List of Illustrations List of Maps Foreword Abbreviations Introduction Four Roads to Damascus The setting Legends of a birth For want of a spade PART ONE Chapter 1 - The Emergence of Damascus (9000 - c1100 BC) The first villages Ta-ms-qu in Upi The mother of all battles A wider catastrophe Chapter 2 - Dimashqu - Damascus from the Aramaeans to the Assyrians (c1100 - 732 BC) After the turmoil An Aramaean Empire (Eleventh Century-733 BC) Aram-Damascus vs Israel Neo-Assyrian Empire (964-c800 BC) The city of the god Damascus in Aramaean Times The temple Resurgent Assyria (8th century BC) Epilogue: An altar for Jerusalem Chapter 3 - A Greater Game - Assyrians, Persians, Greeks (732 - c300 BC) Assyrian Rule (732-636 BC) Neo-Babylonians (Chaldean Rule) (626-539 BC) Persian (Achaemenid) rule (539-333 BC) Damascus during the twilight of the Ancient Near East After Issus (333-331 BC) A Hellenic millennium Chapter 4 - The Sowing of Hellenism - Ptolemies and Seleucids (300 - 64 BC) Ptolemaic rule - Third Century BC Damascus between rival dynasties Seleucid rule - second century BC The persistence of the plan A Greek city Temple of Zeus A Hellenistic civilisation? Chapter 5 - Towards a Pax Romana (64 BC - AD 30) Rome Intervenes Pompey''s settlement The east Mediterranean theatre Damascus and the struggle for empire Stabilising the Damascus region Urge to monumentalise Civic works Chapter 6 - Metropolis Romana (AD 30 - 268) Who were the Syrians? The city and temple of Jupiter Importance of cult centres First Christian mission An imperial city Syrian consorts The eastern question Population City and country Chapter 7 - Holding the Line (AD 269 - 610) Nature of the Persian threat Hard and soft frontiers A Christian city Cathedral of Saint John Decline and disintegration Who were the Arabs ? ''Do it yourself'' defence doctrine Chapter 8 - ''Farewell, Oh Syria'' (611 - 661) Damascus - The First Bulwark The great field army perishes Arab aims Heraclius retreats Arab administration Chapter 9 - The Umayyads (661 - 750) Muawiya and the new order The Umayyad prism The Alite revolt Acquisition of the Church of Saint John The building of the Mosque The fantastic garden Threshold of Paradise A ninety year empire A glorious failure? PART TWO Preface to Part Two - When did the ancient end? Chapter 10 - Decline, Confusion and Irrelevance (750 - 1098) Ostracism (750-877) Teaching Damascus a lesson Sullen revolt Turkish inroads, Tulunids (877-905) Shiism Fragmentation (905-964) Fatimids (969-1071) Seljuks (1055-1104) Arrival of the Burids (1104) First madrasas Chapter 11 - Islam Resurgent (1098 - 1174) Bulwark Against the Crusaders? Early Burids (Tughtagin r. 1104-28) Burids versus Zengids (1128-48) Jerusalem-Damascus-Aleppo The Second Crusade (1148) - ''Fiasco'' Citadel of the faith Jihad! Nur al-Din (1154-74) Nur al-Din''s monuments A new ''Golden Age'' Chapter 12 - Saladin and the Ayyubids (1174 - 1250) Saladin''s rise Hattin (1187) ''The last victory'' The Ayyubid succession Al-Muazzim Issa (1218-28) Jerusalem betrayed Al-Ashraf (1229-38) Back on the periphery (1238-50) Courtly society Chapter 13 - Mamluks (1250 - 1515) The Central Asian threat Baybars (1260-77) Return of the Mongols The Mamluk system A new prosperity Foreigners Mamluk building Tengiz''s governorship (1312- 40) Decline (1341-82) Burji Mamluks (1382-1516) Siege of Tamerlane (1401) A Venetian window Collapse Chapter 14 - The First Ottoman Centuries (1516 - 1840) Military rule The Hajj Midan Stability of population Reshaping Damascus Municipal services A new role (1706-58) ''Age of the ayan'' Cathedrals of commerce Acre''s rise - and fall European ambitions - Egypt intervenes Chapter 15 - Reform and Reaction (1840 - 1918) Tanzimat - reform and reaction 1860 massacre A ''Little Istanbul'' Telegraph, road and rail To Mecca by train? The great fire of 1893 Suq al-Hamidiye The Damascus house Command for monument protection Arab awakening ''To Damascus!'' - the great ride Whose Damascus? Chapter 16 Epilogue - Countdown to Catastrophe (1919-2011) 1919 1925 1940 1948 1970 2011 Glossary of Terms and Names Maps of City and Environs Bibliography Index.