[8] During the third millennium BC, the Amorites settled the area and established the kingdom of Yamhad, one of whose urban centers was the city of Deir Ez-Zor (alongside Mayadeen, Qars, and Tarka and its capital of Aleppo).
The small town, now called 'Deir Al-Rumman,' did not record any significant events during the decline of the Abbasid state and the ensuing Mamluk period until its destruction by the Mongols in the thirteenth century.
Their crops were wheat, barley, cotton, and corn, along with orchards full of fruit species, including palm trees, lemons, and oranges, the chess game is common among elders".
Still, the isolation benefited the city's people because they relied on themselves to make many of their needs and those of neighboring villages, such as axes, spears, swords, gunpowder, and weaving cotton.
[8] When security was relatively stable, the commercial convoys started passing through the area, and Deir ez-Zor was a station for them, providing them with food, feed, and comfort.
[11] On 2 January 1858, the Ottoman government launched a military campaign under the command of Omar Pasha (Croatian) consisting of 500 soldiers to subdue the tribes in the Euphrates region.
[12] The rulers (Mutasarrıfs) solidified security, especially during Arslan Pasha's reign, and were interested in organizing and planning the city, building schools and streets and established the first public park.
The era of the Zor Sanjak lasted 54 years, where 29 Mutasarrıfs successively ruled it, the most recent being Hilmi Bey, who left the city with the Ottoman army on 6 November 1918.
The continuous change of rulers (Mutasarrıfs) and lack of resources and disruption of conditions in the Ottoman Empire affected negatively on the urban, economic, cultural and social activity of the city.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 brought calamities, with many young people being recruited, famine and disease spread, livelihoods were confiscated, trade stopped and agriculture declined.
Beginning April 1915, this was carried out through massacres, forced deportations, and displacement, which were marches under harsh conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees.
These plans failed because the people of Deir ez-Zor regretted what happened to the Armenian men, women, and children, prompting the mayor Haj Fadel Al-Aboud to help protect them and provide them with food, housing, safety and livelihoods.
[16][17] Despite Armenians coming to the region as part of death marches, the liberation that they achieved ultimately benefited the city, increasing population and growth rates.
Fadel Al-Aboud remained mayor, During this period, Fadel Al-Aboud and a number of leaders of the Baggara tribe, Agedat and other tribes represented the Euphrates region at the Syrian National Congress held in late June 1919 Which declared on 8 March 1920 the independence of Syria and establishment of Arab Kingdom of Syria and the appointment of Faisal Ibn Al-Sharif Hussein as King.
[26] On 27 December 1919, Ramadan al-Shallash took over the administration of Deir Ez-Zor as a military ruler, and his authority was nominal and the real ruling was to the city's notables, and they were not satisfied with his actions.
There were contacts between the leaders of the Great Syrian Revolution and some patriots of Syrian east area as Mohammed Al-Ayyash, who met in Damascus with Dr. Abdul Rahman Shahbandar, leader of the People's Party, and discussed with him the issue of extending the revolution to the Euphrates region and opened a front against the French to disperse their forces, and ease the pressure on the rebels of Ghouta and Jabal al-Arab, after returned Al-Ayyash from Damascus he started to arouse the enthusiasm of the people of Deir ez-Zor and invite them to fight, and agreed with his brother Mahmoud to go to the villages of the Albu Saraya clan that living west of Deir ez-Zor and which have a strong friendship with his father Ayyash Al-Haj, to form revolutionary groups with them to strike the French forces.
He instructed his brother Mahmoud to set up an ambush in Ain Albu Gomaa on the road between Deir Ez-Zor and Al-Raqqa, where the highway runs through a profound valley and has a narrow stone bridge.
When the military vehicle arrived, the revolutionaries attacked and arrested the officers and took them with their car after they took their weapons to a desert called "Al-Aksiyya", and threw them with their driver in one of the abandoned wells where they died.
However, some achievements belonged to that stage, such as building the suspension bridge and the establishment of the first bank in addition to the palace of justice, the national library, the city museum, and the municipal stadium; during this period, literary and cultural clubs increased, electricity existed, and cafes became widespread.
By the beginning of 2014, ISIS announced the annexation of the city after ousting the FSA and a detachment of Syrian Armed Forces remained besieged in a small section of Deir Ez-Zor.
However, their attempts failed due to the presence of the elite Republican Guards of the 104th Airborne Brigade led by Brigadier General Issam Zahreddine.
With a Russian contracted Il-76 aircraft and parachute systems provided by Canada, the US, and Russia, a total of 8015 pallets with an average weight of 754 kg were dropped into the besieged city of Deir-Ez-Zor.
[56] Concurrently with its operations to capture Deir ez-Zor, the Syrian Army launched a campaign to secure the whole western bank of the Euphrates, which ended on 17 December 2017.
From 8 September 2017 to 23 March 2019, a military operation east of the Euphrates River led by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the CJTF–OIR took place against the last bastion of the Islamic State in Syria.
The campaign ended with a decisive victory for the SDF and its allies, and resulted in the capture of all of ISIL territory in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate after the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani.
[62] It is also a minor centre for tourism with many tourist facilities such as traditional French-style riverbank restaurants, up to 5-star hotels, a hub for trans-desert travel and an airport (IATA code: DEZ) in Al-Jafra suburb.
Successive waves of new settlers from surrounding countrysides and provinces were heavily related to severe drought in late 1950s and 1990s most of them looking for standard jobs and giving up their farming and herding lifestyle.
Dominated by Sunni Muslims, Christianity in Deir ez-Zor can be traced back to the Apostolic Age, with few active churches and chapels belong to different congregations.
The city was also famous for the Deir ez-Zor suspension bridge (Arabic: الجسر المعلق) which spanned the Euphrates[3] and was destroyed in 2013 during the civil war.
[64] Deir ez-Zor Airport is an under-developed domestic and international terminal and important hub mostly connecting with Damascus and destinations in the Persian Gulf region.