Ever-changing, ever-adapting, Damascus is a timeless city that has withstood the waves of history. Its survival as the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city has been assured by its capacity to absorb change rather than be overwhelmed by it. Successive tides of destruction have washed over it, and from all of them it has emerged calm again.
In recent years the Syrian conflict has dominated the media. This book bridges the divide between the city in its present state and its many past iterations by exploring how its inhabitants have prayed, traded, learned, bathed, and cohabited for millennia. In eleven thematic chapters, Arabist and historian Diana Darke takes readers on a tour through Damascus, from rooftops overlooking the old city to its still-active souks, examining the city’s past and present side-by-side, while also looking ahead to Syria’s future. By examining the city’s past—especially the cataclysmic cycles it has endured, both natural and man-made—Darke sets the current conflict against the backdrop of the broader sweep of history.
Based on her analysis of Arabic, German, and French source documents, Darke weaves a narrative of the city, including past influential figures such as Nur al-Din (1118–1174) and masterful buildings such as the Umayyad Mosque that bring the history of the city to life.
Contributors
Diana Darke
Author
Diana Darke is the author of The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy and Islamesque: The Forgotten Craftsmen Who Built Europe’s Medieval Monuments. In 2005, she bought a semi-derelict courtyard house in Old Damascus and embarked on a three-year
restoration project together with the help of a Syrian architect and craftsmen, a Syrian lawyer, and a bank manager. At this point, Darke became deeply embedded in Syrian society, giving her a unique perspective from which to write this book.
