RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Syria
Syria, which was included in the " province of the Euphrates"; and on the division of the Roman Empire in 394 Syria was given to Byzantium. Theodosius II. (408-450) divided what remained of Roman Syria — the eastern part had long been the prey of Arabs and Parthians — into Syria Prima, or the coast and the northern portions as far as the Euphrates, and Syria Secunda, or the country bounded by the southern course of the Orontes, the capital of the former division being Antioch, and of the latter Apamea.
The rise of the Sassariian dynasty in the third century brought new danger to the Roman power in Syria, and Sapor I. (241-272) was even able to make the Roman Emperor Valerian (q.v.) prisoner in Antioch. A little later Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, sought, in alliance with Persia, to establish
a Syrian world-empire, but the exten- 2. Period of sioQ of her domains to gyria Mes0.
Rule potamia, and part of Egypt brought her into conflict with Rome, the result being a crushing defeat by Aurelian at Horns in 271. In the reign of Jovinian the Romans were forced to cede Nisibis, among other places, to Sapor II. (309-379); and though the status quo was maintained by the treaty between Theodosius II. and Yazdagird I. (399-420), war with the Romans again broke out in the reign of Kavad, the result being the treaty of 531, humiliating to the Romans. Chosroes I. (531-579) ravaged the portions of western Syria still belonging to the Romans, taking Antioch, among other cities, in 540; while in the reign of Chosroes II. (590-628) his general reduced Hamath and Edessa in 609, Aleppo in 611, Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem in 614, and Egypt in 618. For a brief time Heraclius (610-641) recovered the Roman territories which the Persians had held since 623, but in 635 Syria passed definitely into the hands of the Arabs.
5. To the Year 1516: Long before the Arab expansion there had been Arab kingdoms and enclaves in and near Syrian soil, such as the Lahmid dynasty and the Nabataans (q.v.), the latter gradually spreading their power from northwestern Arabia as far as Damascus and Palmyra. It was not, however, until the Arabs had been D " . r?" unified and inspired by the teachings of Mohammed that the establishment of an Arab world-power was projected. The first land to yield to the immigration from the interior of Arabia was Syria, and in 635 the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius was routed by Halid on the banks of the Yarmuk. Damascus was retaken in 636, Jerusalem and Antioch fell in 637, Hamath and Aleppo surrendered voluntarily, and in 640 Csesarea was taken. Muawiya, the founder of the Omayyad dynasty (661-750), transferred the khalifate from Medina to Damascus, and a period of glory began for the city. With the rise of the Abbasid dynasty in the eighth century, power passed from Damascus to Bagdad, but learning still flourished in Syria, especially at Damascus, and through Syriac translations the writings of the Greeks became accessible to the Arabs. As the Abbasid dynasty decayed, Turkish elements commenced to make themselves felt, and while in 837 Theophilus of Byzantium dev-
astated northern Syria and Mesopotamia, in 878 the Turk Ahmad ibn Tulun extended his power from Egypt over Syria as far as Mesopotamia. Although his dynasty was extirpated by the Abbasids in 905, the Hamdanids had meanwhile founded a double kingdom with capitals at Mosul and Aleppo. After 970 the Fatimids ruled in Damascus, and toward the middle of the eleventh century the Seljuks for a time ruled the greater portion of the Mohammedan East. In 1071 the Seljuk Malik-Shah took Jerusalem, reducing Damascus five years later, while in 1085 Antioch, a Greek possession since 966, was lost to the Turkish Sulaiman of Iconium.
During the period of the Crusades (q.v.) the fortunes of war at first inclined toward the Christian side. In 1098 Antioch was taken by the Franks,
and a year later Jerusalem was theirs.
In the latter year Baldwin was lord of
2. The
Crusades
and Turkish Odessa, b^ m 1 144 the city was forced Ascendency. *° capitulate to Imad-al-Din Zengi, whose son, Nur-al-Din, not only held possession of northern Syria, but made resistance to the crusaders a religious obligation. The battle of Hattin, near Tiberias, in 1187, where Saladin (1169-93) conquered the Franks, marked the turning-point of the crusades. Acre and Jerusalem were taken, and by the peace of 1193 the Franks were obliged to surrender the entire coast from Jaffa to Acre. Malik al-Kamil (1218-38), on the other hand, made a treaty with Emperor Frederick II. whereby Jerusalem and the coast cities were given to the Franks for ten years. In 1244 the alliance of the Franks, Nasir Daud of Karak, and Salih Ismail of Damascus was defeated by the Mameluke Bibars at Gaza. With the fall of the kingdom of Chwarizm in the first half of the thirteenth century, the Turkish hordes poured into Syria, where, in the pay of the Mameluke Salih of Egypt, they won Jerusalem (1244), Damascus (1245), Baalbek (1246), and Ascalon and Tiberias (1247). In 1269-70 the Mongols under Hulagu Khan overran Syria, but in the latter year they were routed by Bibars at 'Ain Jalut, near Nablus (the ancient Shechem), and all Syria now passed under Egyptian control. Bibars successfully opposed the crusaders, taking Antioch in 1268, while in 1291 al-Ashraf Halil of Egypt reduced Acre, the last stronghold of the Christians in Syria. After a century of strife between Bahritic and Cherkiss Mamelukes and the Ilkhans of Hulagu's line, Syria was once more terribly devastated by the Tatar hordes under Timur in 1400.
6. From1 1516 to the Present Time: In 1516 Syria was wrested from the Egyptian Mamelukes by the Osmanli Turk, Selim I. of Constantinople, and since that time the country has formed part of the Turkish empire. From 1545 to 1634 a Druse kingdom maintained itself, with a capital at Beirut, but was finally crushed by Amurath. Ali Bey of Egypt became lord of Syria in 1771, and in his Egyptian campaign Napoleon reduced Jaffa and besieged Acre, ultimately penetrating as far as Safed and Nazareth. Meanwhile, in the middle of the eighteenth century Shaikh Zahir al-Omar had gained control of Lower Galilee and a considerable portion of Upper Galilee, his capital being at Acre,
Syria