DAMASCUS (Arabic., Dimislikesh-Sluint), a city of Syria, the largest in Asiatic Turkey, occupies a situation of unrivaled beauty ou a luxuriant plain at the eastern base of the Anti-Libanus, and 53 m. c.s.e. of Beyrout, which forms its port, lat. 33' 27' n., long. 36° 23' .east. The appearance of the city from a distance is beautiful in the highest degree. The bright buildings, sparkling beneath a Syrian sun, rise out of a sea of various tinted foliage, while all around—save on the n.w., where stretches the long bare snow-white ridge of the Anti-Lebanon—extend charming gardens, rich cornfields, and blooming orchards, with the river 13arrada (the Abana of Scripture) and its branches winding through until they lose themselves far to the e. in the lake Bahr-el-Merj, into which the Phege (the Pliarpar of Scripture), a smaller stream, also flows. As in the case of all eastern cities, the expectations excited by a distant view of D. are by no means realized ou a close inspection. The city proper is about 6 m. in circumference, and is partly surrounded by old tumble-down walls, portions of which date from early Roman times, while other parts are of Saracenic architecture, and some mere mud- patches of the present day. The streets generally are dirty and decayed, and so very narrow that a loaded donkey almost entirely blocks up the passage. The best street is " Straight street," mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in connection with St. Paul. The houses for the most part are very mean-looking structures, often presenting to the street nothing but a dead-wall with a doorway in it, while the best have rough mud-walls, with a projecting upper story extending so far over the narrow street that hands may be shaken from opposite windows. But as the interior of the city presents a sad con trast to its charming surroundings, so do the rich interiors of the houses contrast with their miserable externals. Fine marble-paved courts ornamented with trees, shrubs, and fountains, rooms with arabesqued roofs and walls, most luxuriously furnished, are the common features of all the dwellings of the wealthier classes. The principal build ings of D. are places of worship, chief of which is the Great Mosque—formerly a heathen temple, then a Christian church—composed of different kinds of architecture, and occupying a quadrangle 163 yards by 108 yards, the interior dimensions being 431 ft. by 125. The floor is of marble tesselated, and covered with Persian carpets, and the walls and piers of the transept are enriched with beautiful devices formed of various colored marbles, while rows of noble Corinthian pillars divide the interior into nave and aisles Altogether, this is one of the handsomest ecclesiastical buildings of which Mohammedans can boast. The citadel is large and imposing, but not strong; and the Great Khan is a splendid building, erected of black and white marble. There are many interesting remains of antiquity in D., but they are lost amid the mean modern struc tures and the bazaars. The latter are numerous, and finer than those of Cairo or
Constantinople, and very well supplied with goods of oriental manufacture; each class of goods having a bazaar for itself. The manufactures of D. used to be important, con sisting of silks, cottons, coarse woolen cloth, jewelry, saddlery, and arms; but her productions are now little more than sufficient for local consumption. Before 1860, her looms were reckoned at 3.000, while now they are said to barely reach 1300. The manufactures of the famous Damascene blades have long ceased to exist. This decline is chiefly caused by the taxation upon raw products. The trade with Bagdad was large; but in 1857 the caravan was plundered on its way across the desert, the loss to the merchants of D. being estimated at £40,000. This paralyzed the commerce. The annual caravan to Mecca from D. at one time consisted of some 50,000 or 60,000 per sons, most of whom engaged to some extent in trade; but the facilities which in recent years have been afforded for making the pilgrimage by way of Egypt and the Red sea, has caused a considerable diminution in the pilgrims, and consequently in the trade. One of the greatest blows at the prosperity of D. was struck in 1860, when the Druses (q.v.) entered the city, and destroyed about 6,000 houses in the Christian quarter, killing from 3,000 to 5,000 persons, and selling ninny of the women into Turkish harems. The imports of British goods, chiefly plain and printed calicoes, cotton handkerchiefs, and cotton yarn have been valued at £150,000. In 1870, the value of the goods brought into D. by the great (Bagdad) caravan was £90,000. Pop., including the adjoining village of Salahlych, 150,000; 130,000 are Mohammedans, 15,000 Chistiaus, and 5,000 Jews.
D. is perhaps the most ancient city iu the world. Josephus attributes its foundation to Uz, the great-grandson of Noah; but whether it dates so far back or not, it is certain that it was a place of consequence in the days of Abraham. During the time of the Hebrew monarchy, it was the capital of Syria. It afterwards passed successively under the rule of the Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, and Saracens; and finally, in 1516, it was captured by the Turks under sultan Selim I.—in whose hands, with the exception of a short interval (from 1832-40), when it belonged to the pasha of Egypt, it has remained ever since. Under every change of dynasty and every form of govern ment, D., unlike most cities, has retained its prosperity.
The vilayet of D. comprises all the territory between the Lebanon and the Euphrates —that is, all between lat. 81° to 36° u., and long. 35° to 41° east. The surface is for the most part level and very fertile, and'produces grain of various kinds, hemp, flax, silk, cotton, madder, tobacco, and cochineal. The vilavet of D.—or of Syria as it is also called—is accounted the most important vilayet of Pop. 518,750.