Attack in Damascus, Syria
Syrian officials blamed the attack on Jund al-Sham, a murky terrorist group that opposes both the United States and the Syrian government. Those two are often at odds, but today U.S. officials were quick to thank the Syrians who thwarted the attack.
With the attack in Damascus capturing headlines worldwide, we decided to take a closer look at the city itself. We’ll be taking the long view. After all, Damascus has been around for more than 4,000 years.
The Road to Damascus
Damascus may well be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city. It was born in the third millennium BC, with settlements along the river Barada, at an oasis about 50 miles (80 km) from the Mediterranean.
Eventually, those settlements grew into a city named “Dimashqa” (the name’s meaning is unknown, though one possible translation is “city of the sun”). For centuries, trade caravans traveling to and from the Arabian Desert funneled past the city, bringing in a steady supply of money.
During Old Testament times, Damascus was the capital of the Aramaeans, a Semitic people who warred repeatedly with the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. In later centuries, the city fell to the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Alexander the Great. By the time the apostle Paul had his religious experience on the road to Damascus, the city was a Roman administrative hub – though the locals still spoke Aramaic.
Muslim Capital
In 635, the armies of Islam were on the march, just beginning to spread Muhammad’s new faith to new territories. Damascus was one of the first major obstacles in their path. By then the city was being ruled from Constantinople (modern Istanbul), but when the Muslim army showed up, the Damascenes opened the gates and let them in. From then on, Damascus was an important part of the Islamic world.
In 661, Damascus became the capital of the Umayyad dynasty. The Umayyads were the first major dynasty atop the Muslim caliphate, an empire that eventually stretched from Spain to India. During almost a century of Umayyad rule, Damascus became one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in the world – and home to the Umayyad Mosque, one of the oldest and largest holy sites in all Muslimdom.
When the Umayyads fell in 750, Damascus lost its capital status. For centuries, far-off caliphs and sultans ruled the city. (One exception was Saladin, the Muslim hero of the Crusades, who ruled Egypt but made Damascus his capital.)
Earthly Paradise (Lost)
Stripped of its power, Damascus was still famous for its beauty. The medieval Muslim author Ibn Jubayr described it as “encircled by gardens as the moon . . . by its halo.” To eyes accustomed to desert, Damascus – with its abundant water and gorgeous groves of trees – looked like a paradise. A local belief even developed that it was the site of Eden.
There were bad times to come, however. The city managed to hold off Crusader armies, but in 1400 Mongol invaders sacked and burned Damascus. Then, in 1516, Syria became part of the Ottoman Empire. Ottomans would rule Damascus for the next 400 years. For much of that time, the city flourished economically, but Ottoman rule wasn’t popular.
Modern City
World War I brought an end to the Ottoman Empire, which the major European powers divvied up for themselves. Syria became part of a French mandate, and didn’t achieve true independence until 1946.
When independence came, it brought its own set of problems. The people of Damascus saw more than 15 military coups between 1946 and 1970, when General Hafiz Assad seized power. General Assad finally managed to establish a stable Syrian government. Unfortunately, it was a militaristic, single-party government that ruled Syria like a police state.
Under Assad and his son Bashar, who succeeded him in 2000, the Syrian government has taken an active role in the region. Some of its efforts focus on territories it once controlled – Lebanon, for example, was part of Syria until 1920.
