Day 10 Damascus April 26, 2010 Monday
The name of Damascus first appeared in the geographical list of Thutmose III as T-m-ś-q in the 15th century BCE.In Arabic, the city is called (Dimashq al-Shām), although this is often shortened to either Dimashq or al-Shām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbors. Al-Shām is an Arabic term for north and for Syria (Syria—particularly historical Greater Syria—is called Bilād al-Shām "land of the north"—in Arabic.)
The city is considered by historians to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. The Damascus region, as well as the rest of Syria, became a battleground circa 1260 BC, between the Hittites from the north and the Egyptians from the south, ending with a signed treaty between Hattusili and Ramsis II where the former handed over control of the Damascus area to Ramesses II in 1259 BC. The arrival of the Sea Peoples, around 1200 BC, marked the end of the Bronze Age in the region and brought about new development of warfare.
Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea, and this when his posterity were become a multitude; as to which posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. 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.
Damascus first came under western control with the campaign of Alexander the Great that swept through the Near East. After the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, 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.
In 64 BCE, the Roman general Pompey annexed the western part of Syria. The Romans occupied Damascus and subsequently incorporated it into the league of ten cities known as the Decapolis because it was considered such an important center of Greco-Roman culture. According to the New Testament, Saint Paul was on the road to Damascus when he received a vision, was struck blind and as a result converted to Christianity. In the year 37, Roman Emperor Caligula transferred Damascus to Nabataean control by decree. The Nabataean king Aretas IV Philopatris ruled Damascus from his capital Petra. However, around the year 106, Nabataea was conquered by the Romans, and Damascus returned to Roman control.
In
early 1516, the Ottoman Turks, wary of the danger of an alliance between
the Mamluks and the Persian Safavids, started a campaign of conquest
against the Mamluk sultanate. On 21 September, the Mamluk governor of
Damascus fled the city, and on 2 October the khutba in the Umayyad mosque was
pronounced in the name of Selim I. The day after, the victorious sultan entered
the city, staying for three months. On 15 December, he left Damascus by Bab al-Jabiya,
intent on the conquest of Egypt. Little appeared to have changed in the city:
one army had simply replaced another. However, on his return in October 1517,
the sultan ordered the construction of a mosque, tekkiye and mausoleum at the
shrine of Shaikh Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi in al-Salihiyah. This was to be the first
of Damascus' great Ottoman monuments.
The Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief occupation by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt from 1832 to 1840. Because of its importance as the point of departure for one of the two great Hajj caravans to Mecca, Damascus was treated with more attention by the Porte than its size might have warranted — for most of this period, Aleppo was more populous and commercially more important. In 1560 the Tekkiye al-Sulaimaniyah, a mosque and khan for pilgrims on the road to Mecca, was completed to a design by the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, and soon afterwards a madrasa was built adjoining it.
Damascus
has a wealth of historical sites dating back to many different periods of the
city's history. Since the city has been built up with every passing occupation,
it has become almost impossible to excavate all the ruins of Damascus that lie
up to 8 feet (2.4 m) below the modern level. The Citadel of Damascus is located
in the northwest corner of the Old City. The Street Called Straight
(referred to in the conversion of St. Paul in Acts 9:11), also known as the
Via Recta, was the decumanus (East-West main street) of Roman Damascus, and
extended for over 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). Today, it consists of the street of
Bab Sharqi and the Souk Medhat Pasha, a covered market. The Bab Sharqi
street is filled with small shops and leads to the old Christian quarter of Bab
Tuma (St. Thomas's Gate). Medhat Pasha Souq is also a main market in Damascus
and was named after Medhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of
Syria who renovated the Souk. At the end of the Bab Sharqi street, one reaches
the House of Ananias, an underground chapel that was the cellar of Ananias's
house. The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one of
the largest mosques in the world and also one of the oldest sites of continuous
prayer since the rise of Islam. A shrine in the mosque is said to contain the
body of St. John the Baptist. The mausoleum where Saladin was buried is located
in the gardens just outside the mosque. Sayyidah Ruqayya Mosque, the shrine of
the youngest daughter of Husayn ibn Ali, can also be found near the Umayyad
Mosque.
Shia/fatemid/dawoodi
bohra believe that after Karbala battle, Ummayad caliph Yazid brought Imam
Husain 's head in Damascus, it was first buried in the courtyard of Umayyad
Mosque yezid mahal, shrine of the same still exist. All other remaining member
of Husain's Family (left live after Karbala battle) along with heads of all
other companions, who were killed at Karbala were also brought to Damascus,
Sham. These members were kept as prisoner at outskirt of city ,the other heads
were buried at the same location , now called "Raous-us-sohda-e-karbala ", now
visited by all shia. This is very important Islamic historical incident related
with Damascus.
We met the Shia groups from Iran doing their rituals by marching through
the Grand Bazaar and chanting by the mosque.
