Damascus

In this deeply original thematic history, Diana Darke explores the city of Damascus, past and present, interweaving her own life in the city with its longer past. 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 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, Arabic linguist 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 setting the Syrian civil war in historical context, by examining the city’s broader sweep of history – especially the cataclysmic cycles it has endured, both man-made and natural – many original conclusions can be drawn. 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 including the Umayyad Mosque that bring the history of the city to life.