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107-634: The railway station of Islahiye is the last stop on the railway to Damascus in Syria. Since March 2001, a regular train line runs once a week between Syria and Iran via Islahiye. The state road D.825 , which connects Gaziantep with Antakya , runs through İslahiye. The town is inhabited by Yörüks of the Aydınlı tribe. English traveler Mark Sykes recorded İslahiye as a town inhabited by Turks in early 20th century. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck İslahiye on 6 February 2023, causing widespread devastation in

214-656: A Levantine coalition, that included forces from the northern Aram-Hamath kingdom and troops supplied by King Ahab of Israel, in the Battle of Qarqar against the Neo-Assyrian army. Aram-Damascus came out victorious, temporarily preventing the Assyrians from encroaching into Syria. However, after Hadadzezer was killed by his successor, Hazael, the Levantine alliance collapsed. Aram-Damascus attempted to invade Israel but

321-517: A caravan city was evident with the trade routes from southern Arabia , Palmyra , Petra , and the silk routes from China all converging on it. The city satisfied the Roman demands for eastern luxuries. Circa 125 AD the Roman emperor Hadrian promoted the city of Damascus to "Metropolis of Coele-Syria ". Little remains of the architecture of the Romans, but the town planning of the old city did have

428-419: A derivative . A derivative is one of the words which have their source in a root word, and were at some time created from the root word using morphological constructs such as suffixes, prefixes, and slight changes to the vowels or to the consonants of the root word. For example unhappy , happily , and unhappily are all derivatives of the root word happy . The terms root and derivative are used in

535-475: A suffixed etymon that was once meaningful, Latin castrum ' fort ' . Reflex is the name given to a descendant word in a daughter language, descended from an earlier language. For example, Modern English heat is the reflex of the Old English hǣtu. Rarely, this word is used in reverse, and the 'reflex' is actually the root word rather than the descendant word. However, this usage is usually filled by

642-476: A comprehensive and chronological catalogue of all meanings and changes that a word (and its related parts) carries throughout its history. The origin of any particular word is also known as its etymology . For languages with a long written history , etymologists make use of texts, particularly texts about the language itself, to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods, how they developed in meaning and form , or when and how they entered

749-464: A crusader stronghold, which led to a new crusade from Europe in 1148. In the meantime, Zengi was assassinated and his territory was divided among his sons, one of whom, Nur ad-Din , emir of Aleppo, made an alliance with Damascus. When the European crusaders arrived, they and the nobles of Jerusalem agreed to attack Damascus. Their siege , however, was a complete failure. When the city seemed to be on

856-955: A high standard with the German Dictionary of the Brothers Grimm . The successes of the comparative approach culminated in the Neogrammarian school of the late 19th century. Still in the 19th century, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used etymological strategies (principally and most famously in On the Genealogy of Morals , but also elsewhere) to argue that moral values have definite historical (specifically, cultural) origins where modulations in meaning regarding certain concepts (such as "good" and "evil") show how these ideas had changed over time—according to which value-system appropriated them. This strategy gained popularity in

963-467: A lasting effect. The Roman architects brought together the Greek and Aramaean foundations of the city and fused them into a new layout measuring approximately 1,500 by 750 m (4,920 by 2,460 ft), surrounded by a city wall. The city wall contained seven gates, but only the eastern gate, Bab Sharqi , remains from the Roman period. Roman Damascus lies mostly at depths of up to five meters (16 feet) below

1070-587: A mandate from the Abbasids to extend his authority to Damascus. In 1129, around 6,000 Isma'ili Muslims were killed in the city along with their leaders. The Sunnis were provoked by rumors alleging there was a plot by the Isma'ilis, who controlled the strategic fort at Banias , to aid the Crusaders in capturing Damascus in return for control of Tyre . Soon after the massacre, the Crusaders aimed to take advantage of

1177-591: A shrine on the site of Mu'awiya's grave in the city. Tulunid rule of Damascus was brief, lasting only until 906 before being replaced by the Qarmatians who were adherents of Shia Islam . Due to their inability to control the vast amount of land they occupied, the Qarmatians withdrew from Damascus and a new dynasty, the Ikhshidids , took control of the city. They maintained the independence of Damascus from

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1284-455: A strong uprising in Damascus that was eventually put down. On 24 November 847, a multiple earthquake struck and destroyed Damascus , causing the lives of 70,000 people in estimated deaths. Ahmad ibn Tulun , a dissenting Turkish wali appointed by the Abbasids, conquered Syria, including Damascus, from his overlords in 878–79. In an act of respect for the previous Umayyad rulers, he erected

1391-725: A truce with the Crusaders in 1110. In 1126, the Crusader army led by Baldwin II fought Burid forces led by Toghtekin at Marj al-Saffar near Damascus; however, despite their tactical victory, the Crusaders failed in their objective to capture Damascus. Following Toghtekin's death in 1128, his son, Taj al-Muluk Buri , became the nominal ruler of Damascus. Coincidentally, the Seljuq prince of Mosul , Imad al-Din Zengi , took power in Aleppo and gained

1498-498: A truth ' , and the suffix -logia , denoting ' the study or logic of ' . The etymon refers to the predicate (i.e. stem or root ) from which a later word or morpheme derives. For example, the Latin word candidus , which means ' white ' , is the etymon of English candid . Relationships are often less transparent, however. English place names such as Winchester , Gloucester , Tadcaster share in different modern forms

1605-550: Is called Bilād aš-Šām ( بلاد الشام , lit.   ' land of the Levant ' ). The latter term etymologically means "land of the left-hand side" or "the north", as someone in the Hijaz facing east, oriented to the sunrise, will find the north to the left. This is contrasted with the name of Yemen ( اَلْيَمَن al-Yaman ), correspondingly meaning "the right-hand side" or "the south". The variation ش ء م ( š-ʾ-m '), of

1712-616: Is known. The earliest of attested etymologies can be found in Vedic literature in the philosophical explanations of the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and Upanishads . The analyses of Sanskrit grammar done by the previously mentioned linguists involved extensive studies on the etymology (called Nirukta or Vyutpatti in Sanskrit) of Sanskrit words, because the ancient Indians considered sound and speech itself to be sacred and, for them,

1819-478: Is not readily obvious that the English word set is related to the word sit (the former is originally a causative formation of the latter). It is even less obvious that bless is related to blood (the former was originally a derivative with the meaning "to mark with blood"). Semantic change may also occur. For example, the English word bead originally meant "prayer". It acquired its modern meaning through

1926-528: Is often traced to Sir William Jones , a Welsh philologist living in India , who in 1782 observed the genetic relationship between Sanskrit , Greek and Latin . Jones published his The Sanscrit Language in 1786, laying the foundation for the field of Indo-European linguistics . The study of etymology in Germanic philology was introduced by Rasmus Christian Rask in the early 19th century and elevated to

2033-414: Is speculated that control of Damascus was gained by Aretas IV Philopatris of Nabatea between the death of Herod Philip in 33/34 AD and the death of Aretas in 40 AD but there is substantial evidence against Aretas controlling the city before 37 AD and many reasons why it could not have been a gift from Caligula between 37 and 40 AD. In fact, all these theories stem not from any actual evidence outside

2140-581: Is the capital and largest city of Syria , the oldest current capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth holiest city in Islam . Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām ( الشَّام ) and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine " ( مَدِيْنَةُ الْيَاسْمِينِ Madīnat al-Yāsmīn ), Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world . Situated in southwestern Syria, Damascus

2247-559: Is the center of a large metropolitan area. Nestled among the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea level , Damascus experiences an arid climate because of the rain shadow effect . The Barada River flows through Damascus. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in

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2354-552: Is the most absurd, which derives this word from pons, and assigns the priests the title of bridge-makers. The sacrifices performed on the bridge were amongst the most sacred and ancient, and the keeping and repairing of the bridge attached, like any other public sacred office, to the priesthood. Isidore of Seville compiled a volume of etymologies to illuminate the triumph of religion. Each saint's legend in Jacobus de Varagine 's Legenda Aurea begins with an etymological discourse on

2461-435: Is the study of the origin and evolution of words, including their constituent units of sound and of meaning , across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics , etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. Most directly tied to historical linguistics , philology , and semiotics , it additionally draws upon comparative semantics , morphology , pragmatics , and phonetics in order to attempt

2568-530: Is urban, while Jabal Qasioun occupies the rest. The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south bank of the river Barada which is almost dry (3 cm (1 in) left). To the southeast, north, and northeast it is surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages: Midan in the southwest, Sarouja and Imara in the north and north-west. These neighborhoods originally arose on roads leading out of

2675-464: The Amarna letters , from the 14th century BC: Dimašqa ( 𒁲𒈦𒋡 ), Dimašqì ( 𒁲𒈦𒀸𒄀 ), and Dimašqa ( 𒁲𒈦𒀸𒋡 ). Later Aramaic spellings of the name often include an intrusive resh (letter r ), perhaps influenced by the root dr , meaning "dwelling". Thus, the English and Latin name of the city is Damascus , which was imported from Greek Δαμασκός and originated from

2782-756: The Arab Muslim general Khalid ibn al-Walid in August–September 634 CE. His army had previously attempted to capture the city in April 634 but without success. With Damascus now in Muslim-Arab hands, the Byzantines, alarmed at the loss of their most prestigious city in the Near East, had decided to wrest back control of it. Under Emperor Heraclius , the Byzantines fielded an army superior to that of

2889-557: The Battle of Marj al-Saffar , to put an end to Mongol invasions of the Levant . Later on, the Black Death of 1348–1349 killed as much as half of the city's population. In 1400, Timur , the Turco-Mongol conqueror, besieged Damascus . The Mamluk sultan dispatched a deputation from Cairo, including Ibn Khaldun , who negotiated with him, but after their withdrawal, Timur sacked the city on 17 March 1401. The Umayyad Mosque

2996-598: The Ottoman Empire which had fallen under Christian rule. Thus they were known as al-Akrad (the Kurds) and al-Muhajirin (the migrants) . They lay 2–3 km (1–2 mi) north of the old city. From the late 19th century on, a modern administrative and commercial center began to spring up to the west of the old city, around the Barada, centered on the area known as al-Marjeh or "the meadow". Al-Marjeh soon became

3103-543: The Qumranic Darmeśeq ( דרמשק ), and Darmsûq ( ܕܪܡܣܘܩ ) in Syriac , meaning "a well-watered land". In Arabic , the city is called Dimashq ( دمشق Dimašq ). The city is also known as aš-Šām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbors and Turkey ( Şam ). Aš-Šām is an Arabic term for " Levant " and for "Syria"; the latter, and particularly the historical region of Syria ,

3210-730: The Silk Road , gave the English language "damask". Ayyubid rule (and independence) came to an end with the Mongol invasion of Syria in 1260, in which the Mongols led by Kitbuqa entered the city on 1 March 1260, along with the King of Armenia, Hethum I , and the Prince of Antioch, Bohemond VI ; hence, the citizens of Damascus saw for the first time for six centuries three Christian potentates ride in triumph through their streets. However, following

3317-589: The Syrian civil war , Damascus was named the least livable city out of 140 global cities in the Global Liveability Ranking . As of June 2023 , it was the least livable out of 173 global cities in the same Global Liveability Ranking. In 2017, two new development projects have been launched in Damascus to build new residential districts, Marota City and Basillia City to symbolize post-war reconstruction. The name of Damascus first appeared in

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3424-472: The Third Crusade in 1189, led by Richard I of England , Philip II of France and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor , though the last drowned en route. The surviving crusaders, joined by new arrivals from Europe, put Acre to a lengthy siege which lasted until 1191. After re-capturing Acre, Richard defeated Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf in 1191 and the Battle of Jaffa in 1192, recovering most of

3531-564: The moral authority of the Baghdad-based Abbasids. While the rulers of Damascus were preoccupied in conflict with their fellow Seljuqs in Aleppo and Diyarbakir , the Crusaders, who arrived in the Levant in 1097, conquered Jerusalem , Mount Lebanon and Palestine. Duqaq seemed to have been content with Crusader's rule as a buffer between his dominion and the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. Toghtekin, however, saw

3638-547: The 20th century, newer suburbs developed north of the Barada, and to some extent to the south, invading the Ghouta oasis. In 1956–1957, the new neighborhood of Yarmouk became a second home to many Palestinian refugees. City planners preferred to preserve the Ghouta as far as possible, and in the later 20th century some of the main areas of development were to the north, in the western Mezzeh neighborhood and most recently along

3745-521: The Anti-Lebanon Mountains and the prevailing ocean currents. Summers are prolonged, dry, and hot with less humidity. Winters are cool and somewhat rainy; snowfall is infrequent. Autumn is brief and mild, but has the most drastic temperature change, unlike spring where the transition to summer is more gradual and steady. Annual rainfall is around 130 mm (5 in), occurring from October to May. Carbon-14 dating at Tell Ramad , on

3852-635: The Arab Hamdanid dynasty of Aleppo 967. A period of instability in the city followed, with a Qarmatian raid in 968, a Byzantine raid in 970, and increasing pressures from the Fatimids in the south and the Hamdanids in the north. The Shia Fatimids gained control in 970, inflaming hostilities between them and the Sunni Arabs of the city who frequently revolted. A Turk, Alptakin drove out

3959-622: The Barada River mitigated this, which originates from mountain streams fed by melting snow. Damascus is surrounded by the Ghouta , irrigated farmland where many vegetables, cereals, and fruits have been farmed since ancient times. Maps of Roman Syria indicate that the Barada River emptied into a lake of some size east of Damascus. Today it is called Bahira Atayba, the hesitant lake because in years of severe drought, it does not even exist. The modern city has an area of 105 km (41 sq mi), out of which 77 km (30 sq mi)

4066-484: The Barada valley in Dummar in the northwest and on the slopes of the mountains at Barzeh in the north-east. Poorer areas, often built without official approval, have mostly developed south of the main city. Damascus used to be surrounded by an oasis , the Ghouta region ( Arabic : الغوطة , romanized :  al-ġūṭä ), watered by the Barada river. The Fijeh spring , west along the Barada valley, used to provide

4173-526: The Fatimids five years later, and through diplomacy, prevented the Byzantines during the Syrian campaigns of John Tzimiskes from attempting to annex the city. However, by 977, the Fatimids under Caliph al-Aziz , wrested back control of the city and tamed Sunni dissidents. The Arab geographer, al-Muqaddasi , visited Damascus in 985, remarking that the architecture and infrastructure of the city were "magnificent", but living conditions were awful. Under al-Aziz,

4280-671: The Mongol defeat at Ain Jalut on 3 September 1260, Damascus was captured five days later and became the provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate , ruled from Egypt, following the Mongol withdrawal. Following their victory at the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar , the Mongols led by Ghazan besieged the city for ten days, which surrendered between December 30, 1299, and January 6, 1300, though its Citadel resisted. Ghazan then retreated with most of his forces in February, probably because

4387-629: The Mongol horses needed fodder, and left behind about 10,000 horsemen under the Mongol general Mulay . Around March 1300, Mulay returned with his horsemen to Damascus, then followed Ghazan back across the Euphrates . In May 1300, the Egyptian Mamluks returned from Egypt and reclaimed the entire area without a battle. In April 1303, the Mamluks managed to defeat the Mongol army led by Kutlushah and Mulay along with their Armenian allies at

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4494-560: The Muslims maintained the building's dedication to John the Baptist . By 715, the mosque was complete. Al-Walid died that same year and he was succeeded at first by Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik and then by Umar II , who each ruled for brief periods before the reign of Hisham in 724. With these successions, the status of Damascus was gradually weakening as Suleiman had chosen Ramla as his residence and later Hisham chose Resafa . Following

4601-692: The Nabatean architect and engineer, Apollodorus of Damascus , who joined him in Rome when he was a consul in 91 AD, and later built several monuments during the 2nd century AD. Damascus became a metropolis by the beginning of the 2nd century and in 222 it was upgraded to a colonia by the Emperor Septimius Severus . During the Pax Romana , Damascus and the Roman province of Syria in general began to prosper. Damascus's importance as

4708-460: The Near East as well as the Arameaen resistance. In 727, a revolt took place in the city but was put down by Assyrian forces. After Assyria led by Tiglath-Pileser III went on a wide-scale campaign of quelling revolts throughout Syria, Damascus became subjugated by their rule. A positive effect of this was stability for the city and benefits from the spice and incense trade with Arabia . In 694 BC,

4815-622: The New Testament but rather "a certain understanding of 2 Corinthians 11:32" and in reality "neither from archaeological evidence, secular-historical sources, nor New Testament texts can Nabatean sovereignty over Damascus in the first century AD be proven." Roman emperor Trajan who annexed the Nabataean Kingdom, creating the province of Arabia Petraea , had previously been in Damascus, as his father Marcus Ulpius Traianus served as governor of Syria from 73 to 74 AD, where he met

4922-522: The Rashidun in manpower. They advanced into southern Syria during the spring of 636 and consequently Khalid ibn al-Walid's forces withdrew from Damascus to prepare for renewed confrontation. In August, the two sides met along the Yarmouk River where they fought a major battle which ended in a decisive Muslim victory, solidifying Muslim rule in Syria and Palestine. While the Muslims administered

5029-524: The Umayyads later improved the same network, and still forms the basis of the water system of the old part of the city today. The Aramaeans initially turned Damascus into an outpost of a loose federation of Aramaean tribes, known as Aram-Zobah , based in the Beqaa Valley . The city would gain pre-eminence in southern Syria when Ezron , the claimant to Aram-Zobah's throne who was denied kingship of

5136-784: The Western invaders as a viable threat to Damascus which, at the time, nominally included Homs , the Beqaa Valley, Hauran, and the Golan Heights as part of its territories. With military support from Sharaf al-Din Mawdud of Mosul , Toghtekin managed to halt Crusader raids in the Golan and Hauran. Mawdud was assassinated in the Umayyad Mosque in 1109, depriving Damascus of northern Muslim backing and forcing Toghtekin to agree to

5243-402: The adoption of " loanwords " from other languages); word formation such as derivation and compounding ; and onomatopoeia and sound symbolism (i.e., the creation of imitative words such as "click" or "grunt"). While the origin of newly emerged words is often more or less transparent, it tends to become obscured through time due to sound change or semantic change. Due to sound change , it

5350-433: The advent of Saint Paul's proselytization. During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 , the city was besieged and captured by Shahrbaraz in 613, along with a large number of Byzantine troops as prisoners, and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war. Muhammad's first indirect interaction with the people of Damascus was when he sent a letter, through his companion Shiya ibn Wahab, to Harith ibn Abi Shamir ,

5457-423: The analysis of morphological derivation within a language in studies that are not concerned with historical linguistics and that do not cross the language barrier. Etymologists apply a number of methods to study the origins of words, some of which are: Etymological theory recognizes that words originate through a limited number of basic mechanisms, the most important of which are language change , borrowing (i.e.,

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5564-445: The central arch was for chariots while the side arches were for pedestrians. In 23 BC, Herod the Great was given lands controlled by Zenodorus by Caesar Augustus and some scholars believe that Herod was also granted control of Damascus as well. The control of Damascus reverted to Syria either upon the death of Herod the Great or was part of the lands given to Herod Philip which were given to Syria with his death in 33/34 AD. It

5671-427: The city saw a brief period of stability that ended with the reign of al-Hakim (996–1021). In 998, hundreds of Damascus citizens were rounded up and executed by him for incitement. Three years after al-Hakim's mysterious disappearance, a rebellion was initiated in southern Syria against the Fatimids, but was stifled by the Fatimid Turkish governor of Syria and Palestine, Anushtakin al-Duzbari , in 1029. This victory gave

5778-412: The city were dismissed. Afterwards, the Umayyad family cemetery was desecrated and the city walls were torn down, reducing Damascus into a provincial town of little importance. It roughly disappeared from written records for the next century and the only significant improvement of the city was the Abbasid-built treasury dome in the Umayyad Mosque in 789. In 811, distant remnants of the Umayyad dynasty staged

5885-420: The city with drinking water, and various sources to the west are tapped by water contractors. The flow of the Barada dropped with the rapid expansion of housing and industry in the city and it is almost dry. The lower aquifers are polluted by the city's runoff from heavily used roads, industry, and sewage. Damascus has a cool arid climate ( BWk ) in the Köppen-Geiger system , due to the rain shadow effect of

5992-410: The city, near the tombs of religious figures. In the 19th century outlying villages developed on the slopes of Jabal Qasioun , overlooking the city, already the site of the al-Salihiyah neighborhood centered on the important shrine of medieval Andalusian Sheikh and philosopher Ibn Arabi . These new neighborhoods were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and Muslim refugees from the Europe regions of

6099-434: The city, the population of Damascus remained mostly Christian— Eastern Orthodox and Monophysite —with a growing community of Muslims from Mecca , Medina , and the Syrian Desert . The governor assigned to the city which had been chosen as the capital of Islamic Syria was Mu'awiya I . Following the fourth Rashidun caliph Ali 's death in 661, Mu'awiya was chosen as the caliph of the expanding Islamic empire. Because of

6206-549: The coast for the Christians, but could not recover Jerusalem or any of the inland territory of the kingdom. The crusade came to an end peacefully, with the Treaty of Jaffa in 1192. Saladin allowed pilgrimages to be made to Jerusalem, allowing the Crusaders to fulfill their vows, after which they all returned home. Local crusader barons set about rebuilding their kingdom from Acre and the other coastal cities. Saladin died in 1193, and there were frequent conflicts between different Ayyubid sultans ruling in Damascus and Cairo. Damascus

6313-409: The country of Damascus; and there is a village named after him, The Habitation of Abraham. Damascus is first documented as an important city during the arrival of the Aramaeans , a Semitic people , in the 11th century BC. By the start of the first millennium BC, several Aramaic kingdoms were formed, as Aramaeans abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and formed federated tribal states. One of these kingdoms

6420-435: The end of the Bronze Age in the region and brought about new development of warfare. Damascus was only a peripheral part of this picture, which mostly affected the larger population centers of ancient Syria. However, these events contributed to the development of Damascus as a new influential center that emerged with the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age . Damascus is mentioned in Genesis 14:15 as existing at

6527-501: The federation, fled Beqaa and captured Damascus by force in 965 BC. Ezron overthrew the city's tribal governor and founded the independent entity of Aram-Damascus. As this new state expanded south, it prevented the Kingdom of Israel from spreading north and the two kingdoms soon clashed as they both sought to dominate trading hegemony in the east. Under Ezron's grandson, Ben-Hadad I (880–841 BC), and his successor Hazael , Damascus annexed Bashan (modern-day Hauran region), and went on

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6634-448: The first to make a comprehensive analysis of linguistics and etymology. The study of Sanskrit etymology has provided Western scholars with the basis of historical linguistics and modern etymology. Four of the most famous Sanskrit linguists are: These linguists were not the earliest Sanskrit grammarians, however. They followed a line of ancient grammarians of Sanskrit who lived several centuries earlier like Sakatayana of whom very little

6741-409: The geographical list of Thutmose III as ṯmśq ( 𓍘𓄟𓊃𓈎𓅱 ) in the 15th century BC. The etymology of the ancient name ṯmśq is uncertain. It is attested as Imerišú ( 𒀲𒋙 ) in Akkadian , ṯmśq ( 𓍘𓄟𓊃𓈎𓅱 ) in Egyptian , Damašq ( 𐡃𐡌𐡔𐡒 ‎ ) in Old Aramaic and Dammeśeq ( דַּמֶּשֶׂק ) in Biblical Hebrew . A number of Akkadian spellings are found in

6848-404: The heralding of the Abbasid Caliphate, Damascus became eclipsed and subordinated by Baghdad , the new Islamic capital. Within the first six months of Abbasid rule, revolts began erupting in the city, albeit too isolated and unfocused to present a viable threat. Nonetheless, the last of the prominent Umayyads were executed, the traditional officials of Damascus were ostracised, and army generals from

6955-409: The king of Damascus. In his letter, Muhammad stated: "Peace be upon him who follows true guidance. Be informed that my religion shall prevail everywhere. You should accept Islam, and whatever under your command shall remain yours." After most of the Syrian countryside was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate during the reign of Caliph Umar ( r.  634–644 ), Damascus itself was conquered by

7062-402: 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 became 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

7169-437: The language. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about forms that are too old for any direct information to be available. By analyzing related languages with a technique known as the comparative method , linguists can make inferences about their shared parent language and its vocabulary. In this way, word roots in many European languages, for example, can be traced back to

7276-484: The late 11th century, Damascus again became the capital of independent states. It was ruled by Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I starting in 1079 and he was succeeded by his son Abu Nasr Duqaq in 1095. The Seljuqs established a court in Damascus and a systematic reversal of Shia inroads in the city. The city also saw an expansion of religious life through private endowments financing religious institutions ( madrasas ) and hospitals ( maristans ). Damascus soon became one of

7383-415: The latter mastery over Syria, displeasing his Fatimid overlords, but gaining the admiration of Damascus' citizens. He was exiled by Fatimid authorities to Aleppo where he died in 1041. From that date to 1063, there are no known records of the city's history. By then, Damascus lacked a city administration, had an enfeebled economy, and a greatly reduced population. With the arrival of the Seljuq Turks in

7490-465: The modern city. The old borough of Bab Tuma was developed at the end of the Roman/Byzantine era by the local Eastern Orthodox community. According to the Acts of the Apostles , Saint Paul and Saint Thomas both lived in that neighborhood. Roman Catholic historians also consider Bab Tuma to be the birthplace of several Popes such as John V and Gregory III . Accordingly, there was a community of Jewish Christians who converted to Christianity with

7597-433: The more typical ش م ل ( š-m-l ), is also attested in Old South Arabian , 𐩦𐩱𐩣 ( šʾm ), with the same semantic development. Damascus was built in a strategic site on a plateau 680 m (2,230 ft) above sea level and about 80 km (50 mi) inland from the Mediterranean, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains , supplied with water by the Barada River , and at a crossroads between trade routes:

7704-585: The most important centers of propagating Islamic thought in the Muslim world. After Duqaq died in 1104, his mentor ( atabeg ), Toghtekin , took control of Damascus and the Burid line of the Seljuq dynasty. Under Duqaq and Toghtekin, Damascus experienced stability, elevated status, and a revived role in commerce. In addition, the city's Sunni majority enjoyed being a part of the larger Sunni framework effectively governed by various Turkic dynasties who in turn were under

7811-714: The murder of the latter in 743, the Caliphate of the Umayyads—which by then stretched from Spain to India— was crumbling as a result of widespread revolts. During the reign of Marwan II in 744, the capital of the empire was relocated to Harran in the northern Jazira region. On 25 August 750, the Abbasids , having already beaten the Umayyads in the Battle of the Zab in Iraq, conquered Damascus after facing little resistance. With

7918-432: The name of what was initially the central square of modern Damascus, with the city hall in it. The courts of justice, post office, and railway station stood on higher ground slightly to the south. A Europeanized residential quarter soon began to be built on the road leading between al-Marjeh and al-Salihiyah . The commercial and administrative center of the new city gradually shifted northwards slightly towards this area. In

8025-543: The north. Later, Demetrius III Philopator rebuilt the city according to the Greek hippodamian system and renamed it "Demetrias". In 64 BC, 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 which themselves were incorporated into the province of Syria and granted autonomy. The city of Damascus

8132-486: The north–south route connecting Egypt with Asia Minor , and the east–west cross-desert route connecting Lebanon with the Euphrates river valley. The Anti-Lebanon Mountains mark the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range has peaks of over 10,000 ft (3,000 m) and blocks precipitation from the Mediterranean Sea, so the region of Damascus is sometimes subject to droughts. However, in ancient times,

8239-426: The obvious, and actual "bridge-builder": The priests, called Pontifices.... have the name of Pontifices from potens , powerful because they attend the service of the gods, who have power and command overall. Others make the word refer to exceptions of impossible cases; the priests were to perform all the duties possible; if anything lays beyond their power, the exception was not to be cavilled. The most common opinion

8346-526: The offensive with Israel. This conflict continued until the early 8th century BC when Ben-Hadad II was captured by Israel after unsuccessfully besieging Samaria . As a result, he granted Israel trading rights in Damascus. Another possible reason for the treaty between Aram-Damascus and Israel was the common threat of the Neo-Assyrian Empire which was attempting to expand into the Mediterranean coast. In 853 BC, King Hadadezer of Damascus led

8453-580: The origin of the Indo-European language family . Even though etymological research originated from the philological tradition, much current etymological research is done on language families where little or no early documentation is available, such as Uralic and Austronesian . The word etymology is derived from the Ancient Greek word ἐτυμολογία ( ἐτυμολογία ), itself from ἔτυμον ( ἔτυμον ), meaning ' true sense or sense of

8560-451: The outskirts of Damascus, suggests that the site may have been occupied since the second half of the seventh millennium BC, possibly around 6300 BC. However, evidence of settlement in the wider Barada basin dating back to 9000 BC exists, although no large-scale settlement was present within Damascus' walls until the second millennium BC. Some of the earliest Egyptian records are from 1350 BC Amarna letters when Damascus (called Dimasqu )

8667-433: The practice of counting the recitation of prayers by using beads. The search for meaningful origins for familiar or strange words is far older than the modern understanding of linguistic evolution and the relationships of languages, which began no earlier than the 18th century. From Antiquity through the 17th century, from Pāṇini to Pindar to Sir Thomas Browne , etymology had been a form of witty wordplay, in which

8774-460: The relationship between two languages on the basis of similarity of grammar and lexicon was made in 1770 by the Hungarian, János Sajnovics , when he attempted to demonstrate the relationship between Sami and Hungarian (work that was later extended to the whole Finno-Ugric language family in 1799 by his fellow countryman, Samuel Gyarmathi ). The origin of modern historical linguistics

8881-510: The saint's name: Lucy is said of light, and light is beauty in beholding, after that S. Ambrose saith: The nature of light is such, she is gracious in beholding, she spreadeth over all without lying down, she passeth in going right without crooking by right long line; and it is without dilation of tarrying, and therefore it is showed the blessed Lucy hath beauty of virginity without any corruption; essence of charity without disordinate love; rightful going and devotion to God, without squaring out of

8988-402: The same language. Although they have the same etymological root, they tend to have different phonological forms, and to have entered the language through different routes. A root is the source of related words within a single language (no language barrier is crossed). Similar to the distinction between etymon and root , a nuanced distinction can sometimes be made between a descendant and

9095-408: The sixteenth century. Etymologicum genuinum is a grammatical encyclopedia edited at Constantinople in the ninth century, one of several similar Byzantine works. The thirteenth-century Legenda Aurea , as written by Jacobus de Varagine , begins each vita of a saint with a fanciful excursus in the form of an etymology. The Sanskrit linguists and grammarians of ancient India were

9202-543: The supposed origins of words were creatively imagined to satisfy contemporary requirements; for example, the Greek poet Pindar (born in approximately 522 BCE) employed inventive etymologies to flatter his patrons. Plutarch employed etymologies insecurely based on fancied resemblances in sounds . Isidore of Seville 's Etymologiae was an encyclopedic tracing of "first things" that remained uncritically in use in Europe until

9309-427: The term etymon instead. A reflex will sometimes be described simply as a descendant , derivative or derived from an etymon (but see below). Cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Doublets or etymological twins or twinlings (or possibly triplets, and so forth) are specifically cognates within

9416-576: The time of the War of the Kings . According to the 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews , Damascus (along with Trachonitis ), was founded by Uz , the son of Aram . In Antiquities i. 7, Josephus reports: Nicolaus of Damascus , in the fourth book of his History, says thus: " Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of

9523-554: The town and many deaths. There are 71 neighbourhoods in İslahiye District: İslahiye has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csa ), with very hot, dry summers, and cool, wet winters. This article about a Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey location is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Damascus Damascus ( / d ə ˈ m æ s k ə s / də- MAS -kəs , UK also / d ə ˈ m ɑː s k ə s / də- MAH -skəs ; Arabic : دِمَشق , romanized :  Dimašq )

9630-468: The town was called Šaʾimerišu (Akkadian: 𒐼𒄿𒈨𒊑𒋙𒌋) and its governor was named Ilu-issīya . However, Assyrian authority was dwindling by 609–605 BC, and Syria-Palestine was falling into the orbit of Pharaoh Necho II 's Egypt. In 572 BC, all of Syria had been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonians , but the status of Damascus under Babylon is relatively unknown. Damascus

9737-681: The treasury of Damascus. Arabic was also established as the official language, giving the Muslim minority of the city an advantage over the Aramaic-speaking Christians in administrative affairs. Abd al-Malik 's successor, al-Walid initiated the construction of the Grand Mosque of Damascus (known as the Umayyad Mosque) in 706. The site originally had been the Christian Cathedral of St. John and

9844-665: The unstable situation and launch an assault against Damascus with nearly 2,000 knights and 10,000 infantry. However, Buri allied with Zengi and managed to prevent their army from reaching the city. Buri was assassinated by Isma'ili agents in 1132; he was succeeded by his son, Shams al-Mulk Isma'il who ruled tyrannically until he was murdered in 1135 on secret orders from his mother, Safwat al-Mulk Zumurrud ; Isma'il's brother, Shihab al-Din Mahmud, replaced him. Meanwhile, Zengi, intent on putting Damascus under his control, married Safwat al-Mulk in 1138. Mahmud's reign then ended in 1139 after he

9951-560: The vast amounts of assets his clan, the Umayyads , owned in the city and because of its traditional economic and social links with the Hijaz as well as the Christian Arab tribes of the region, Mu'awiya established Damascus as the capital of the entire Caliphate . With the ascension of Caliph Abd al-Malik in 685, an Islamic coinage system was introduced and all of the surplus revenue of the Caliphate's provinces were forwarded to

10058-403: The verge of collapse, the crusader army suddenly moved against another section of the walls and was driven back. By 1154, Damascus was firmly under Nur ad-Din's control. In 1164, King Amalric of Jerusalem invaded Fatimid Egypt , requested help from Nur ad-Din. The Nur ad-Din sent his general Shirkuh , and in 1166 Amalric was defeated at the Battle of al-Babein . When Shirkuh died in 1169, he

10165-464: The way; right long line by continual work without negligence of slothful tarrying. In Lucy is said, the way of light. Etymology in the modern sense emerged in the late 18th-century European academia, within the context of the wider " Age of Enlightenment ", although preceded by 17th century pioneers such as Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn , Gerardus Vossius , Stephen Skinner , Elisha Coles , and William Wotton . The first known systematic attempt to prove

10272-691: The words of the sacred Vedas contained deep encoding of the mysteries of the soul and God. One of the earliest philosophical texts of the Classical Greek period to address etymology was the Socratic dialogue Cratylus ( c.  360 BCE ) by Plato . During much of the dialogue, Socrates makes guesses as to the origins of many words, including the names of the gods. In his Odes Pindar spins complimentary etymologies to flatter his patrons. Plutarch ( Life of Numa Pompilius ) spins an etymology for pontifex , while explicitly dismissing

10379-698: The world . First settled in the 3rd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty , the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad . Damascus saw its importance decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the central government of Syria . As of September 2019 , eight years into

10486-406: Was Aram-Damascus , centered on its capital Damascus. The Aramaeans who entered the city without battle, adopted the name "Dimashqu" for their new home. Noticing the agricultural potential of the still-undeveloped and sparsely populated area, they established the water distribution system of Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels which maximized the efficiency of the river Barada. The Romans and

10593-513: Was burnt and men and women were taken into slavery. A huge number of the city's artisans were taken to Timur's capital at Samarkand . These were the luckier citizens: many were slaughtered and their heads piled up in a field outside the north-east corner of the walls, where a city square still bears the name Burj al-Ru'us (between modern-day Al-Qassaa and Bab Tuma ), originally "the tower of heads". Etymology Etymology ( / ˌ ɛ t ɪ ˈ m ɒ l ə dʒ i / , ET -im- OL -ə-jee )

10700-555: Was conquered by Alexander the Great . After the death of Alexander in 323 BC, 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. Seleucus I Nicator , one of Alexander's generals, made Antioch the capital of his vast empire, which led to the decline of Damascus' importance compared with new Seleucid cities such as Syrian Laodicea in

10807-520: Was defeated by the crusaders at the Battle of Montgisard , despite his numerical superiority. Saladin also besieged Kerak in 1183, but was forced to withdraw. He finally launched a full invasion of Jerusalem in 1187 and annihilated the crusader army at the Battle of Hattin in July. Acre fell to Saladin soon after, and Jerusalem itself was captured in October. These events shocked Europe, resulting in

10914-744: Was entirely redesigned by the Romans after Pompey conquered the region. Still today the Old Town of Damascus retains the rectangular shape of the Roman city, with its two main axes: the Decumanus Maximus (east-west; known today as the Via Recta ) and the Cardo (north-south), the Decumanus being about twice as long. The Romans built a monumental gate which still survives at the eastern end of Decumanus Maximus. The gate originally had three arches:

11021-470: Was interrupted by the renewed Assyrian invasion. Hazael ordered a retreat to the walled part of Damascus while the Assyrians plundered the remainder of the kingdom. Unable to enter the city, they declared their supremacy in the Hauran and Beqa'a valleys. By the 8th century BC, Damascus was practically engulfed by the Assyrians and entered a Dark Age. Nonetheless, it remained the economic and cultural center of

11128-585: Was killed for relatively unknown reasons by members of his family. Mu'in al-Din Unur , his mamluk ("slave soldier") took effective power of the city, prompting Zengi—with Safwat al-Mulk's backing—to lay siege against Damascus the same year. In response, Damascus allied with the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem to resist Zengi's forces. Consequently, Zengi withdrew his army and focused on campaigns against northern Syria. In 1144, Zengi conquered Edessa ,

11235-576: Was ruled by king Biryawaza . 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 III and Ramesses 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

11342-507: Was succeeded by his nephew Yusuf, better known as Saladin , who defeated a joint crusader-Byzantine siege of Damietta . Saladin eventually overthrew the Fatimid caliphs and established himself as Sultan of Egypt. He also began to assert his independence from Nur ad-Din, and with the death of both Amalric and Nur ad-Din in 1174, he was well-placed to begin exerting control over Damascus and Nur ad-Din's other Syrian possessions. In 1177 Saladin

11449-461: Was the capital of independent Ayyubid rulers between 1193 and 1201, from 1218 to 1238, from 1239 to 1245, and from 1250 to 1260. At other times it was ruled by the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt. During the internecine wars fought by the Ayyubid rulers, Damascus was besieged repeatedly, as, e.g., in 1229 . The patterned Byzantine and Chinese silks available through Damascus, one of the Western termini of

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