438 Pages
    by Routledge

    438 Pages
    by Routledge

    Damascus, first published in 2005, was the first account in English of the history of the city, bringing out the crucial role it has played at many points in the region’s past. It traces the story of this colourful, significant and complex city through its physical development, from the its emergence in around 7000 BC through the changing cavalcade of Aramaean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Turkish and French rulers to independence in 1946. This new edition has been thoroughly updated using recent scholarship and includes an additional chapter placing the events of the Syrian post-2011 conflict in the context of the city’s tumultuous experiences over the last century.

    This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in the sweep of Syrian history and archaeology, and is an ideal partner to Burns’ Aleppo (2016). Lavishly illustrated, Damascus: A History remains a unique and compelling exploration of this fascinating city.

    List of Illustrations

    List of Maps

    Foreword

    Abbreviations

     

    Introduction

    Four Roads to Damascus

    The setting

    Legends of a birth

    For want of a spade

    PART ONE

    Chapter 1 – The Emergence of Damascus (9000 – c1100 BC)

    The first villages

    Ta-ms-qu in Upi

    The mother of all battles

    A wider catastrophe

    Chapter 2 – Dimashqu – Damascus from the Aramaeans to the Assyrians (c1100 – 732 BC)

    After the turmoil

    An Aramaean Empire (Eleventh Century–733 BC)

    Aram-Damascus vs Israel

    Neo-Assyrian Empire (964–c800 BC)

    The city of the god

    Damascus in Aramaean Times

    The temple

    Resurgent Assyria (8th century BC)

    Epilogue: An altar for Jerusalem

    Chapter 3 – A Greater Game – Assyrians, Persians, Greeks (732 – c300 BC)

    Assyrian Rule (732–636 BC)

    Neo-Babylonians (Chaldean Rule) (626–539 BC)

    Persian (Achaemenid) rule (539–333 BC)

    Damascus during the twilight of the Ancient Near East

    After Issus (333–331 BC)

    A Hellenic millennium

    Chapter 4 – The Sowing of Hellenism – Ptolemies and Seleucids (300 – 64 BC)

    Ptolemaic rule – Third Century BC

    Damascus between rival dynasties

    Seleucid rule – second century BC

    The persistence of the plan

    A Greek city

    Temple of Zeus

    A Hellenistic civilisation?

    Chapter 5 – Towards a Pax Romana (64 BC – AD 30)

    Rome Intervenes

    Pompey’s settlement

    The east Mediterranean theatre

    Damascus and the struggle for empire

    Stabilising the Damascus region

    Urge to monumentalise

    Civic works

    Chapter 6 – Metropolis Romana (AD 30 – 268)

    Who were the Syrians?

    The city and temple of Jupiter

    Importance of cult centres

    First Christian mission

    An imperial city

    Syrian consorts

    The eastern question

    Population

    City and country

    Chapter 7 – Holding the Line (AD 269 – 610)

    Nature of the Persian threat

    Hard and soft frontiers

    A Christian city

    Cathedral of Saint John

    Decline and disintegration

    Who were the Arabs|?

    ‘Do it yourself’ defence doctrine

    Chapter 8 – ‘Farewell, Oh Syria’ (611 – 661)

    Damascus – The First Bulwark

    The great field army perishes

    Arab aims

    Heraclius retreats

    Arab administration

    Chapter 9 – The Umayyads (661 – 750)

    Muʿawiya and the new order

    The Umayyad prism

    The ʿAlite revolt

    Acquisition of the Church of Saint John

    The building of the Mosque

    The fantastic garden

    Threshold of Paradise

    A ninety year empire

    A glorious failure?

    PART TWO

    Preface to Part Two - When did the ancient end?

    Chapter 10 – Decline, Confusion and Irrelevance (750 – 1098)

    Ostracism (750–877)

    Teaching Damascus a lesson

    Sullen revolt

    Turkish inroads, Tulunids (877–905)

    Shiʿism

    Fragmentation (905–964)

    Fatimids (969–1071)

    Seljuks (1055–1104)

    Arrival of the Burids (1104)

    First madrasas

    Chapter 11 – Islam Resurgent (1098 – 1174)

    Bulwark Against the Crusaders?

    Early Burids (Tughtagin r. 1104–28)

    Burids versus Zengids (1128–48)

    Jerusalem-Damascus-Aleppo

    The Second Crusade (1148) – ‘Fiasco’

    Citadel of the faith

    Jihad!

    Nur al-Din (1154–74)

    Nur al-Din’s monuments

    A new ‘Golden Age’

    Chapter 12 – Saladin and the Ayyubids (1174 – 1250)

    Saladin’s rise

    Hattin (1187)

    ‘The last victory’

    The Ayyubid succession

    Al-Muazzim ʿIssa (1218–28)

    Jerusalem betrayed

    Al-Ashraf (1229–38)

    Back on the periphery (1238-50)

    Courtly society

    Chapter 13 – Mamluks (1250 – 1515)

    The Central Asian threat

    Baybars (1260–77)

    Return of the Mongols

    The Mamluk system

    A new prosperity

    Foreigners

    Mamluk building

    Tengiz’s governorship (1312– 40)

    Decline (1341-82)

    Burji Mamluks (1382–1516)

    Siege of Tamerlane (1401)

    A Venetian window

    Collapse

    Chapter 14 – The First Ottoman Centuries (1516 – 1840)

    Military rule

    The Hajj

    Midan

    Stability of population

    Reshaping Damascus

    Municipal services

    A new role (1706–58)

    ‘Age of the aʿyan’

    Cathedrals of commerce

    Acre’s rise – and fall

    European ambitions – Egypt intervenes

    Chapter 15 – Reform and Reaction (1840 – 1918)

    Tanzimat – reform and reaction

    1860 massacre

    A ‘Little Istanbul’

    Telegraph, road and rail

    To Mecca by train?

    The great fire of 1893

    Suq al-Hamidiye

    The Damascus house

    Command for monument protection

    Arab awakening

    ‘To Damascus!’ – the great ride

    Whose Damascus?

    Chapter 16 Epilogue – Countdown to Catastrophe (1919–2011)

    1919

    1925

    1940

    1948

    1970

    2011

    Glossary of Terms and Names

    Maps of City and Environs

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Ross Burns was in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs for 37 years until his retirement in 2003, including as Ambassador to Syria from 1984 to 1987. After his retirement, he completed a PhD at Macquarie University in Sydney on ‘The Origins of the Colonnaded Streets in the Cities of the Roman East’. He is the author of Aleppo (2016) and Monuments of Syria (3rd edition, 2009).

    'Despite widespread interest in Damascus due to the Syrian Civil War, little has been written about the city in English. First published in 2004, Burns’ Damascus: A History remains the only English language volume to offer a comprehensive overview of the archaeology, architecture and history of one of the oldest cities on Earth. Therefore the second edition of this work is to be warmly welcomed for the addition of a new chapter bringing the reader up to date with the current situation and offering us a timely reminder of the effects of the war on this exceptional and fascinating city.'

    - Emma Loosley, University of Exeter, UK