Damascus: A History

by Ross Burns

This is the first book in English to relate the history of Damascus, bringing out the crucial role the city has played at many points in the region's past. Damascus traces the history of this colourful, significant and complex city through its physical development, from the city's emergence in around 7000 BC through the changing cavalcade of Aramaean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Mongol and French rulers right up to the end of Turkish control in 1918.

In Damascus, every layer of the history has built precisely on top of its predecessors for at least three millennia, leaving a detailed archaeological record of one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The book looks particularly at the interplay between the western and eastern influences that have provided Damascus with such a rich past, and how this perfectly encapsulates the forces that have played over the Middle East as a whole from the earliest recorded times to the present.

Lavishly illustrated, Damascus: A History is a compelling and unique exploration of a fascinating city.

Genres: History, Cities, Nonfiction, Middle East

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ignorance is bliss when it comes to books like these that cover 3,000 or more years of history. Since I have no pre-existing knowledge of pre-modern history, all of this 'stuff before the Ottomans' came as a total surprise: like that the people in Damascus for millennia spoke Aramaic and then later mainly Greek. Arabic is fairly 'recent' (8th or 9th century AD?). And Damascus also 'squabbled' with Jerusalem for millennia. Given all the other empires that came and went to Damascus - Greek, Roman, Persian, Mongols, Turks etc (lol), the crusades are like the smallest event here.

When you walk into the Damascus Old City there are remnants of Roman city walls and columns and random 'ancient Greek' stuff and thousand year old churches (and hammams!) right in your face so it's been a great read to put this into some kind of order - based on the latest available research rather some 'legends' from the bible and elsewhere.

So, what's to say. You must, must, must add a visit to Damascus to your (post Corona) bucket list. And while you wait for your tourist visa, you can read this book.