List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Outline of Ibn Asakir''s life Part 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION Chapter 1: Overview Description of Damascus Ibn Asakir and the History of the City of Damascus Teachers and Sources Social Realities of Damascene Muslims Syria according to Ibn Asakir Chapter 2: Rulers and Elites Caliphs and Sultans: Authority from Afar Governors and Rulers of Damascus Damascene Judiciary and Religious Elite Syrian Judiciary and Religious Elite Chapter 3: Themes Transmission of knowledge: circular, familial and popular Syria-particular Tradition Poetry in TMD Chapter 4: Groups Travelers and Foreigners in Damascus Ascetics and Sufis Pro-Alids and Shiites Chapter 5: Connections Non-Muslims in TMD and non-Muslim states Non-Syrian rulers and dynasties Economic Sphere Births, and Names, Ages, Deaths and Funerals Methodology for the open-access material Part 2: TMD ANALYSIS ABBASID SYRIA Chapter 6: The Early Abbasid Period (133-95/750-810) Abbasids ruling in Syria: intimate enemies Sources for this period Post-Umayyad Syria Ibn Abi al-Aja''iz and the Umayyad survivors Leaders: four portraits of TMD figures in Syria a. al-Awzai, the stern proto-Sunni, and Ibrahim b. Adham, the footloose ascetic b. Abu al-Haydham, the indomitable hero, and Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi, the manipulative reconciler Followers Non-Muslims Social currents in early Abbasid Damascus and Syria Chapter 7: The Middle Abbasid Period (195-255/811-64) Revolt of the Sufyani: An Umayyad anti-caliph Sources for the middle Abbasid period An Abbasid murder mystery Religious and judicial trends Preachers and ascetics Social and economic trends of during middle Abbasid Syria SHIFTING ALLEGIANCES: ABBASIDS and TURKS Chapter 8: The ulunids (255-92/864-904) Sources The rise of Abu Zura al-Dimashqi Judiciary and tradition during the ulunid period Local Syrian elites of the Abbasid and post-Abbasid times Sufis. at last ulunid Damascus Judging ulunid Syria by its roads Chapter 9: Intermediate Period (292-323/904-35) What was the intermediate period? Sources Judicial reform in Damascus Social and economic trends Chapter 10: The Ikhshidids (323-57/935-968) Sources: al-Razi, and the duo of Ibn Zabr and Ibn Yunus al-Awzai''s rite comes to an end with the rise of Shafiism Social and economic trends The borderlands in TMD Pre-Fatimid ascetics Chapter 11: Qarmaian interlude (357-70/968-80) A complete rupture Problematic sources Damascus and Syria at a transition point SHIITE DAMASCUS: The FATIMIDS Chapter 12: The Early Fatimid Period (370-411/980-1021) Sources Fatimid Damascus: Collaboration or resistance? Growth of traditionist Sunnism and Sufism during early Fatimid Syria Syria under the Fatimids Chapter 13: The Late Fatimid Period (411-68/1021-76) Sources and biographies Damascus under the later Fatimids Ibn Abi Nar''s house al-Kattani and the growth of Sufism al-khaib al-Baghdadi''s visits to Damascus and Tyre Syria prior to the Seljuqs TURKISH AND CRUSADER-ERA SYRIA Chapter 14: Damascene Seljuqs and the Crusaders'' Arrival (468-97/1076-1103) Sources Sunni Damascus, traditionists and its judiciary The rise of the Ibn al-a''igh The early Ibn Asakir family and the ascetic circle of Nar b. Ibrahim al-Maqdisi Ibn al-Akfani and Damascene history collection Coastland Syria: Tyre and the secretary/preacher Ghayth b. Ali Appearance of the Crusaders Chapter 15: The ughtakin atabak s (497-548/1103-54) The Seljuq legacy to ughtakin Youthful Ibn Asakir Influences inside and outside of Damascus al-Samani in Syria Mature Ibn Asakir Ibn al-Mili''s poetic recollections The curious case of amdan al-Atharibi Mystery of the Second Crusade Economic and social realities of Damascus under the ughtakin atabak s Biographical entry: No.

5852 amdan b. Abd al-Raim al-Atharibi (partial) Chapter 16: The Zangids (548-95/1154-98) The return of the king Ibn Asakir and his friends'' circle Damascus judiciary: relatives: close, yet far away Judicial reform during the Zangid period Educational renewal during Ibn Asakir''s time Hanbalis inside and outside of TMD Sufis and the popular religion in Damascus Ibn Asakir''s connections east and west Zangid to Ayyubid rule: ala al-Din Conclusions Times, renewal and apocalypse in TMD Construction of TMD in accord with the concept Inclusion and Exclusion in TMD TMD as History Glossary Appendices Bibliography Index.