Syria down to Saladin
Ibn Asakir’s History of the City of Damascus
Fills a 400-year gap in Syrian history, based on the largest and most significant source for medieval Syria
- Synthesizes 6066 biographical entries from some 400 years of Syrian history
- Contains over 150 genealogical tables and 40 maps
- Fills a blank in Syrian history
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.
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
David Cook has accomplished a remarkable feat. The gigantic scale of his probing into Ibn ʿAsakir’s massive History is unprecedented, and the amount of new knowledge he infused in his new book will undoubtedly energise the field of medieval Islamic/Middle Eastern history. Syria down to Saladin will be an instant classic.
David Cook’s choice to organize Ibn ʿAsakir’s material chronologically and to situate it in the history and historiography of Abbasid Syria has made this important (yet very difficult to use work) easily accessible for anyone interested. This book will become the definitive go-to work on Ibn ʿAsakir’s Tā’rīkh madīnat Dimashq and his treatment of Abbasid Syria in particular.
