Damascus from the Umayyad era and the contemporary era (first part) by: Dr. Mohammad Khaleghi Moghad
Damascus from the Umayyad era and the contemporary era
(first part)
by: Dr. Mohammad Khaleghi Moghadam,
specialization: urban sociologist
It is French, and like the teachings of Professor Guillaume, it is a Frenchman who popularized the word "Syria" or "Syrian ethnicity" and invented it socially, or they gave a 100-year cultural trend, or it replaced the word "Sham" that was used for centuries in different historical sources and only "the word Sham" Has it come and on the contrary "Syrian country" has not come? Or it has become popular only in the last 100 years! But in various historical sources, the city of Damascus was considered one of the typical cities of Seleucids (not the capital city of Sham), or it is a typical city of ancient Rome, or it is a small city of Byzantine Rome, or it is a city belonging to the Seljuk Empire. It is either the city of the Crusaders of Europe, or the city of Damascus belongs to the Syrian Ayyubid Kurds, or the city of Damascus belongs to the Mamluk government of Egypt! Or the city is under the control of the Turkish Ottomans, or the city was conquered by the British and French generals, and it is the last hundred years that the army of this country has been defeated in 100 years. They force the latter! And a country that is composed of all kinds of Syrian Kurds or Syrian Christians and residents of Damascus and Aleppo? Or is it composed of the Syrian Jewish people living in Damascus! Or "Druze people" or "Alawi people" or "Circassian Turkic people" and "Syria" is the Mamluk era of Egypt? Or is it the Arab people of Idlib region of Syria or the Palestinian Arab people of Yarmouk and Rif Damascus, who cannot live peacefully and side by side in the form of an "ancient Syriac nation"? Or have "common linguistic understanding" or "economic understanding" or common cultural sharing with each other? They can give Damascus a contemporary political capital! And for the same reason, the bombing of Homs by the Arabs during the era of Hafez Assad, or the formation of the Arab League of Syria and Egypt during the reign of General Abdul Nasser of Egypt, or the occurrence of the recent 7-year wars in Syria, or the occurrence of various coups by the Syrian army generals in the last hundred years in Damascus, and all these types of national-political lack of understanding This type of different ethnic groups in Syria shows that in the past, before Islam, they did not have an independent and unified nationality! Rather, they were the only Yemeni Arab people who immigrated to the lands of Syria, who were considered political allies of the Romans! In addition, they had accepted the culture of the Roman military pioneers and their alliance was also against the Parthian and Sassanid civilizations, who had a 1000-year-old special military and political arrangement on both sides of the Euphrates! And for this reason, Hamza Esfahani's book of Kings and Prophets has mentioned the migration of those Arabs from Yemen to Syria, or the book "Moruj al-Zahhab Masoudi" also refers to the names of the heads of the tribes of these Ghassani Christian Arabs in "Sham Lands" or the book "Emigration of Arab Tribes and Sadr" "Islam" by Dr. Saleh Ahmad al-Ali also refers to their migration to the villages or cities east of the Euphrates in the Levant! Or does it express the social issue! I will mention the same topic in my next article, or I will mention the ethnic differences in the land of Sham! And in addition, the city of the Roman garrison "Damascus" or its transformation into the "city of Damascus" which had a fence with 4 gates and 10 Roman churches or bazaars and during the Umayyad rule and has such a political history that it ended with the uprising of Abu Muslim of Khorasani and the oppression of the people of Asia. He did not find or continue to oppress the Turkic peoples across the Nile in Asia! Therefore, the city of Damascus or the conquest of Damascus in the 14th lunar year is like this! There was a garrison in the hands of the military governor and Christian Heracles, who was the emperor of Rome, and the Arabs conquered it in the 13th or 14th year of the Hijri, and then the same "Arab ruler of Damascus" changed soon or at some point. Also, Umar Caliph and command of the army is taken from Khaled bin Waleed and handed over to Abu Ubaidah! Or, according to Tabari's history, after the conquest of Damascus, Yazid bin Abi Sufyan, the brother of Muawiya, became the Arab ruler of Damascus! Or by the order of the second caliph and the "ruler of Damascus"! Or a number of Arabs gathered in the Christianized Yemen and fought with the Islamic army of Imam Ali and Safin beside the Euphrates, and then with the order of the same Christians of Eastern Rome, they marched to the cities of the Turks across the river in Asia, and they settled in the same villages east of the Euphrates from these days, and some In the campaign to Syria, they settled in the houses of Christians in Damascus!
And Ibn Jubira is a Spaniard and he has seen Damascus during these days and he gives a description of it and its Jama Masjid, and for example, he talks about Qaisariyya and the Bazaar of Damascus, or he mentions the Souq al-Kabir in Damascus, from Bab al-Jabiyyah to the Eastern Bab of Damascus in his travelogue, and in addition to the Souq al-Khil (horse market). Wasuq al-Raqiq (slave market) was also there! Or he talks about the narrow muddy streets of Damascus, or he talks about how the Umayyad Grand Mosque is, or he talks about some of its schools! It was also during the Mongols' attack and the door of "Bab Al Faraj" which is mentioned in historical sources, and Ibn Battuta also reports from Damascus during the Mongol period! Or he talks about the recitation of the Qur'an in the mosques of that city! And then, during the period of Timur Lang, Damascus was captured and burned, but again after Timur's death, it fell into the hands of the Egyptian Mamluks, until during the Egyptian Mamluks' period, they also built a palace. And in Damascus, they build for themselves, or some baths, mills, or mints, and there was a palace next to it, and there was also "Taht al-Qalah Square" in Damascus, or "Al-Khil Square" or "Horse Square", and also in the Mamluk period of Egypt, there were various Hanafi, Hanbali, and Shafi'i schools in Damascus. During their period, the schools of Salihiya, Waziyaiya, Tabakiyya, Sahibiya, and Umriyya were located in Damascus, and each of them had their own endowments. In addition, there was a Ziaiyeh school and a library that was built by Umar bin Qudamah! In addition, in this neighborhood of Damascus, there is "Al-Mahdi Street" in Damascus, where several Syrian security or military complexes are located on Al-Mahdi Street, and also the United States Embassy in Damascus is located on Al-Mansour Street in Damascus, in the same area of "Aburmaneh" and in addition, the Canadian Embassy or Embassy Iran is located in the affluent area of "Maze" in the center of Damascus, and in addition, in this area of Damascus, several buildings of the ministries of Damascus are also located, and in addition, the houses of most of the high-ranking officials of Bashar Assad's government live in this affluent neighborhood. And also in the "meze area of Damascus" and It is the headquarters of the Syrian Baath party, and also the Russian embassy in Damascus, or the headquarters of a number of night clubs in Damascus, or "Umayyad Square" is located in the center of Damascus, and in addition, the center of the Syrian state television building is also located there. Waz street is connected to "Midan Saba Baharat" in Damascus on one side, and on the other side, it reaches the Central Bank of Syria, which is near this square, and also the "Kafrsouse" area is located in the southwest suburbs of Damascus. In addition, the new building of the Ministry of Interior of Syria It is also located in this area of Damascus. In addition, "Jadid al-Fazl" town is also located in the suburbs of Damascus or in the southwest of Damascus, and in addition, the "Moazami" area of Damascus is also in other areas of the southwest suburbs of Damascus! In addition, "Bab Mosli" is from other areas of the city of Damascus, or it is an intercity transportation center, and it is full of shops and centers for buying and selling fruit, etc., and from the southern suburbs of Damascus, you can also refer to the area of "Hajar al-Aswad Damascus" or "suburb area" Yarmouk of Damascus" pointed out. And "Yarmouk" is also the name of the largest refugee camp of Palestinians and Syrians, which has been destroyed in recent years, many of its residents were Palestinians, and some of its residents are Syrians! It is also located in the southeastern suburbs of Damascus and the "Jarmana" area. It is adjacent to Hamidiyeh market in Damascus. The railway station is either built next to it, and in the late Ottoman period, it is also next to it, and in the old days it was also called Souq al-Kabir market, and also "Rukn al-Din" area is one of the central districts of Damascus city. Also, "Shamdin Square" in Damascus is also located in Rukn al-Din area. In addition, "Jadid al-Fazl" town is also located in the southwest suburb of Damascus, and in addition, the "Moazamieh" area of Damascus is also in other areas of the southwest suburb of Damascus, and in addition, "Bab Mosli" It is also from other areas of Damascus. Also, Damascus International Airport is located in the southern edge of Damascus city. Roman columns and remnants from the Byzantine era can still be seen among the porticoes of the Damascus market, or it is one of the old cemeteries of that area, Bab al-Saghir cemetery, or one of the old mosques of that area, and the Umayyad Jami Mosque, which Ibn Jubeir has a good description of that Jami Mosque. It is Umayyad and on the eastern edge of Damascus, Ghouta agricultural area is located, or the University of Damascus or the "National Museum of Damascus" are located in the "Bramke area" in the center of the city of Damascus. And the Damascus Opera Hall is located in "Umayyad Square" in the center of Damascus, and today it is located in "Bab Kisan, Damascus" and the historical gates of Damascus city, the remains of which still exist inside the city.
Damascus and the unknown people of Syria and Syria
(part two)
by: Dr. Mohammad Khaleghi Moghadam,
specialty: anthropologist of Asian peoples
It has been a year or so in the promotion of that subject in the Arabic publication Al-Akha or other and in the Damascus Al-Alami Al-Arabi Seminary, which was popularized and taught in the newly built schools of Damascus, Aleppo and Homs schools, by English or French advisers, and it is similar to the teachings of the French professor Guillaume, which has become popular. Was the word "Syria" or "Syrian ethnicity" a social invention, or was it a 100-year cultural trend, or did it replace the word "Sham" that has appeared in various historical sources for centuries, and only the word "Sham" has appeared, and on the contrary, "Syrian country" has not appeared? Or it has become popular only in the last 100 years! But in various historical sources, the city of Damascus was considered one of the typical cities of the Seleucids (not the capital city of Syria), or it was a typical city of ancient Rome, or it was a small city of Byzantine Rome, or it belonged to the Seljuk Empire, or it was a city of the European Crusaders, or Damascus belonged to the Ayyubid Kurds of Syria. It was either the city of Damascus under the Egyptian Mamluk government! Or the city was under the control of the Turkish Ottomans, or the city was conquered by the British and French generals in the last hundred years. And the country that is made up of all kinds of Syrian Kurds, or are they the Syrian Christians who live in Damascus, Aleppo, Malola, etc.? Or are they composed of the Syrian Jewish people living in Damascus! Or the "Druze people" or the "Alawi people" or the "Circassian, Shamlu and Rumloi Turkic people of Syria"? Or the "Ahrar al-Sham Arab people of Idlib region of Syria" or the Palestinian Arab people of Yarmouk and Rif of Damascus! That they cannot live peacefully and side by side in the form of an "ancient Syriac nation"? Or "common linguistic understanding" or "economic understanding" or "common cultural sharing" with each other? Give it to the political capital of contemporary Damascus and the last 100 years! And for the same reason, the bombings of the Arabs in the city of Homs during the time of Hafez Assad or the formation of the Arab League of Syria and Egypt during the reign of General Abdul Nasser of Egypt, or the occurrence of the recent 7-year wars in Syria, or the occurrence of various coups by various generals of the Syrian army in the last hundred years in Damascus, and all these types of national-political lack of understanding This type of different ethnic groups shows Syria, and it was the same in the past before Islam! And they did not have an independent and unified nationality! Rather, they were the only Yemeni Arab people who immigrated to the Levant lands, who were considered political allies of the Romans, who had Roman culture and language! In addition, they had accepted the culture of Roman military pioneers or their judicial system, and their alliance was against the Parthian and Sassanid civilizations, who had a 1000-year-old special military and political arrangement on both sides of the Euphrates! And for this reason, Hamza Esfahani's book of Kings and Prophets has mentioned the migration of those Arabs from Yemen to Syria, or the book "Moruj al-Zahhab Masoudi" also refers to the names of the heads of the tribes of these Ghassani Christian Arabs in "Sham Lands" or the book "Emigration of Arab Tribes and Sadr" "Islam" by Dr. Saleh Ahmad al-Ali also refers to their migration to the villages or cities east of the Euphrates in the Levant! Or does it express the social issue! In my current article, I will mention the same issue, or I will mention the ethnic differences in the land of Sham! The ministers of the European allies and allies do not have a correct understanding of the Asian ethnic groups that destroyed several empires during the First and Second World War, including the Ottoman Empire, which was divided into 20 Arab countries and created an artificial political geography for each of the 20 Arab countries, or a special state. Or they formed a special flag or a special army, or they gave their differences in the League of Nations or in the United Nations and a new legal system, while the concept of "ethnicity" or "nationality" or "ethnic geography" is in the science of anthropology and vice versa, or it is against the concepts of the hundred In recent years, the Middle East has launched a new global capitalism! Therefore, the "fake Syriac ethnicity" in the lands of Sham is also one of those categories that has created controversies within the country and for the people of Sham! After Islam, new tribes of Yemeni Arabs came to the land of Syria and settled next to the Christian Arab villages of Ghassani in Syria, and the Umayyad family also helped them to migrate to stabilize their rule, so they conquered the lands of Syria in the 14th lunar year and this was the case! that the garrisons that were in the hands of the military and Christian governors of Heracles, who was considered the Roman emperor of Byzantium, and the Arabs conquered them or conquered them on the same date! Therefore, according to the historical sources of the early Islamic centuries and in the year 13 or 14 Hijri, it is like this! Therefore, some historical sources of the early Islamic centuries state that Khalid bin Walid conquered this region in 13 or 14 Hijri and later became the "Arab ruler of Damascus" and soon changed, or when Umar Caliph and the command of the army passed from Khalid bin Walid took it and handed it over to Abu Obaydah! Or, according to the history of Tabari, after the conquest of Damascus, Yazid bin Abi Sufyan, or the brother of Muawiyah and the Arab ruler of Damascus! Or by the order of the second caliph and the "ruler of Damascus"! Or a number of Arabs gathered in the Christianized Yemen and fought with the Islamic army of Imam Ali and Safin beside the Euphrates, and then with the orders of the same Christians of Eastern Rome, they marched to the cities of the Turks across the river Asia and they settled in the same villages east of the Euphrates, starting from these days. Also, according to some historical sources, they settled in Damascus, Homs, and Tiberias during the campaign to Syria!