Introduction. Four roads to Damascus. The setting. Legends of a birth. for want of a spade. 1. The emergence of Damascus - 9000 - 1100 BC The first villages. Ta-ms-qu in Upu.
The mother of all battles. A wider catastrophe. 2. Dimashqu - Damascus from the Aramaeans to the Persians - 1000 - 532 BC After the turmoil. An Aramaean Empire (Eleventh Century-733 BC). Aram-Damascus. Neo-Assyria. The city of the God.
Damascus in Aramaean times. The temple. Resurgent Assyria. An altar for Jerusalem. 3. A greater game - Assyrians, Persians, Greeks - 732 - 300 BC Assyrian rule (732-572 BC). Neo-Babylonian rule (572-532 BC). Achaemenid Persian rule (532-325 BC).
Damascus during the twilight of the Ancient Near East. After Issus (333-331 BC). A Hellenic millennium. 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 persistance of the plan.
A Greek city. Temple of Zeus. A Hellenistic civilisation? 5. 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. 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. The Syrian princesses.
The Eastern question. Population. City and country. 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. 8. 'Farewell, Oh Syria' - 611 - 750 Damascus - The first bulwark. The great field army perishes. Arab aims. Heraclius retreats. Arab administration.
9. The Umayyads - 661 - 750 Mu'awiya 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 2. Foreword - When did the Ancient end? 10. Decline, confusion and irrelevance - 750 - 1008 Ostracism (750-877). Teaching Damascus a lesson. Sullen revolt. Turkish inroads, Tulunids (877-905). Shi'ism.
Fragmentation (905-964). Fatimids (969-1071). Seljuks (1055-1104). Arrival of the Burids (1104). First Madrasas. 11. Islam resurgent - 1098 - 1174 Bulwark against the crusaders?. Early Burids (Tughtakin 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'. 12.
Saladin and the Ayyubids - 1174 - 1250 Saladin's rise. Hattin (1187). 'The last victory'. The Ayyubid succession. Al-Muazzim 'Isa (1218-28). Jerusalem betrayed. Al-Ashraf (1229-38). Back on the periphery (1238-50).
Courtly society. 13. Mamluks - 1260 - 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). Seige of Tamerlane (1401). A Venetian window. Collapse. 14.
The Ottoman centuries - 1516 - 1840. Military rule. The Hajj. Midan. Stability of population. Reshaping Damascus. Municipal services. A new role (1706-58).
'Age of the A'yans'. Cathedrals of commerce. Acre's rise - and fall. European ambitions - Egypt intervenes. 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? Epilogue.
Appendices. Glossary of terms and names. Maps of city an.