Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: T. M. Aziz, “The Role of Muhammad 

Baqir al-Sadr in Shii Political Activism in Iraq from 1958 

to 1980,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 25 

(1993): 207–222; Amatzia Baram, “Two Roads to Revo-

lutionary Shii Fundamentalism in Iraq: Hizb al-Dawa 

al-Islamiyya and the Supreme Council of the Islamic 

Revolution in Iraq.” In Accounting for Fundamentalisms: 

The Dynamic Character of Movements, edited by Martin 

E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, 531–586 (Chicago: Uni-

versity of Chicago Press, 1994).

dai

  See 

daawa

; i

smaili

 s

hiism

.

dajjal

  See a

ntichrist

.

Damascus

Damascus has been the capital of the Arab Repub-

lic of s

yria

 since 1946. It is densely populated, 

with about 3.5 million inhabitants, or about 19 

percent of the total population of the country. 

About 40 miles from the Mediterranean coast, it 

is situated on the edge of the desert at the foot of 

Mount Qassioun, one of the massifs of the eastern 

slopes of the Anti-Lebanon. The Barada River 

crosses the city and provides water to the rich 

agricultural area known as the Ghuta, which Mus-

lim tradition regards as one of the three earthly 

paradises

, along with Samarkand (in modern 

Uzbekistan) and al-Ubulla (in i

raq

).

The exact date of the foundation of the city 

remains unclear, although archaeological evi-

dence suggests the fourth millennium 

b

.

c

.

e

. as the 

beginning date for continued human habitation. 

The first historical mention of the city refers to 

its conquest by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmoses 

III in the 15th century 

b

.

c

.

e

. Damascus was later 

inhabited by Assyrians, Babylonians, Achaeme-

nids, Greeks, Nabateans, Romans, and finally the 

The Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, Syria 

(Juan 

E. Campo)

K  180  

dai

---

Byzantine Empire up until the Muslim conquest 

in 635 

c

.

e

. During the rule of the U

mayyad

 c

aliph

-

ate

 (662–750), Damascus became the capital of 

this, the first Islamic dynasty, and an important 

cultural and economic center of the region. They 

built the beautiful congregational 

mosqUe

 that 

still stands in the heart of the old city. In 750, the 

Abbasids defeated the Umayyads and installed 

their capital in b

aghdad

. Damascus then became 

a provincial town subject to the rule of different 

Islamic dynasties that conquered the area. Only in 

the 12th century did Damascus regain its splendor 

under the rule of the Zenkid Turkish prince Nur 

al-Din (d. 1174) and his Ayyubid successor, s

ala

-

din

 (r. 1174–93). It became a center of religious 

learning and literary production. In 1260, the city 

was devastated by the same Mongol invasion that 

had obliterated the a

bbasid

 c

aliphate

 

oF

 b

aghdad

in 1258.

By 1517, the Ottoman Turks had conquered 

all the territory from s

yria

 to e

gypt

. Under the 

Turkish dynasty, the city of Aleppo, in the north 

of Syria, became the most important economic 

center of the region. Nonetheless, Damascus still 

played an important economic and religious role, 

as is attested to by the numerous khans (trade 

centers and rest houses) and the proliferation of 

religious sites. Along with c

airo

 and Baghdad, 

it was used as one of the main staging points for 

caravans that conveyed pilgrims to Mecca for the 

annual 

haJJ

.

During World War I, under the British prom-

ise of the creation of an Arab Syrian state, British 

troops commanded by General Allenby entered 

the city in October 1918 and established the Syr-

ian Kingdom of Amir Faysal ibn Husayn ibn Ali 

(r. 1918–20), whom the British would later make 

king of Iraq. The British occupation violated the 

terms of the Sykes-Picot agreement signed with 

France in 1916, according to which Syria and 

Lebanon were to remain under French influence. 

On July 25, 1920, France entered Damascus and 

occupied Syria and Lebanon, establishing a colo-

nial mandate system in the area. In 1925, Damas-

cus became the capital of the federal state of Syria 

under French mandate, and it remained the capi-

tal after Syria’s independence in 1946.

See also 

cities

; o

ttoman

 

dynasty

.

Maria del Mar Logrono