Damas

Damas is the Capitale of the Syria. In Arab the city is called Dimashq ach-Cham , but one very often says ach-Cham only. The city counts more than 2 million inhabitants, nearly 3 million by counting the agglomeration (“large Damas”). The inhabitants are called Damascènes.

Geography

The city is in the desert, its districts western climbing the side of the Quassioun mount (or Qassioun or Kassioun according to the transliterations), first buttress of the solid mass of the Anti Lebanon. At an altitude of approximately 700m, it is located as the crow flies at 60 km in the east of the sea the Mediterranean.

Damas is sprinkled by a river, the Barada, which runs out of the Anti Lebanon and is lost in a marsh in the East of the city. Formerly surrounded by a " girdle verte" irrigated cultures, the city does not stop growing, in certain places in an anarchistic way, at the expense of its Ghouta. Thus the initial harbor of greenery of the city disappears.

The subdivision of Damas called Rif Dimashq has a surface of 18.018 km ²

Damas is more the big city of Syria

Damas is finally a city which belongs to the world heritage of UNESCO.

History

It is about the one of the oldest known and always inhabited cities. It is quoted in the Bible, as of the Genèse (XIV, 15; XV, 2), and several times in the Books of the Kings and the Prophets.

the town of Damas east of a great beauty and any description, if long is it, is always too short for its beautiful qualities.

Ibn Battûta (1304-1368) Voyages , Editions FM/the Discovery.

The city knew the influence of many civilizations of which those of the Assyrian , Perses, Greek, Séleucides, Arab Romains and .

It was one of the cradles of Christianity and saw in particular holy Paul pronouncing his first preachings, in particular in the Hanania church, oldest of Syria (today in the Christian quarters of Bab Touma).

In 635, Damas was submitted to the Moslems and became the capital of the dynasty of the Omeyyades of 661 with 750. With the adoption of the Arab language, it became the arts center and administrative Moslem empire lasting nearly one century. Thereafter, it remained a major cultural place and an economic pole of foreground benefitting from its privileged geographical location, with crossroads of Mecque, Africa, Asia and more particularly the silk route, it Anatolia and finally the Mediterranean in the vicinity.

The Crusaders besieged it in 1148.

The city was ransacked by the Mongolian of Tamerlan in 1401.

It was integrated into the Ottoman Empire 1516 with 1918.

Following the Treated of Versailles (1919) and after the battle of Khan Meiseloun which allowed the entry of the troops of the general Mariano Goybet in the Holy City, this one was placed, with Syria, under French mandate in 1920, until its independence in 1946.

Since the years 1970 the rural migration and the intense urbanization deeply transformed the landscape of the city which was formerly an oasis with marshes, many orchards and many green areas.

Traditions

the “Damasquinage” consists in encrusting with small threads of gold or money in an object with metal. This technique was spread of Damas with Tolède and in India.
the “Damas welded” consists in forging iron bars to constitute at the same time resistant and flexible heart of swords, whose edges were brought back by welding: the Blades of Damas. Soft and high-carbon iron bars, alternatively laid out were welded, hammered, folded up on themselves like making a puff pastry. After polishing, metal was plunged in a bath of acid to reveal the effect of moirage layers of white and black metal, called the “damask”.
Damas is famous for its fabrics of silk and especially for its brocarts woven of gold which one calls of the “Damas”.
There is also the “damask” linen on which drawings by processes appear, of weaving. This art still exists, but with trades Jacquard.
In the souks, one sees much carpet, but they are mainly imports of Iran, Afghanistan or Ouzbékistan.
One also finds in offering Damas of many confectioneries of the whole candied fruits: Apricot S, Pear S, Tangerine S, etc out of impressive piles. With the the Middle Ages, the area was the first producer of Sucre, the crusades brought back of it the use in occident (jams and candied fruits).

The city

The large mosque, currently Large mosque of Omeyyades, was built towards 705. It is oldest with the Dôme of the Rock of Jerusalem to practically being in its initial state.

Exceptional fact, the room of prayer contains a tomb: that of Jean-Baptiste (Sidi Yahya for the Moslems), cousin of Jesus. The presence of a tomb in the room of prayer of a mosque is a practically single case. The Christians of the district Is of Damas come to make prayers there. One thus sees in this room at the same time prostrations of the Moslems, and the signs of cross and génuflexions them Christians. The presence of this tomb is explained historically. When the Arabs conquered the city into 635, they found there in full center the large basilica Midsummer's Day Baptiste, pride of the Christians, which sheltered the tomb of the Precursor. A Christian dignitary of the city which was with its Arab origins to be expressed in Arabic, Sarjoun, the father of saint Jean Damascène, asked the caliph whom he saves this Christian sanctuary. By respect for Sidi Yahya, the successive caliphs preserved during seventy years the large Christian sanctuary. And when Al-Walid I {{er}} decided to transform the church into mosque, 705, it saved the tomb of the Baptist and made build the mosque around.

The mosque is very attended during all the day. One enters there to request, to admire and one comes there also quite simply to make the nap, lengthened on the carpet or leant with a column, because it is a fresh and calm place in the center of the city. True place of life, one sees even children there playing, sometimes with child's scooters.

The most minaret of this mosque is the minaret of Jesus: it is there that according to the local tradition Jesus, the Messiah, will return on ground at the time of the last judgment.

It is the most sublime mosque of the world by its pump, most skilfully built, most admirable by its beauty, its grace and its perfection. One does not know similar, and one does not find of it a second which can support the comparison with it. That which governed its construction and its arrangement was the commander of the believers,
He made leave an embassy towards the emperor the Greeks, in Constantinople, to intimate to this prince the order to send craftsmen to him, and this last dispatched twelve thousand of them to him. The place where the mosque was initially a church.
In the middle of the mosque is the tomb of Zacharie, above which is seen a coffin placed obliquely between two columns, and covered with a black and embroidered silk fabric. One sees there writes, in letters of white color, which follows: “O Zacharie! we announce the birth of a boy to you, whose name will be Yahia.”
The fame of this mosque and its merits is very widespread; and I read on this subject, in the work which has as a title excellent Qualities of Damas, the following assertion: “The prayer in the mosque of Damas is equivalent to thirty thousand prayers”. And in the traditions of the prophet I found these words of Muhammad: “One will adore God, in the mosque of Damas, during forty years after the destruction of the world. ” Curiously Ibn Battûta sees the tomb of Zacharie, father of Jean-Baptiste, where the current tradition locates the tomb of the second.

In is an appendix, out of the enclosure of the mosque the mausoleum of Husayn which is supposed to have contained (or to contain?) the cranium of the third Imam of the Shiites decapitated to the battles of Kerbala (Achoura: 10 of muharram 61H; October 10th 680) the body of Husayn is in Najaf (in the south of Iraq) and the distinct head was buried in Egypt (in Cairo) When Khawalî, carrying the head of Husayn, arrived at Obaïdallah, wire of Ziyâd, he says to him: You must fill me gifts, because I bring to you the head of best of all the men!
Then it (Obaïdallah) touched with a rod the mouth of Husayn, by reciting it towards: “We slice the heads of the men who are expensive to us, but which became rebellious and insolents.” Damas includes/understands also very beautiful monuments of the period Othoman E, the Azem Palate, many caravanserais of which the Khan Assa' D Pasha of the 18th century, and a museum testifying to the historical and archaeological richness exceptional of the country.)

Actual position of the old town of Damas

In spite of the recommendations of UNESCO, World heritage Centers,

SOUK EL ATIK in the buffer zone protected was destroyed in 3 in November 2006 days.

the STREET OF KING FAYSAL, an area of traditional craft industry of Damas, in the buffer zone protected very close to the enclosing walls to the hurdy-gurdy city, between the citadel and Bab Touma , is threatened of destruction by a project of fast track.

http://www.britishsyriansociety.org/dam2020/recommendations.asp

In 2007, the old town of Damas was recognized by World Monument Fund like one of the sites most threatened of the world. http://www.worldmonumentswatch.org/

Others

the expression way of Damas evokes a course causing a radical change of attitude at that which saw it (cf Retournement). It evokes the experiment of holy Paul, persecutor of the Christian a few years after the death of Jesus: according to the Acts of the Apostles, going to Damas, it had an illumination and a revelation which made of it the principal proselyte of the first hours of the Christianisme.

Since the destruction of the town of Antioche (between 1268 and 1872), Damas is the place of residence of several chiefs of Churches autocéphales:

the Patriarch of the orthodoxe Church of Antioche
the Patriarch of the Catholic church melkite of Antioche
the Patriarch of the orthodoxe syriaque Church of Antioche

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