Damascus Research Articles

HEAD-TURNING SITUATIONS: A STREET WALK IN THE CITY OF OLD DAMASCUS

Human curiosity never has a limit. It always occurs as people observe, stare at, and listen to whatever exists in the surrounding. In Old Damascus, as rich as a traditional city could be, sceneries always represent a variety of head turning situations, caused by attentiongrabbing stimuli where the essence or spirit of the place comes to mind. The spirit of the place is defined in this research as the expectation, unpredictability, surprise, attraction, invitation, or illusion that one experiences or perceives in streetscape. That is simply ascribed to six defined causes: observable urban elements; configuration of patterns; spirit of place; street layouts; the presence of sound; different light/dark alteration. These causes are explained and illustrated in the first part of the research. In the second part of this research, those causes had helped to understand head turning situations in examples from Old Damascene streetscape. Accordingly, classification of streetscape is possible with various attentive responses of a stroller’s reaction to different compositions of urban elements and street layouts.

Damascus: A History. Ross Burns.

<i>Damascus: A History</i>. Ross Burns.

Sarah and Hagar in Ibn Asākir's History of Damascus

Sarah and Hagar in Ibn Asākir's History of Damascus

My Journey to Damascus

Though I have made my journey to Damascus, Though I have watched and walked on toward Damascus, Yet I have not been blinded. Though I have found a thousand paths And traced them every one, And trie...

The road to Damascus &amp;#40:HR at Oracle)

The road to Damascus &amp;#40:HR at Oracle)

A new old Damascus: authenticity and distinction in urban Syria – Christa Salamandra

A new old Damascus: authenticity and distinction in urban Syria – Christa Salamandra

The Road to Damascus

The Road to Damascus

The Philosopher on the Road to Damascus

The Philosopher on the Road to Damascus

Road to Damascus

Road to Damascus

An Historical Atlas of Islam

I THE EARLY MUSLIM EARTH AND SKY The World According to al-Idrisi 549/1154 The World According to al-Sharfi 986/1579 Arabic Constellations Star Names used by the Arabs in the Indian Ocean II THE EXTENSION OF THE MUSLIM WORLD Linguistic Regions of the Islamic World circa 900/1500 Environments and Mineral Resources of the Islamic World circa 390/1000 The World on the Eve of the Muslim Conquests circa 600 A.D. Early Muslim Conquests The Umayyad Caliphate circa 132/750 The Muslim World circa 287/900 The Muslim World circa 403/1100 The Muslim World circa 700/1300 The Muslim World circa 905/1500 The Muslim World circa 1111/1700 The Muslim World circa 1317/1900 III THE ARABIAN PENINSULA Arabia According to Ptolemy (circa 150 A.D.) Arabia in Classical Times Pre-Islamic Yaman and the Hadramawt Arabia in the Time of the Hijra (622 A.D.) The Holy City of Makka The Holy City of al-Madina Yaman and the Hadramawt in Islamic Times The Arabian Peninsula in Islamic Times San a IV EGYPT AND THE FERTILE CRESCENT The Fertile Crescent under the Umayyad and cAbbasid Caliphs The Fertile Crescent in the Age of the Crusades circa 534/1140 The Fertile Crescent in the 11th/17th and 12th/18th Centuries Dimashq (Damascus) in the Ayyubid and Mamluk Period Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Halab (Aleppo) circa 905/1500 Al-Mawsil (Mosul) Baghdad under the Early cAbbasids Baghdad in the Buyid, Saljuq and Mongol Periods Mediaeval Islamic Egypt Al-Fustat and al-Qahira Cairo/al-Qahira in the Mamluk Period V IRAN AND TRANSOXANIA Iran under the Umayyads and cAbbasids Iran in the 4th-5th/10th-11th Centuries Iran under the Mongols 7th-8th/13th-14th Centuries Iran under the Safavid and Qajar Dynasties (10th-13th/16th-19th Centuries) Isfahan Samarqand Transoxania in the 4th-5th/10th-11th Centuries Transoxania under the Khwarazm Shahs and Ghurids Transoxania under the Timurids and Ozbeks circa 905/1500 Transoxania in the 13th/19th Century Marv Harat VI THE CAUCASUS Caucasus (al-Qabq) in the Early Middle Ages Caucasus in the 12th-13th/18th-19th Centuries VII ANATOLIA AND THE BALKANS Byzantine Anatolia/Rum in 2nd-5th/8th-11th Centuries Anatolia/Rum 473-600/1081-1204 Anatolia/Rum in the 7th/13th Century: Saljuq Roads and Crusade Routes Anatolia/Rum circa 700/1300: Ottoman Expansion to 763/1362 Ottoman Expansion 1362-1402 A.D. The First Conquest of Rumelia and Anatolia Anadolu and Rumeli in the Later 11th/17th Century Anadolu and Rumeli in the Later 13th/19th Century Ottoman Naval Power in the 10th/16th Century Istanbul VIII AL-ANDALUS (SPAIN AND PORTUGAL) AND AL-MAGHRIB Al-Andalus and al-Maghrib: The Muslim Conquest The Western Mediterranean in the 3th/9th Century Al-Andalus under the Umayyads circa 338/950 Al-Andalus, the Christian Reconquest circa 426-897/1035-1492 Qurtuba (Cordoba) Gharnata (Granada) The Maghrib in the Age of Almoravids & Almohads 5th-7th/11th-13th Centuries Siqilliyya (Sicily) under Muslim Rule North Africa and the Sudan circa 1008/1600 Fas (Fes) Marrakush (Marrakesh) IX INDIA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN The Indian Ocean circa 390/1000 The Turks and Portuguese in the Indian Ocean 10th/16th Centuries The Greater Dihli Sultanate (Khalji and Early Tughluq) 689-736/1290-1335 Early Muslim Penetration of India 2nd-7th/8th-13th Centuries India circa 1101/1690: Maximum Extent of the Mughul Empire under Awrangzib The First Mughul Conquest early 10th/16th Century India circa 1183/1770: Maratha Expansion and Beginning of British Administration Dihli (Dehli) X THE FAR EAST Indonesia/Java: The First Muslim Empires Indonesia/Java: 906-1163/1500-1750 Indonesia/Java: European Colonisation Islam in China Index of Place-Names and Ethnic Names

I TZCHAK W EISMANN , Taste of Modernity, Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus, Islamic History and Civilization (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2001). Pp. 355. $86.00 cloth.

Itzchak Weismann's recent book on reform movements in late Ottoman Damascus illustrates how contemporary Islamic reform movements such as the Salafiyya have their origins in the efforts of Damascene religious men of learning and mysticism. These men attempted to construct reform movements that adhered to Islamic ideals while accommodating changed circumstances brought about by Western penetration into the region. Sufi ulama movements that made claims to both orthodoxy and reform in this early period provided much of the intellectual and social fodder for what Weismann calls modern Islamic movements. The combination of עilm and taṣawwuf , according to Weismann, allowed these early scholars to carve a reformist, yet orthodox, path that avoided the rigidity of the traditional ulama, who ignored mystic thought, and the popular Sufis, who neglected religious learning. Further, the story of these early reform movements illustrates how the path to modernity in the Muslim world is not simply the tale of an all-out adoption of Western rationalism by a centralized Ottoman bureaucracy; rather, it reflects a deep commitment by local Muslim intellectuals to contend with their changing world in terms that reflect the depth of their Islamic tradition. Through an investigation of the teachings and participants of three distinct reform movements in late Ottoman Damascus, Weismann illustrates the tensions within the movements and with the central Ottoman government—all of which pushed many of these reformers gradually to rely on more local avenues of expression, thereby paving the way for the rise of Arab nationalism.

Dancing in Damascus: stories

Dancing in Damascus: stories

Policy Measures for River Water Management in Barada Basin, Syria

Barada Basin, where the capital of Syria, Damascus, is located, and hence where most of the human activities are concentrated, suffers from serious environmental problems due to the huge migration from rural areas, illegal settlements, industrialization, and urbanization, and overexploitation of environmental media. According to the list of priorities that has been set by Ministry of Environment and WB in 1997 an immediate action plan should be carried out to address the water pollution issues in Barada Basin. Huge amounts of wastewater (domestic, industrial, and agricultural) are discharged every day to the land, Barada and Awaj Rivers without sufficient treatment converting the only-two water bodies in the region to waste dump. In this paper, the water pollution problem in Barada Basin has been analyzed. Simulations of a mathematical model have been run in order to find an optimal feasible policy improving the environmental status in Barada Basin. This model includes an ecological model that describes the behavior of the pollutants and an economic model that describes the market instruments. A set of policies have been proposed based on the simulations.

The road from Damascus

The road from Damascus

Ties of Blood

Father sprouted from that shoot of David which circumambulated Jerusalem's stones after the Dispersion which recognised Yahweh in all His other names which decked in Ottoman turbans helped raise the Levant as an ark for all races all cultures which shook hands with shepherds and artisans sipped tea with poets musicians and courtesans dressed janissaries and equerries waged war and peace on backgammon boards graced weddings circumcisions christenings funerals everywhere between Damascus and Sarajevo Algiers and Batumi

Al-Tanbīh ‘alā Ghalaṭ al-Jāhil wa-l-Nabīh, by Ibn Kamāl Pāshā. Edited by Mohammed Sawaie. 143 pages, notes, bibliography, indices. In Arabic with introductions also in French and English. Damascus: L’Institut Français d’Études Arabes de Damas, 1994. (Paper) isbn 2-901315-19-4

Al-Tanbīh ‘alā Ghalaṭ al-Jāhil wa-l-Nabīh, by Ibn Kamāl Pāshā. Edited by Mohammed Sawaie. 143 pages, notes, bibliography, indices. In Arabic with introductions also in French and English. Damascus: L’Institut Français d’Études Arabes de Damas, 1994. (Paper) isbn 2-901315-19-4 - Volume 31 Issue 1

Autocensura e storiografia augustea: il caso di Salvidieno Rufo.

The Life of Augustus by Nicolaus of Damascus and other literary sources on Salvidienus Rufus’ alleged conspiracy of 40 BC reveal the sustained effort of Roman historiography under Augustus to either delete or conceal any trace of political opposition to the princeps.

The Mosaics of the Qubba al-Zahirayya in Damascus

The Mosaics of the Qubba al-Zahirayya in Damascus

The Road to Bleedin' Damascus

The Road to Bleedin' Damascus

Midhat Pasha and the Jewish Community of Damascus

L'A. publie ici deux lettres recemment decouvertes dans les Archives de l'Alliance Israelite Universelle. Datees des 24 juillet et 3 aout 1880, elles sont adressees par Midhat Pacha, alors gouverneur de Syrie, au secretaire de l'AIU a Paris. Ces lettres montrent, a propos de la reouverture d'une ecole de l'Alliance a Damas sur l'initiative de Midhat Pacha, combien ce gouverneur eclaire etait soucieux d'inciter la communaute juive a se moderniser et se regenerer, au meme titre que les autres communautes de Damas placees sous son autorite