Damascus in Islamic History
Suggest editIntroduction: The Ancient City
Damascus (دمشق, Dimashq) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with settlements dating back approximately eleven thousand years. Located in a fertile oasis fed by the Barada River at the edge of the Syrian Desert, it has been the seat of empires, the crossroads of trade routes, and one of the most significant cities in Islamic civilization. Muslims consider it among the blessed lands of the Levant (al-Sham), a region mentioned in numerous prophetic narrations.
The Islamic Conquest of Damascus
Damascus was conquered by the Muslim armies under Khalid ibn al-Walid in 634 CE, during the caliphate of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. The conquest was remarkable for its orderly transition and the terms offered to the city's inhabitants: safety of life, property, and church — conditions that reflected the Quranic injunction to protect the people of the book and their houses of worship. The city surrendered to Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah after a brief siege and became the first major Byzantine city to come under Islamic governance. The speed of the early Islamic conquests in Syria was, in part, a reflection of the population's dissatisfaction with Byzantine religious persecution of non-Chalcedonian Christians and heavy taxation.
The Umayyad Caliphate: Damascus as Capital of the Islamic World
In 661 CE, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan established the Umayyad Caliphate with Damascus as its capital — a position it would hold for nearly ninety years. Under the Umayyads, Damascus became the administrative, intellectual, and cultural center of an empire stretching from Spain to Central Asia. The most architecturally significant legacy of this period is the Umayyad Mosque — built by Caliph al-Walid I between 706 and 715 CE on the site of a Byzantine church (itself built on the site of a Roman temple). The mosque's mosaics, architecture, and scale made it one of the wonders of the medieval world; its surviving decorations are among the finest examples of early Islamic art. The Umayyad period also saw the development of early Islamic administrative systems, the first Islamic coinage, and the formalization of Arabic as the official language of the empire.
Scholars and Intellectual Life
Damascus produced and hosted some of the greatest scholars in Islamic history. Ibn Asakir (1105-1176), the author of the monumental Tarikh Dimashq (History of Damascus) — a work of over 80 volumes — spent his life documenting the Islamic scholarly tradition in Syria. Ibn Kathir (1301-1373), author of the famous Quranic exegesis Tafsir Ibn Kathir and the historical work al-Bidaya wal-Nihaya, was educated and taught in Damascus. Imam al-Nawawi (1233-1277), whose Forty Hadiths and Riyadh al-Salihin remain among the most widely studied texts in the Muslim world, lived and died in the nearby village of Nawa but was formed by the Damascene scholarly environment. The city's madrasas were among the most active centers of Islamic learning in the medieval world.
The Crusades, Saladin, and the Ayyubids
Damascus played a pivotal role in the Muslim response to the Crusades. Nur al-Din Zangi, who ruled Damascus from 1154 to 1174, was a deeply pious ruler who built hospitals, madrasas, and courts of justice across Syria while leading the military resistance against the Crusader states. His successor Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi used Damascus as one of his bases for the campaign that culminated in the liberation of Jerusalem in 1187. The Ayyubid period was one of Damascus's intellectual and architectural high points, with the construction of numerous madrasas, hospitals (bimaristans), and caravanserais.
Ottoman Damascus and Modern History
Damascus came under Ottoman rule in 1516 and remained part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries. The city was an important stop on the Hajj route from Anatolia and hosted a major pilgrimage caravan (qafilat al-hajj) each year. Ottoman governors built mosques, khans, and bathhouses that enriched the city's urban fabric. After World War I, Damascus became the capital of independent Syria (briefly, under Faysal I, then under French Mandate, and ultimately as the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic). The city's ancient old quarter — the Straight Street mentioned in the New Testament, the Umayyad Mosque, and the medieval markets — remains one of the most intact medieval urban environments in the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.