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Damascus

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of the Middle
East

             Damascus Governorate
   مُحافظة دمشق
                   Location
   Map of Syria with Damascus highlighted.
                  Statistics
   Capital:
    •  Coordinates:  Damascus
                      •  ~° N ~° E
   Area :            ~ km²
   Population(2005):
    •  Density :     4,500,000
                      • ~/km²
   Districts
   (Manatiq):        ~
   Time zone:        UTC+2
                     UTC+3 ( DST)
   Main language(s): Arabic

   Damascus (دمشق transliteration: Dimashq, also commonly known as الشام
   ash-Shām) is the largest city of Syria and is also the capital. It is
   thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world (see:
   ancient history), before Al Fayyum, and Gaziantep. Its current
   population is estimated at about 4.5 million. The city is a governorate
   by itself, and the capital of the governorate of Rif Dimashq (Rural
   Damascus).

Name

   In Arabic, the city is called دمشق الشام Dimashq ash-Shām. Although
   this is often shortened to either Dimashq or ash-Shām by many, the
   citizens of Damascus, and of Syria and some other Arab neighbors,
   colloquially call the city ash-Shām. Ash-Shām is an Arabic term for
   north and for Syria. (Syria — particularly historical Greater Syria —
   is called Bilād ash-Shām — بلاد الشام, 'country of the north' — in
   Arabic.) It is possible that the name 'Damascus' pre-dates the Aramaic
   era of the city, as reflected by its Hebrew name, דמשק (Dameśeq).

Geography

   Damascus lies about 80 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea, sheltered
   by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. It lies on a plateau 680 meters above
   sea-level.

   The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south
   bank of the river Barada. To the south-east, north and north-east it is
   surrounded by suburban areas whose history stretches back to the Middle
   Ages: Midan in the south-west, Sarouja and Imara in the north and
   north-west. These districts originally arose on roads leading out of
   the city, near the tombs of religious figures. In the nineteenth
   century outlying villages developed on the slopes of Jabal Qasioun,
   overlooking the city, already the site of the Salihiyye district
   centred around the important shrine of Sheikh Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi.
   These new districts were initially settled by Kurdish soldiery and
   Muslim refugees from the European regions of 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 two to three
   kilometres north of the old city.
   Location of Damascus in relation to the rest of Syria
   Location of Damascus in relation to the rest of Syria

   From the late nineteenth century on, a modern administrative and
   commercial centre began to spring up to the west of the old city,
   around the Barada, centred on the area known as al-merjeh or the
   meadow. Al-Merjeh soon became the name of what was initially the
   central square of modern Damascus, with the city hall on it. The courts
   of justice, post office and railway station stood on higher ground
   slightly to the south. A Europeanised residential quarter soon began to
   be built on the road leading between al-Merjeh and Salihiyye. The
   commercial and administrative centre of the new city gradually shifted
   northwards slightly towards this area.

   In the twentieth century, newer suburbs developed north of the Barada,
   and to some extent to the south, invading the Ghouta oasis. From 1955
   the new district of Yarmouk became a second home to thousands of
   Palestinian refugees. City planners preferred to preserve the Ghouta as
   far as possible, and in the later twentieth century some of the main
   areas of development were to the north, in the western Mezze district
   and most recently along the Barada valley in Dumar in the northwest and
   on the slopes of the mountains at Berze in the north-east. Poorer
   areas, often built without official approval, have mostly developed
   south of the main city.
   Satellite image of Damascus, with Umaween Square just above the centre.
   The Barada river can be seen entering the picture in the upper left
   corner, and the western half of the old city is in the centre of the
   right hand edge of the photograph. The modern district of Mezze extends
   north of the motorway on the centre of the left edge.
   Satellite image of Damascus, with Umaween Square just above the centre.
   The Barada river can be seen entering the picture in the upper left
   corner, and the western half of the old city is in the centre of the
   right hand edge of the photograph. The modern district of Mezze extends
   north of the motorway on the centre of the left edge.

   Damascus is surrounded by an oasis, the Ghouta (الغوطة al-ġūṭä),
   watered by the Barada. The Fijeh spring, west along the Barada valley,
   provides the city with drinking water. The Ghouta oasis has been
   decreasing in size with the rapid expansion of housing and industry in
   the city. It has also become polluted due to the city's traffic,
   industry, and sewage.

History

Ancient history

   CAPTION: Ancient City of Damascus^a
   UNESCO World Heritage Site

               Damascus at sunset
   State Party         Flag of Syria  Syria
   Type                Cultural
   Criteria            i, ii, iii, iv, vi
   Identification      # 20
   Region^b            Arab States

   Inscription History
   Formal Inscription: 1979
                       3rd Session

   a Name as officially inscribed on the WH List
   b As classified officially by UNESCO

   Excavations at Tell Ramad on the outskirts of the city have
   demonstrated that Damascus has been inhabited as early as 8000 to
   10,000 BC. It is due to this that Damascus is considered to be the
   oldest continually inhabited city in the world. However, Damascus is
   not documented as an important city until the coming of the Aramaeans,
   Semitic nomads who arrived from the Arabian peninsula. It is known that
   it was the Aramaeans who first established the water distribution
   system of Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels which maximized
   the efficiency of the Barada river. The same network was later improved
   by the Romans and the Umayyads, and still forms the basis of the water
   system of the old part of Damascus today. It was mentioned in Genesis
   14 as existing at the time of the War of the Kings, although the
   historicity of this account has been questioned.

   Damascus is designated as having been part of the ancient province of
   Amurru in the Hyksos Kingdom, from 1720 to 1570 BC. (MacMillan, pp.
   30-31). Some of the earliest Egyptian records are from the 1350 BC
   Amarna letters, when Damascus-(called Dimasqu) was ruled by king
   Biryawaza. In 1100 BC, the city became the centre of a powerful
   Aramaean state called Aram Damascus. The Kings of Aram Damascus were
   involved in many wars in the area against the Assyrians and the
   Israelites. One of the Kings, Ben-Hadad II, fought Shalmaneser III at
   the Battle of Qarqar. The ruins of the Aramean town most probably lie
   under the eastern part of the old walled city. After Tiglath-Pileser
   III captured and destroyed the city in 732 BC, it lost its independence
   for hundreds of years, and it fell under the Neo-Babylonian rule of
   Nebuchadnezzar starting in 572 BC. The Babylonian rule of the city came
   to an end in 538 BC when the Persians under Cyrus captured the city and
   made it the capital of the Persian province of Syria.

Greco-Roman

   Damascus first came under western control with the giant campaign of
   Alexander the Great that swept through the near east. 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 Nicator, one of
   Alexander's generals, had made Antioch the capital of his vast empire,
   a decision that led Damascus' importance to decline compared with the
   newly founded Seleucid cities such as Latakia in the north.

   In 64 BC, Pompey and the Romans annexed the western part of Syria. They
   occupied Damascus and subsequently incorporated it into the league of
   ten cities known as the Decapolis because it was considered such an
   important centre of Greco-Roman culture. According to the New
   Testament, St. Paul was on the road to Damascus when he received a
   vision, was struck blind and as a result converted to Christianity. In
   the year 37, Roman Emperor Caligula transferred Damascus into Nabataean
   control by decree. The Nabataean king Aretas IV Philopatris ruled
   Damascus from his capital Petra. However, around the year 106, Nabataea
   was conquered by the Romans, and Damascus returned to Roman control.

   Damascus became a metropolis by the beginning of the second century and
   in 222 it was upgraded to a colonia by the Emperor Septimius Severus.
   With the coming of the Pax Romana, Damascus and the Roman province of
   Syria in general began to prosper. Damascus's importance as 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.

   Little remains of the architecture of the Romans, but the town planning
   of the old city did have 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 1500 by 750 meters,
   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 below the modern
   city.

   According to the 1st century Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus in his
   twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews "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 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 were become 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 the country of Damascus; and there is
   shown a village named from him, The Habitation of Abraham." He is an
   important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism

From the Muslim conquest to the Fatimids

   Damascus was conquered by the Caliph Umar I in 636. Immediately
   thereafter, the city's power and prestige reached its peak when it
   became the capital of the Umayyad Empire, which extended from Spain to
   India from 661 to 750. In 744, the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II,
   moved the capital to Harran in the Jazira, and Damascus was never to
   regain the political prominence it had held in that period.

   After the fall of the Umayyads and the establishment of the Abbasid
   caliphate in 750, Damascus was ruled from Baghdad, although in 858
   al-Mutawakkil briefly established his residence there with the
   intention of transferring his capital there from Samarra. However, he
   soon abandoned the idea. As the Abbasid caliphate declined, Damascus
   suffered from the prevailing instability, and came under the control of
   local dynasties. In 875 the ruler of Egypt, Ahmad ibn Tulun, took the
   city, with Abbasid control being re-established only in 905. In 945 the
   Hamdanids took Damascus, and not long after it passed into the hands of
   Muhammad bin Tughj, founder of the Ikhshidid dynasty. In 968 and again
   in 971 the city was briefly captured by the Qaramita.

Fatimids, the Crusades and the Seljuks

   In 970, the Fatimid Caliphs in Cairo gained control of Damascus. This
   was to usher in a turbulent period in the city's history, as the Berber
   troops who formed the backbone of the Fatimid forces became deeply
   unpopular among its citizens. The presence in Syria of the Qaramita and
   occasionally of Turkish military bands added to the constant pressure
   from the Bedouin. For a brief period from 978, Damascus was
   self-governing, under the leadership of a certain Qassam and protected
   by a citizen militia. However, the Ghouta was ravaged by the Bedouin
   and after a Turkish-led campaign the city once again surrendered to
   Fatimid rule. From 1029 to 1041 the Turkish military leader Anushtakin
   was governor of Damascus under the Fatimid caliph Al-Zahir, and did
   much to restore the city's prosperity.

   It appears that during this period the slow transformation of Damascus
   from a Graeco-Roman city layout - characterised by blocks of insulae —
   to a more familiar Islamic pattern took place: the grid of straight
   streets changed to a pattern of narrow streets, with most residents
   living inside harat closed off at night by heavy wooden gates to
   protect against criminals and the exactions of the soldiery.
   The statue of Saladin infront of Damascus citadel.
   The statue of Saladin infront of Damascus citadel.

   With the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in the late 11th century, Damascus
   again became the capital of independent states. It was ruled by a
   Seljuk dynasty from 1079 to 1104, and then by another Turkish dynasty -
   the Burid Emirs, who withstood a siege of the city during the Second
   Crusade in 1148. In 1154 Damascus was conquered from the Burids by the
   famous Zengid Atabeg Nur ad-Din of Aleppo, the great foe of the
   Crusaders. He made it his capital, and following his death, it was
   acquired by Saladin, the ruler of Egypt, who also made it his capital.
   Saladin rebuilt the citadel, and it is reported that under his rule the
   suburbs were as extensive as the city itself. It is reported by Ibn
   Jubayr that during the time of Saladin, Damascus welcomed seekers of
   knowledge and industrious youth from around the world, who arrived for
   the sake of "undistracted study and seclusion" in Damascus' many
   colleges.

   In the years following Saladin's death, there were frequent conflicts
   between different Ayyubid sultans ruling in Damascus and Cairo.
   Damascus steel gained a legendary reputation among the Crusaders, and
   patterned steel is still "damascened". The patterned Byzantine and
   Chinese silks available through Damascus, one of the Western termini of
   the Silk Road, gave the English language "damask".
   Azem Palace
   Azem Palace

Mamluk rule

   Ayyubid rule (and independence) came to an end with the Mongol invasion
   of Syria in 1260, and Damascus became a provincial capital of the
   Mamluk Empire, ruled from Egypt, following the Mongol withdrawal.

Timurlank

   In 1400 Timur, the Mongol conqueror, besieged Damascus. The Mamluk
   sultan dispatched a deputation from Cairo, including Ibn Khaldun, who
   negotiated with him, but after their withdrawal he put the city to
   sack. The Umayyad Mosque was burnt and men and women 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-ruus, originally "the tower of heads".

   Rebuilt, Damascus continued to serve as a Mamluk provincial capital
   until 1516.

The Ottoman conquest

   Khan as'ad Pacha built in 1749
   Khan as'ad Pacha built in 1749

   In early 1516, the Ottoman Turks, wary of the danger of an alliance
   between the Mamluks and the Persian Safavids, started a campaign of
   conquest against the Mamluk sultanate. On 21 September, the Mamluk
   governor of Damascus fled the city, and on 2 October the khutba in the
   Umayyad mosque was pronounced in the name of Selim I. The day after,
   the victorious sultan entered the city, staying for three months. On 15
   December, he left Damascus by Bab al-Jabiya, intent on the conquest of
   Egypt. Little appeared to have changed in the city: one army had simply
   replaced another. However, on his return in October 1517, the sultan
   ordered the construction of a mosque, taqiyya and mausoleum at the
   shrine of Shaikh Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi in Salihiyya. This was to be the
   first of Damascus' great Ottoman monuments.

   The Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief
   occupation by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt from 1832 to 1840. Because of its
   importance as the point of departure for one of the two great Hajj
   caravans to Mecca, Damascus was treated with more attention by the
   Porte than its size might have warranted — for most of this period,
   Aleppo was more populous and commercially more important. In 1560 the
   Taqiyya al-Sulaimaniyya, a mosque and khan for pilgrims on the road to
   Mecca, was completed to a design by the famous Ottoman architect Sinan,
   and soon afterwards a madrasa was built adjoining it.

   Perhaps the most notorious incident of these centuries was the massacre
   of Christians in 1860, when fighting between Druze and Maronites in
   Mount Lebanon spilled over into the city. Some thousands of Christians
   were killed, with many more being saved through the intervention of the
   Algerian exile Abd al-Qadir and his soldiers, who brought them to
   safety in Abd al-Qadir's residence and the citadel. The Christian
   quarter of the old city, including a number of churches, was burnt
   down. The Christian inhabitants of the notoriously poor and refractory
   Midan district outside the walls were, however, protected by their
   Muslim neighbours.

Rise of Arab nationalism

   In the early years of the twentieth century, nationalist sentiment in
   Damascus, initially cultural in its interest, began to take a political
   colouring, largely in reaction to the turkicisation programme of the
   Committee of Union and Progress government established in Istanbul in
   1908. The hanging of a number of patriotic intellectuals by Jamal
   Pasha, governor of Damascus, in Beirut and Damascus in 1915 and 1916
   further stoked nationalist feeling, and in 1918, as the forces of the
   Arab Revolt and the British army approached, residents fired on the
   retreating Turkish troops.

Modern

   The Turkish Hospital in Damascus on 1 October 1918, shortly after the
   entry of the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment.
   The Turkish Hospital in Damascus on 1 October 1918, shortly after the
   entry of the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment.

   On 1 October 1918, the forces of the Arab revolt led by Nuri as-Said
   entered Damascus. The same day, Australian soldiers from the 4th and
   10th Light Horse Regiments entered the city and accepted its surrender
   from the Turkish appointed Governor Emir Said (installed as Governor
   the previous afternoon by the retreating Turkish Commander) . A
   military government under Shukri Pasha was named. Other British forces
   including T. E. Lawrence followed later that day, and Faisal ibn
   Hussein was proclaimed king of Syria. Political tension rose in
   November 1917, when the new Bolshevik government in Russia revealed the
   Sykes-Picot Agreement whereby Britain and France had arranged to
   partition the Arab east between them. A new Franco-British proclamation
   on 17 November promised the "complete and definitive freeing of the
   peoples so long oppressed by the Turks." The Syrian Congress in March
   adopted a democratic constitution. However, the Versailles Conference
   had granted France a mandate over Syria, and in 1920 a French army
   crossed the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, defeated a small Syrian defensive
   expedition at the Battle of Maysalun and entered Damascus. The French
   made Damascus capital of their League of Nations Mandate of Syria.

   When in 1925 the Druze revolt in the Hauran spread to Damascus, the
   French repressed it brutally, bombing and shelling the city. The area
   of the old city between Souk al-Hamidiyya and Souk Midhat Pasha was
   burned to the ground, with many deaths, and has since then been known
   as al-Hariqa ("the fire"). The old city was surrounded with barbed wire
   to prevent rebels infiltrating from the Ghouta, and a new road was
   built outside the northern ramparts to facilitate the movement of
   armoured cars.

   In 1945 the French once more bombed Damascus, but on this occasion
   British forces intervened and the French agreed to withdraw, thus
   leading to the full independence of Syria in 1946. Damascus remained
   the capital.

Historical sites

   Ananias Chapel
   Ananias Chapel

   Damascus has a wealth of historical sites dating back to many different
   periods of the city's history. Since the city has been built up with
   every passing occupation, it has become almost impossible to excavate
   all the ruins of Damascus that lie up to 8 feet below the modern level.
   The Citadel of Damascus is located in the northwest corner of the Old
   City. The street called straight (referred to in the conversion of St.
   Paul in Acts 9:11), also known as the Via Recta, was the decumanus
   (East-West main street) of Roman Damascus, and extended for over 1500
   meters. Today, it consists of the street of Bab Sharqi and the Souk
   Medhat Pasha, a covered market. The Bab Sharqi street is filled with
   small shops and leads to the old Christian quarter of Bab Touma (St.
   Thomas's Gate). Souq Medhat Pasha is also a main market in Damascus and
   was named after Medhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Damascus who
   renovated the Souq. At the end of the Bab Sharqi street, one reaches
   the House of Ananias, an underground chapel that was the cellar of
   Ananias's house.

   The Umayyad Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus, is one
   of the largest mosques in the world, and one of the oldest sites of
   continuous prayer since the rise of Islam. A shrine in the mosque is
   said to contain the head of John the Baptist.
   Shrine of Zaynab bint Ali at Damascus, Syria
   Shrine of Zaynab bint Ali at Damascus, Syria

   A heavily visited site is the tomb of Zaynab bint Ali. Hundered of
   thousands of shia muslims visit it every year.

The walls and gates of Damascus

   The Minaret of the Bride, Umayyad Mosque in old Damascus
   The Minaret of the Bride, Umayyad Mosque in old Damascus

   The old city of Damascus is surrounded by ramparts on the northern and
   eastern sides and part of the southern side. There are eight extant
   city gates, the oldest of which dates back to the Roman period. These
   are, clockwise from the north of the citadel:
     * Bab al-Faraj ("the gate of deliverance"),
     * Bab al-Faradis ("the gate of the orchards", or "of the paradise")
     * Bab al-Salam ("the gate of peace"), all on the north boundary of
       the old city
     * Bab Touma (the "Touma" or "Thomas gate") in the north-east corner,
       leading into the Christian quarter of the same name,
     * Bab Sharqi ("eastern gate") in the east wall, the only one to
       retain its Roman plan
     * Bab Kisan in the south-east, from which tradition holds that Saint
       Paul made his escape from Damascus, lowered from the ramparts in a
       basket; this gate is now closed and a chapel marking the event has
       been built into the structure,
     * al-Bab al-Saghir (the small gate) in the south.
     * Bab al-Jabiya at the entrance to Souq Midhat Pasha, in the
       south-west.

   Two other areas outside the walled city also bear the name "gate": Bab
   Mousalla and Bab Sreija, both to the south-west of the walled city.

Subdivisions

   Almarja Square in downtown Damascus
   Almarja Square in downtown Damascus

   Damascus is divided into many districts. Among them there are,
   Al-Amara, Al-Baramkah, Al-Mezzah, Al-Meedan, Al-Muhajreen, Al-Tijara
   and Mashrooa Dummar.

Education

   Damascus is the main centre of education in Syria. It is home to
   Damascus University, which is the oldest and by far the largest
   university in Syria. After the enactment of legislation allowing
   private secondary institutions, several new universities were
   established in the city and in the surrounding area.

Universities

   Damascus University
   Syrian Virtual University
   Syrian European University
   Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology HIAST
   International University for Science and Technology
   Higher Institute of Business Administration HIBA

Transportation

   Al-Hijaz Station
   Al-Hijaz Station

   The main airport is Damascus International Airport, approximately 20 km
   away from the city centre, with connections to many Asian, Europe,
   African, and recently, South American cities. Streets in Damascus are
   often narrow, mostly in the older parts of the city, and speed bumps
   are widely used to limit the speed.

   Public transport in Damascus depends extensively on minibuses. There
   are about one hundred lines that operate inside the city and some of
   them extend from the city centre to nearby suburbs. There is no
   schedule for the lines, and due to the limited number of official bus
   stops, buses will usually stop wherever a passenger needs to get on or
   off. The number of buses serving the same line is relatively high,
   which minimizes the waiting time. Lines are not numbered, rather they
   are given captions mostly indicating the two end points and possibly an
   important station along the line.

   Al-Hijaz railway station, lies in the city centre. Currently this
   station is closed, and railway connections wih other cities take palce
   in suburb.

   Since the early 1990s, there have been many plans to construct an
   underground system in Damascus, but no plan was taken seriously due to
   both financial and technical limitations.

Culture

People

   The majority of the population in Damascus came as a result of
   rural-urban migration. It is believed that the local people of
   Damascus, called Damascene, are about 1.5 million. Damascus is
   considered by most people to be a very safe city. Haggling is common,
   especially in the traditional souks. Corruption is widespread, but in
   the past few years there have been aims at combating it, by both the
   government and non-governmental organizations. Tea is arguably the
   favourite beverage in Damascus.

Religion

   The majority of Damascenes - about 75 % - are Sunni Muslims. It is
   believed that there are more than one thousand mosques in Damascus, the
   most famous one being the Umayyad Mosque. There are some Christian
   districts, such as Bab Touma, with many churches, most notably the
   ancient St. Paul's Church.

Museums

     * Syrian National Museum
     * Azem Palace
     * Military Museum
     * Museum of Arabic Calligraphy

Leisure Activities

Damascene Parks and gardens

   Tishreen Park is by far the largest park in Damascus. It is home to the
   yearly held Damascus Flower Show. Other parks include Aljahiz, Altijara
   and Alwahda.

   Damascus oasis is also a popular destination for recreation.

Cafe culture

   Cafes are popular meeting spots for Damascene, where Arghilehs (water
   pipes) and popular beverages are served. Card games, Tables (backgammon
   variants), and chess are common in these cafes.

Sports

   Popular sports include football, basketball, swimming and table tennis.
   Damascus is home to many sports clubs, such as:
     * Al Jaish
     * Al Wahda
     * Al Majd
     * Al Jalaa

Born in Damascus

   Damascus by night, pictured from Jabal Qasioun; the green spots are
   minarets
   Damascus by night, pictured from Jabal Qasioun; the green spots are
   minarets
     * Nicolaus of Damascus (historian and philosopher)
     * John of Damascus (saint)
     * Ananias (disciple)
     * Sophronius ( Patriarch of Jerusalem)
     * Damascius (Byzantine philosopher)
     * Yasser Seirawan (chess player)
     * Ahmed Kuftaro (former grand mufti of Syria)
     * Ikram Antaki (Mexican writer)
     * Ghada al-Samman (novelist)
     * Nizar Qabbani (poet)
     * Yousef Abdelke (painter)
     * Zuhair Al-Sabban (painter)
     * Michel Aflaq (political thinker and co-founder of the Baath Party)
     * Salah al-Din al-Bitar (political thinker and co-founder of the
       Baath Party)
     * Constantin Zureiq (academic and Arab nationalist intellectual)
     * Zakaria Tamer (writer)

Trivia

   In Damascus there are two districts with the names Al-Hareeqa and
   Al-Itfa'iyya, the first meaning "the fire" and the second meaning "the
   fire station"

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