, official reports to the king of Ebla about military battles, lists of taxes paid by subjugated cities, and treaties with other great states. In addition to these documents, many lingual texts were found, between which the oldest multi-languages dictionaries that gave a series of Sumerian words (the language of the southern Mesopotamia), and Canaanite words ( the Syrian language at that time). At the same archive, there were found a lot of literary and religious texts about the Sumerian epics and myths. The famous epic of Gilgamesh was one of them.

 

In 1929, Ugarit city was discovered in Ras Shamra, a location to the north of Lattakia which was the greatest sea-port on the Mediterranean during second Millennium BC. That was when a farmer picked up a rock from over the soil while cultivating his land, and found that the rock was hiding a pass ending with a tomb. The scientists received the news. Cloude Schiffer took over the excavation process which is still going on nowadays under his successors supervision.

 

The most important discoveries, belonging to the primal culture of Ugarit, were the incomparable Royal Palace, and the primal regulated city. Next to the Palace, there was the temple of the gods Baal and Dagan, the most important Canaanite gods at that time. There had been found too in Ugarit a lot of clay- inscriptions or boards carrying texts written in the language of that area, specifically, the Akkadian language. However, the greatest clay-board was the one engraved alphabet.

 

This alphabet was consisted of 30 letters arranged in the order of our current alphabets. The significance of this alphabet was not shown clearly till it was written on bulrush leaves. The letters were transformed into a softened form similar to that of Ahiram Alphabet at Jbeil which was the fundamental basis of the Semites and Latin alphabet.

 

In Damascus, there are still antiques from the Aramaic and Roman ages. The long street, the city gateway, the rampart, and the vestiges of Jupiter the Damascen temple are still standing as reminders of the city glorious ages. Still Saint Ananias Church together with St, Paul Gate are both Christian ancient landmarks; while mosques, schools, khans, and alms-houses are all Islamic landmarks still intact featuring all-around the city.

 

Septim Sever, a Qurtaj leader from Libya, speaking Phoenician language, had married Julia Domna from Homs City. Septim became an emperor, and his retinue did move from Homs to Rome. This helped the Syrian influence to appear clearly on governance and culture to the extent that Roman poet called Juvinal said:" al-Assi river is now pouring in al Tiber river.

At that time, Palmyra won much of the care of Rome. In Karkalla reign 212-217, it was called a Roman colony, ie. it was parallel to Rome, having no taxes to be paid.

 

Palmyra reached its ultimate glories during 2nd and 3rd C, extended to Anatolia, Cham regions, and Egypt. It was a huge city with glory-witness establishments still standing nowadays. The ever grand temple of Baal might be absolute evidence on the advancement and dominance of the city. Also, the straight street with its stores, forum, tetrapylon, and theatre, in addition to the huge rampart with the graves and sepulchers beyond constitute have been other evidences of the city’s economical and social high class prosperity.

 

Scarcely after Severus reign had ended, Philip the Arabic, borne in Shahba, was proclaimed as a Syrian Emperor of Rome. This helped again this country to attain some sympathy and awareness, and this was clearly evident with building Shahba (Philipopolis) and sustaining Bosra. We can still see today in Shahba the old stone-streets, stores, khans, canals, amphitheatre, temples, and Philip’s tomb in which he was not entombed!

 

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Bosra is another glorious city. It was the homeland for Arabs, specifically, Nabatean. It was, since 106, an important Roman city. During Alexander Sever reign, it was given the tile “ Mother`s Cities”Metropolis, and it became one significant post characterized by the tremendous architecture and construction. Its being a mercantile center was the reason behind its continuous flourish. The amphitheatre is all what was left in Bosra since the 2nd century. It is the only perfect theatre in the world since it still keeps its original parts after an Islamic citadel was built on it.

 

The amphitheatre was built of stone with a diameter of 102 m, consisted of 37 stairs adequate for an audience of 15 thousand spectators. The over buildings were removed to make it a place for visitors and huge festivals. The underneath marketplace was discovered (the Criptoporticus), which was an arcade under the ground of 106 m length. This arcade was lightened by 44 windows over decorative niches. The forum, baths, colonnade street, and arch of triumph were also discovered.

 

Apamea, the second capital city of Seleucid people , became after 60 BC a Roman urban with a magnificent extraordinary view.

 

The ancient Syrian inhabitants, Arabian Aramaic, embraced Christianity with full modesty. Arabian Monzers and Ghassans embraced this religion too; they built churches and monasteries for it.

like Bosra & Izraa appeared, and their ruins are still existed.

 

Rasafa was a Roman watch way, protecting the convoy between Damascus & Palmyra, and watching the Persians army movements. In the year 300, this city embraced the body of St Sergio, who was named saint after being killed during Diocletian's reign, then the city carried the name Sergio-polis. Within its ramparts there are still the ruins of three churches, Cathedral St Sergio and Martyrs Church is the hugest.

 

Since the fifth century and after Christianity was settled as the main religion of the Syrian inhabitants, a new phenomenon was known ,which is hermitage”. Monks were to sanctum in their hermitages, on mountains tops, in caves, or over bollards, and this was the case with St Simeon the Baptist, who lived on a platform atop a column for more than 37 years.

 

However, the Islamic era in the history of Syria is the longest and most important era ever. Umayyad Mosque will continue to be the most perfect and ancient Islamic eternity, which is an everlasting evidence on the significance of Damascus as the first Islamic capital for the greatest Islamic state, or to say Khilafa in the history.

 

The mosque design laid-out the foundation of the Islamic mosques in

general. The mosaic wall panels reminded of the Muslims’ dreams about Heaven and Paradise.

 

The time and age of Hisham Ibn Abdul Malik (724-743) was the time of a major architectural flourish. He installed many monuments in Cham like Rasafa Palace, Eastern Heir Palace, Western Heir Palace to the south of Palmyra. They were of the admirable early Islamic architecture, which used its decoration from Sasanean and Byzantine arts. But, of course, they figured a new form which was indicated and considered the beginning of the Islamic Art.

 

Historians reported about two palaces of Hisham, one at al-Raqqa and al-Mofajjar palace and other ones in Palestine & Jordan.

 

Moving through the later Islamic ages, Aleppo citadel – being continued an Islamic pride on citadels. During the Ayyubids age, King al-Zaher Ghazi Ibn Salah Din established some other sections in the citadel, restored many others, dug its dike, coated its surface with stone, built a mosque and palaces inside, and lived in it with his wife Daifa Khatun, who had been buried inside the citadel before her body was removed to the Paradise school.

 

The citadel of Damascus is not of less significance! It is characterized by its location on the ground level to the west-north angle of the rampart or wall of old Damascus city.

 

It was a fortification citadel at the age of Seljuk's and Atabics. But, King al-Adel, Salah-Din’s brother, ordered it to be constructed in its current rectangular shape at the beginning of the 7th century. The palace and the royal quarter were to the west of it. It contained a tower for messenger pigeons, coinage house, arms factory, bazaar, bath, and some small mosques. The citadel was the power and leadership center of the state surrounded by huge towers and gates.

 

 

 

Damascus Governorate

 

Demashqe, Damishqi, Tamshouq , Tamashqo, Timashki Uro, Sha Imiri show, Oaas kingdom, Aram kingdom, Dar Masq, Demetries, Damascus, Canon, al–jallq, al-Faiha, Eski sham, Ein al Sharque Koleh & Cham Sharif ….

 

 

 

Damascus Province

 

Damascus City, a city of the following description:

 

162 km. distant located from Homs, 124 km from Suweida, 101 km from Daraa, 67 km from Qunaytera. It is located on longitude 36 d and 18 m E/GMT, on latitude 33 d and 33 m N, altitude 598-900 m above sea level, 633 km2 Damascus Basin City, surrounded by mountains from three directions, opened from the east on the Syrian semi desert, To the north and west north there are the mountains of Antar & Kassiun. To the east we find the mountains of Abu al-Ata & Dumeir. To the south east we see the high volcanic mounts, and to the south west we notice the eastern mounts of Lebanon (known as Jabal Asheikh and Haramun).

 

Till now, it is believed that it is the oldest continuous inhabited city in the world! As the excavations show, it is presumed that the human existence in it is back to seventh millennium BC! This is at least in the hills surrounding the city center like Tall Aswad, Tall Salhiyeh, Tall Ghorayfeh, Tall Khozama, and Tall Ramad.

 

The whole city population had reached four million inhabitants according to the population statistics of 2002. This number constitute 25.5% of the country population. The old city area is not more than 0.0001% of the country survey, i.e. 1.6 km2. It is surrounded by a rampart which gathered quarters like Bab Touma, Qeymarieh, Amara, Shagur, Bab Sharqi, and al-Amin quarter.

The building structure is consisted of oriental-style houses, built of clay and stone, with wooden roofs, and broad gardens; in the middle adorned by green trees and spring-ponds. The lane inside the quarters are very narrow, therefore, most of their parts are shadowy. In-houses are wonderfully designed. The visitor is amazed by the mixture between the architecture and the genuine Damascene traditions.

 

The city does include also a lot of significant mosques and churches that are visited by people from all over the world due to their sanctity and

ancientness.

 

In addition to that, there are the tombs of significant persons in the history, the old mansions that are considered as architectural masterpieces, the important bazaars that exhibit various types of stocks and traditional manufactures; also we notice clearly , the restaurants inside the old houses presenting delicious Damascene dishes to attract the visitors.

 

Arrivals to Damascus are received at its International Airport or its access-road at Jdeideh on the Syrian-Lebanese borders. Visitors are carefully looked after. They are taken to the multi-levels comfortable hotels, restaurants, cinemas, and theatres.

 

As for the literate people , the city is full of many national libraries, old and modern ones. Also, annual cultural and artistic festivals are instated together with the international expos for business men, foreign and native cultural centers, institutes, companies, and administration.

 

The Syrian antique treasures newly discovered are a manifestation of the successive cultures and generations who lived on the ground of this city thousands of years ago. We should not forget the Damascene baths, which the name Damascus was always connected to them.

 

In the evenings, there is the anecdote-teller at the folk-house telling the social and historical entertaining stories to reinforce the Arabic social and religious values and traditions.

 

Damascus was first mentioned on the boards and inscriptions of Mary Kingdom(2500 BC)as Damashka, then on Ebla's (2400 BC) as Dameshki, then in the archive of Tall al-Amarnah at the Nile Valley (Akhit Atoon)

During Pharaoh Thotmose III residence in Syria (1480 BC), Damascus was named Tamashko, and it was added to the Egyptian territories. It was recorded so too during Pharaoh Aminofes III reign. In a letter from the Prince of Qatna (an Amorit kingdom near Homs , flourished after the fall of Ebla kingdom)to Pharaoh Aminofes IV it was named as Timashki Uro. In another letter from Ribadah, Prince of Biblos (in Lebanon), it was Damashk; its Prince was Azira. The Assyrian documents mentioned it as Sha Emiri Sho.

 

The first Assyrian king who faced the Kingdom of Damascus was ShalmanezzerIII 858-824 BC. Its spoken language was the Aramaic. King Shalmanezzer III defeated King Hadad Adri Bar Hidu of Damascus, and Damascus was called at that time the Mat Sha Emiri Sho. And, it was named as Dar Mesk during the Aramaic Syrian King Roson Ibn Alida reign 732 BC, and so in the some texts of the old testament of the Aram Damascus Kingdom.

 

In the movement of adopting the Semitic race, it was said that Geron Ibn Saad Ibn Imad Ibn Aram Ibn Sam Ibn Noah was the one who built Damascus, and Sham / Cham is a proportion to Sam , the son of Noah.

 

The Assyrian Tiglat Plezzer III called it Canon. He reported its being under siege for a long time till it fall down; the king was killed and the dwellers were migrated to the Assyrian region. Some of the ruins of that period were the temple of Hadad and a basaltic rock which were founded in 1949 to the east of the northern wall of Umayyad Mosque.

 

The historian Yaqout al-Hamwi 13 C, reported that the name Damascus was from Damashek Ibn Kani Ibn Malek Ibn Arfakhashd Ibn Sam Ibn Noah, and that P. Abraham al-Khalil was live in a place within its circulation orchards (Ghouta).

 

He mentioned also that Adam & Eve, Able & Cain settled in some places around the city; and he narrated that the story of the murder of Able took place on mountain Kasiun. He reported too that the first wall built after the Flood was that of Damascus and Harran. The same story was reported by Ibn Asaker.

 

Another narration said that Aliazar P. Abraham`s servant build Damascus, and that he was from Habashah city, given to Abraham when he got out of the fire. That boy was called “ Demashk”. The Patilmus called it Demitrius. Stephan the Byzantium at sixth C stated that its name is attributed to the hero Damascus, the son of the god Herms. Josephus 1st C, said that one of its suburbs was called “ Abraham House” in which he espoused. It was said too that Sham meant the north of the creation center, the residence of Adam & Eve and the place of the divine Paradise.

 

Emperor Julian 4th C described it as “ Eye Orient”, and Fosidius 2nd C complimented the excellence of the Damascene wine. It was called “Gullak” in the Aramaic language and “Dramsuq” in the Syriac Language. It was given many other names too, like Sham Damascus, Sham Sharif (Prophet Mohammed’s wives and companions are buried there), Eski Sham (old Sham), and the name Faihaa due to its vastness and abundance.

 

Hesael assigned the throne. Hesael was slain by Shalmanezzer in 841 BC and the trees of Ghuta were cut down. In 837 BC, Shalmanezzer tried to re-appropriate Damascus but his trial was not successful.

 

In 721-705 BC, at the time of Sargon II, Damascus tried to separate from the Assyrian state in a revolution led by the King of Hama, but the Assyrians could defeat it totally.

 

In 694 PC, Elo Easia – or Eli Atiba- reined the kingdom of Damascus. However, during Sinharib reign ( 704-781 BC ), the city was a military post for his invasions on the Nabatean & the Arabian tribes.

 

After the collapse of the Assyrian empire and the short period of the Egyptian control, Aram-Damascus became a part of the new Babylon empire 605 BC. Thereafter, it was occupied in 538 BC by the Persians , who caused it to become famous for significant industries like olive oil, spinning, textures, winery, arms, and the agricultural instruments. Also, we should not forget the water distributive- system design in the old city.

 

In 333 BC, the Greek ended the Persian, It was by the hands of Alexander the Great who fought them the Persians at Issus battle (lies just to the north of the pass in the Amanus Mountains, S/E Turkey, called the Syrian Gate). But his successors could not manage the administration of Syria in a right way due to the temporary transition of the capitals from Damascus to Anatolia and due to the dreadfulness of the Nabatean influence over the region.

 

Seleucid tried to naturalize Syria with Greek stamp; therefore, they built many specific quarters in a chess-board–like design which was dominant at that time, where the buildings surrounding the public squares, and the upright streets.

 

Between 84 and 85 BC, Damascus faced the Armenian occupation led by King Dikran the Great II. The Greek period was ended by arrival of the Roman forces led by Pombi in 64 BC, and this activated the communication between Europe and Asia for more than 700 years. But the genuine glory of the city was when the Nabateans entered the city twice during the Roman occupation period: in 85 BC and in 37 BC.

 

Therefore, Damascus became a Nabatean realm disciplined by the Roman empire. At that time, it witnessed many important achievements that are still working nowadays like water streaming of the river Barada, distending the city rampart to become of a rectangular shape 1500 m × 750 m, opening the seven gates, rebuilding the temple of God Hadad and renaming it as “Damascene Jupiter”, and decorating the upright street with scenic arcs to relieve the eyes with their view instead of watching the distant end of the street.

 

Damascus led a peaceful and stable time, especially when it was a main station on the silk-road. It continued its outspreading of the religious beliefs to the out-world, amongst which was Christianity, as recorded in the Bible- the versions of Saint Paul, Saint Anania, and John the Baptist.

 

In 117 BC, Emperor Hadrian granted Damascus as a metropolis, i.e. the primal city. During the reign of the Syrian Phoenician emperor " Septimus Severus”, the founder of the empirical Syrian race 197-235, and his successors, the city was endowed with many concessions.

 

At the end of the fourth century AD, the Roman Empire was split into two parts, and Damascus followed the eastern Christian part. Since 378 , a part of the Damascene Jupiter Temple was transformed into a church which was ascribed to John the Baptist. Macakeer III, the Patriarch of Syrian Antioch who died in 1672 , mentioned in his book about the seven holy communities that the bishop Magtus of Damascus was one of the 318 participant bishops of the Nicea community in 325.

 

Between 612-628, the Persian re-occupied the city. As a result, the dwellers suffered a lot from the confrontations between the Persia and Byzantium troops. The end was the reclamation of the lost territories and interests by Hercules, the Byzantium Emperor.

 

The Arabian Islamic armies arrived in march 14th 635, to redeem the country from the foreign Byzantium oppression, and to spread out the new religion. After six months of siege, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah succeeded to enter the city through its western gate, Khalid ibn al-Walid through the eastern gate, Moawiya ibn Abi Sufean through Bab Kisan, Yazid ibn Moawiya through Bab Saghir, Sharhabil ibn Hasana through Bab al Faradis, and Amro ibn al-Aass through Bab Thuma. Historical resources mentioned that Mansour ibn Sargon, one of the city men-of honor requested the reconciliation for the Damascene dwellers – except the Roman ones.

 

Hereupon, the Islamic epoch had begun, starting with the reign of Rashidi Caliphs to the Umayyad dynasty 661-749, during which the city reached its ultimate flourishing. It was titled as the Umayyad capital of the greatest caliphate state in history, and due to its political, religious, cultural, and economical importance extending from the far East till the Atlantic Ocean in the west.

 

Damascus witnessed a golden age started by Moawiya ibn Abi Sufian, with plenty of reformations that were accomplished by his successors. These reformation were: building palaces, decorating the city, and gathering intellectuals and poets from all over the Islamic world. As an evidence, there was the establishing of the grand mosque in a part of Jupiter Temple during the reign of al Walid ibn Abdul Malik in 705-715. The whole place was transformed into an incomparable architectural antique still being visited by Muslims and tourists nowadays.

 

The Abbasid revolutionary troops entered the city in 750, led by Abdullah ibn Ali. The troops slaughtered the dwellers to the extent that that 50 thousand people were killed. They destroyed the rampart, raked up the graves of the Umayyad figures, unearthed the dead bodies and burned them.

 

The Abbasids took al Koufa city in Iraq as their capital untill Baghdad was built. Therefore, Damascus became a minor city and was isolated from the important events. It fall a victim to the captivations and conspiracies, and to the tension and greed of the power seekers.

 

In 878, the Tolonid and Akhshidid eras began. Ahmad ibn Tolon occupied Damascus after being assigned the Prince of Egypt by the Abbasid Caliph in 868. Under all conditions, the commandership was under the control of the Abbasid Caliph, nominally speaking.

 

The Fatimids reconditioned the rampart of Damascus in 978 as a protection from Abbasids, then the Hamdanids came for a short period of time in the 10th C. The fight between Seljuks & Fatimids in 1075 led to the ending of the Fatimids reign by the Seljuk prince Tetch. His reign proceeded till 1154 which was characterized by the rebuilding of Damascus citadel by Atsez’ hands.

 

The European crusaders made many invasive trials to appropriate the city. They besieged it in 1129 commanded by Baldwin IV the King of Jerusalem, then they moved away in the very same year. They made other trials in 1148 under the leaderships of Luis VII, the King of France, and Conrad III, the Emperor of Germany. Once again they failed in 1149.

 

Between 1154-1173, the prince of Aleppo, Mahmoud ibn Zenki, was assigned the governance. He executed many important processes like uniting the Sham and Egypt regions, eliminating the minor authoritarians, unifying the efforts to regress the external French aggression so that reclaiming Jerusalem and redeeming Palestine would be possible.

 

He led also many reformations in Damascus like repairing its citadel, building Abi-Dardaa mosque, increasing the fortification status of its ramparts against the crusaders’ invasions, opening new gates like Bab al-Faraj to the west of it, sustaining the eastern gate, closing Bab Kisan to the south of the rampart, building the observation towers, the hospitals, the Nuria school for teaching The Holy Quran, a bath in Bzurieh Suq ( still carrying his name), and the Omari school in Salhieh quarter.

 

After the death of Nur Din Mahmoud ibn Imad ibn Zenki in 1173 in Damascus, his youngest son Ismael succeeded him and was assigned a King nominally.

 

 

 

In 1176, Salah Din Yousef al-Ayyubid was appointed the governance and preceded for 26 years. His reign was characterized by the union between Egypt and Syria and making Damascus the Capital city after eliminating the corrupted state members who started to arouse the internal tensions.

 

His brother, King al-Adel, succeeded him in 1193. His reign was characterized by a wide fame of some industries like Damascene textures ( Damesco), silversmith, glass craft, developing the Syrian-Italian trade, and building a new citadel instead of the old one in 1206. His reign proceeded for 20 years. When he died in 1218, he was buried inside the citadel, but his body was removed later to the Adelie school.

 

The Mongols invaded Damascus for the first time in 1260, led by Hulaga and they departed away in the same year. The second invasion was in 1300, they stayed within it for 100 days then they left again. The third time was in 1400 led by Timurlink and they stayed for 80 days during which they destroyed the city and took the professional craftsmen by force to Samarkand which caused the receding of industries. During those invasions, Mamelukes always got back to the city.

 

In 1516, the Ottoman troops entered Damascus under the leadership of Sultan Salim the 1st. This was after killing the last Mameluke Sultan “ Kanswah al-Ghuri” in the battle of Marj Dabeq at north of Aleppo city, under the charge that he was helping Shah Ismael al-Safawi, the real founder of the Safawid State in Iran, and due to his aspiration to control all the Sham region.

 

The Ottoman occupation lasted till 1918, during which Damascus became a very important station for hajjis( Pilgrims ) and for internal trades. Its political and cultural position declined because the ottomans concentrated only on building mosques, hospices, khans, water containers, and bathes (hammams), and they streamed the water of al-Fijeh spring.

 

The Egyptian Ibrahim Basha occupied Damascus in 1831-1840 as a result of the Bashas’ strife for power. He exploited the weakness and dissolution of the sultan ship. But, the great powers of the world forced him to return to Egypt because they were afraid that he might found a modern country after he had widely opened the gates for the foreign forces.

 

In 1898, the Emperor of Germany “ Wilhelm II” exploited his visit to Damascus on his way to Jerusalem to draw himself a near position to Sultan Abdul Hamid II. This was planned to open the gate for the German economical pervasion. He proclaimed himself a protector of Islam and sultan ship in front of Salah Din al-Ayyubid grave, and got a license to gauge the rail-way between Baghdad, Hijaz, Asitana, and Damascus.

 

The Arabian forces freed the city from the Ottoman occupation in 1918. Faisal ibn al Husein was assigned a temporary king on the Sham region in 1920.

 

In July 24th , 1920, after the battle of Maisaloun and the martyring of the Syrian Minister of War “ Yousef al-Azmeh”, the French armies entered Damascus, running after their greedy interests in this region. They relied on Sikes-Piceau agreement 1915 between the great forces. Therefore, the mandate period on Syria had started. They separated Lebanon from Syria and proclaimed it an independent country, then, they conspired with Turkey on handing her Alexandria area (Lewaa) in spite of the investigation and voting results which were with the Arabian Syrian side. But, due to the French intention to contend Turkey and conform an alliance with it, they rendered it Alexandria totally in June 23rd, 1939.

 

The occupation on Syria lasted till April 17th, 1946, when the last French soldier was evacuated. In February 22nd, 1958, the unity between Syria and Egypt took place. In September 28th, 1961 was the separation, and it happened because of the non-proper previous preparations for this unity.

 

At last, we should mention the large numbers of Damascenes who left their prints on the history and culture of Syria through the passage of time like writers, poets, medicine and architecture scientists, princes, and those who contributed in instituting universal edifices, headed by the engineering Abu Adorr the Damascene.

 

References :

(Atlas of Damascus, Ministry of Tourism publications)

(Mohammad Ahmad Dahman–In the Yards and spaces of Syria).

(Ali Mousa & Mohammad Harbeh, In the Yards and spaces of Syria).

(Qutaiba al-Shehabi, Damascus as History & Pictures)

(Ebn Asaaker, History of Damascus)

(George Hadad, Damascus in The Classical Arab Authors, les Annales Archeologiques Arabs Syrian's No 1).

(Horst Clinkle–Germany–Translated by Qasim Tweir, Damascus in Cuneiform Texts – les Annales Archeologiques Arabs Syrian's No 35).

(Abdulkader Rihawi, History of Architecture of Damascus,les Annales Archeologiques Arabs Syrian's No 14).

(Farid Juha, Pierr Rosseih, City of Eizes, The Arabs at the real History)

 

Ahmad Dawoud , Old Civilized Syrian History, the center).

 

(Afif Bahnasi, Syria the Civilization-What did provide for the West).

 

Geographical Dictionary of the Syrian Arab Republic - Part 1& 3

 

 

 

 

Done