Christianity was i^ted in Damascus by Fvd^ self (Acts ix, 20 sq. ; GaL i, 12^ and obtaincdtitii footing in the iq[>ostolic age. It spread so nfadr among the population that in the time of CoaatiKH the great temple, one of the noblest buildings is S.^ was converted into a cathedral churah and de&tfi^ to John the Baptist. When the first general cosks assembled at Nice, Magnus, tiie metropditaa of I>»- mascus, was present with seven of his sofiagia- But the Roman empire was now waxing fBeUe,*:^ the religion which, by its establishment as a va^ institute, ought to have infused the germ of a kt life into the declining state, was itself loafaig its F^ and its power. Damascus felt, like other places, t^ demoralizing tendencies of a corrupt fidth. hi t^ beginning of the 7th century a new and terrible pe^e appeared upon the stage of the world*8 historj, d» tined, in the hands of an all-wise though mjatsioai Providence, to overthrow a degenerate enpiR ^ chastise an erring Church. In A.D. 694 DaoKca opened' its gates to the Mohammedans, and tlurtr years later the first caliph of Uie Omeiades tnasiSsni the seat of his government to that city. It bot ^ came for a brief period the capital of a vast empin.^ eluding Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, Nortfaeni A6iA and Spain (Elmacin, Hist. 8arae, xiii). In AJ).**^ the Omeiades were supplanted by the dynas^ of ^^ bas, and the court was removed to Bagdad. A eCorv? period of four centuries now passed over the old^ without leaving a single incident woitiiy of spK* note. An attack of the Crusaders (A.D. 1148), tBdff the three chiefs, Baldwm, Conrad, and Loot TIL might have claimed a place here had it not ben • disgracefhl to the Christian arms. It iseDOOghto!^ that the cross never displaced the ereacent oo tfaal!^ tiemente of Damascus. The reigns of Nnieddin aai his more distinguished successor Saladin fiino bri^ epochs in the city's history. Two centuries kftv ctf* Timur, who literally swept Damascns with ''(beboitf
DAMASCUS
651
DAMASCUS
lestiractioii.'* Arab writers sometimes call him el- tiksAy " the wild be^t," and he fully earned that oe. l^ever had Damasous so fearftiUy experienced horrom of conquest. Its wealtbi its famed manu- toresy and its w«U^fiUsd libraries, were all dissipa- in a single day. It soon regained its opulence. sentury later it iell into the hands of the Turks, If with the exception of the brief rule of Ibrahim ihtL, it has ever since remained nominally subject to sultan.
rhe Mohammedan population of Damascus have i^ been known as the greatest fimatics in the East e steady adyance of the Christian community in alth and influence during the last thirty years has ided to excite their bitter enmity. In July, 1860, dn^ advantage of the war between the Druses and ironites, and encouraged also by the Turkish au^ >ritie8, tiiey suddenly rose against the poor defbnce- e Christians, massacred about 6000 of them in cold x>d, and left their whole quarter in ashes 1 Such is e laist act in the long history of Damascus. (There a -work by Pieritz on the Persecution of the Jewt at amascusy Lond. 1840.) Damascus is still the largest ty in Asiiatic Turkey. It contained in 1859 a popu- tion of about 150,000. Of these, 6000 were Jews and »,000 Christians. The Christian community has since wn almost exterminated by the above massacre of le greater portion of the males. The pasha ranks ith the first officers of the empire, and the city is the ead-qaarters of the Syrian army. 8. Commerce, — ^Damascus has always been a great mtre for trade. The difficulties and dangers of the lountain passes to the west of Anti-Libanns made the ne of tr^c between Egypt and Upper Syria follow tie circuitous route by Damascus rather than the di> act one through Ccele-Syria, while the trade of Tyre rith Assyria and the East generally passed naturally hrough Damascus on its way to Palmyra and the Eu* •hratea. Ezekiel, speaking of Tyre, says, *^ Damascus ras thy merchant •» the multitude of the wares of thy HoJAng^ for the muUitude ofaU riches; in the wine of lelbon and white wool." It would appear from this hat Damascus took manufactured goods fh>m the Phcenidans, and supplied them in exchange with wool ind wine. The former would be produced in abun- lance in Ccele-Syria and the valleys of the Anti-Liba- nus range, while the latter seems to have been grown in the vicinity of Hblbor, a village still famous for the produce of its vines, ten or twelve miles fhnn Da- Doascus to the north-west (Geograph. Jour, xxvi, 44). But the passage-trade of Damascus has probably been It all times more important than its direct commerce. Its merchants must have profited largely by the cara- vans which continually passed through it on their way to distant countries. It is uncertain whether in early tunes it had any unportant manufkcturee of its own. According to some expositors, the passage in Amos iii, 12, which we translate *4n Damascus on a couch*' (b^^ pt?Q']D*1), means really "on the damask couch,** which would indicate that the Syrian city had become fomous for a textile fabric as early as the eighth cen- tury B.C. There is no doubt that such a fabric gave rise to our own word, which has its counterpart in Arabic as well as in most of the languages of modem Europe ; but it is questionable whether either this, or the peculiar method of working in steel, which has im- pressed itself in a similar way upon the speech of the world, was invented by the Damascenes before the Mohammedan era. In ancient times they were prob- ably rather a coBSuming than a producing people, as the passage in Ezekiel dearly indicates. It after- wards be<»me funous for its sword-blades and cutlery ; but its best woricmen were carried off by Timur to Is- pAhaa. Its chief roanufiictures are, at present, silks, coaise woollen stuflfis, cottons, gold and silver oma- , and arms. The bazaars are stocked with the