Mirror to Damascus

Name: Mirror to Damascus
Rating: 4.2 (61 reviews)

by Colin Thubron

First published 1967

Amazon

4.0(61)

Colin Thubron approaches Damascus as both a living city and an accumulation of earlier civilisations. Streets, markets, mosques, churches, houses and ruins lead into a history stretching from the ancient Near East through Greek and Roman rule, the rise of Christianity, the early Islamic conquests and the city’s period as an Umayyad capital. Figures such as Paul the Apostle and Saladin enter the narrative through places whose religious and political meanings have repeatedly changed.

Later chapters trace Damascus through the Crusades, Ottoman government, European intervention, Arab nationalism and the twentieth-century revolts and coups that shaped modern Syria. Rather than separating travel observation from history, Thubron uses architecture, ritual and conversation to show how successive empires and faiths remain visible in the city’s physical fabric and in the identities of its inhabitants.

Historical Periods

Ancient Near Eastc. 3500–539 BCE Crusader States1098–1291 CE Ottoman Empire1299–1922 CE Early Muslim Conquests632–750 CE Great Syrian Revolt1925–1927 CE