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Syria down to Saladin is the first comprehensive historical study of post-Umayyad Syria based on Ibn ꜤAsākir's Tā'rīkh madīnat Dimashq (History of the City of Damascus). As the largest work that has ever appeared documenting pre-modern Syria, Ibn ꜤAsākir's History is a major source for the study of the region. It has, however, been underutilised for the simple reason that it is vast. This book makes this unique local history newly accessible to a broader scholarly audience.
Basing his analysis on 6,066 biographical entries from Ibn ꜤAsākir's text, David Cook reconstructs the history of Syria between the fall of the Umayyads and the rise of the Seljuqs. He provides vital context for pre-Crusader Syria, as well as offering new perspectives on Damascus during the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. He considers topics such as the emergence of new elites, changes in religious and economic bases, and the narration of prophetic tradition, placing these events within a broader pan-Islamic context. Containing over 150 original genealogical tables, 40 maps and 7 appendices, this book stands as a monument to the intellectual and religious breadth of Ibn ꜤAsākir, highlighting how his text can shed light on a diversity of topics and inviting historians to use it systematically when discussing post-Umayyad Syria.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Outline of Ibn ꜤAsākir's life
Part 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: Overview
Description of Damascus
Ibn ꜤAsākir and the History of the City of Damascus
Teachers and Sources
Social Realities of Damascene Muslims
Syria according to Ibn ꜤAsākir
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-ꜤAlids and ShiꜤites
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 Abī al-ꜤAjā'iz and the Umayyad survivors
Leaders: four portraits of TMD figures in Syria
a. al-AwzāꜤī, the stern proto-Sunni, and Ibrāhīm b. Adham, the footloose ascetic
b. Abū al-Haydhām, the indomitable hero, and Ibrāhīm b. al-Mahdī, 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 Sufyānī: 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 Ṭūlūnids (255-92/864-904)
Sources
The rise of Abū ZurꜤa al-Dimashqī
Judiciary and tradition during the Ṭūlūnid period
Local Syrian elites of the Abbasid and post-Abbasid times
Sufis... at last
Ṭūlūnid Damascus
Judging Ṭūlūnid 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 Ikhshīdids (323-57/935-968)
Sources: al-Rāzī, and the duo of Ibn Zabr and Ibn Yūnus
al-AwzāꜤī's rite comes to an end with the rise of ShāfiꜤism
Social and economic trends
The borderlands in TMD
Pre-Fatimid ascetics
Chapter 11: Qarmațian interlude (357-70/968-80)
A complete rupture
Problematic sources
Damascus and Syria at a transition point
SHIꜤITE 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 Abī Naṣr's house
al-Kattānī and the growth of Sufism
al-khațīb al-Baghdādī'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-ṣā'igh
The early Ibn ꜤAsākir family and the ascetic circle of Naṣr b. Ibrāhīm al-Maqdisī
Ibn al-Akfānī and Damascene history collection
Coastland Syria: Tyre and the secretary/preacher Ghayth b. ꜤAlī
Appearance of the Crusaders
Chapter 15: The Ṭughtakīn atābaks (497-548/1103-54)
The Seljuq legacy to Ṭughtakīn
Youthful Ibn ꜤAsākir
Influences inside and outside of Damascus
al-SamꜤānī in Syria
Mature Ibn ꜤAsākir
Ibn al-Milḥī's poetic recollections
The curious case of Ḥamdān al-Athāribī
Mystery of the Second Crusade
Economic and social realities of Damascus under the Ṭughtakīn atābaks
Biographical entry: No. 5852 Ḥamdān b. ꜤAbd al-Raḥīm al-Athāribī (partial)
Chapter 16: The Zangids (548-95/1154-98)
The return of the king
Ibn ꜤAsākir and his friends' circle
Damascus judiciary: relatives: close, yet far away
Judicial reform during the Zangid period
Educational renewal during Ibn ꜤAsākir's time
Hanbalis inside and outside of TMD
Sufis and the popular religion in Damascus
Ibn ꜤAsākir's connections east and west
Zangid to Ayyubid rule: Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn
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
