[10][11][12] Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām (الشَّام) and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine" (مَدِيْنَةُ الْيَاسْمِينِ Madīnat al-Yāsmīn),[3] Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world.

Thus, the English and Latin name of the city is Damascus, which was imported from Greek Δαμασκός and originated from the Qumranic Darmeśeq (דרמשק), and Darmsûq (ܕܪܡܣܘܩ) in Syriac,[18][19] meaning "a well-watered land".

In the 19th century outlying villages developed on the slopes of Jabal Qasioun, overlooking the city, already the site of the al-Salihiyah neighborhood centered on the important shrine of medieval Andalusian Sheikh and philosopher Ibn Arabi.

[30] City planners preferred to preserve the Ghouta as far as possible, and in the later 20th century some of the main areas of development were to the north, in the western Mezzeh neighborhood and most recently along the Barada valley in Dummar in the northwest and on the slopes of the mountains at Barzeh in the north-east.

Damascus has a cool arid climate (BWk) in the Köppen-Geiger system,[31] due to the rain shadow effect of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains[32] and the prevailing ocean currents.

Noticing the agricultural potential of the still-undeveloped and sparsely populated area,[44] they established the water distribution system of Damascus by constructing canals and tunnels which maximized the efficiency of the river Barada.

[44] The city would gain pre-eminence in southern Syria when Ezron, the claimant to Aram-Zobah's throne who was denied kingship of the federation, fled Beqaa and captured Damascus by force in 965 BC.

Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander's generals, made Antioch the capital of his vast empire, which led to the decline of Damascus' importance compared with new Seleucid cities such as Syrian Laodicea in the north.

Damascus's importance as a caravan city was evident with the trade routes from southern Arabia, Palmyra, Petra, and the Silk Road all converging on it.

Because of the vast amounts of assets his clan, the Umayyads, owned in the city and because of its traditional economic and social links with the Hijaz as well as the Christian Arab tribes of the region, Mu'awiya established Damascus as the capital of the entire Caliphate.

A Turk, Alptakin drove out the Fatimids five years later, and through diplomacy, prevented the Byzantines during the Syrian campaigns of John Tzimiskes from attempting to annex the city.

[76] While the rulers of Damascus were preoccupied in conflict with their fellow Seljuqs in Aleppo and Diyarbakir, the Crusaders, who arrived in the Levant in 1097, conquered Jerusalem, Mount Lebanon and Palestine.

Toghtekin, however, saw the Western invaders as a viable threat to Damascus which, at the time, nominally included Homs, the Beqaa Valley, Hauran, and the Golan Heights as part of its territories.

Coincidentally, the Seljuq prince of Mosul, Imad al-Din Zengi, took power in Aleppo and gained a mandate from the Abbasids to extend his authority to Damascus.

Mu'in al-Din Unur, his mamluk ("slave soldier") took effective power of the city, prompting Zengi—with Safwat al-Mulk's backing—to lay siege against Damascus the same year.

These events shocked Europe, resulting in the Third Crusade in 1189, led by Richard I of England, Philip II of France and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, though the last drowned en route.

Following their victory at the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar, the Mongols led by Ghazan besieged the city for ten days, which surrendered between December 30, 1299, and January 6, 1300, though its Citadel resisted.

However, on his return in October 1517, the sultan ordered the construction of a mosque, tekkiye and mausoleum at the shrine of Shaikh Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi in al-Salihiyah.

In 1559 the western building of Sulaymaniyya Takiyya, comprising a mosque and khan for pilgrims on the road to Mecca, was completed to a design by the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, and soon afterward the Salimiyya Madrasa was built adjoining it.

[105] In the early years of the 20th century, nationalist sentiment in Damascus, initially cultural in its interest, began to take a political coloring, largely in reaction to the turkicisation program of the Committee of Union and Progress government established in Istanbul in 1908.

Political tension arose in November 1917, when the new Bolshevik government in Russia revealed the Sykes-Picot Agreement whereby Britain and France had arranged to partition the Arab East between them.

However, the Versailles Conference had granted France a mandate over Syria, and in 1920 a French army commanded by the General Mariano Goybet crossed the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, defeated a small Syrian defensive expedition at the Battle of Maysalun and entered Damascus.

The old city was surrounded with barbed wire to prevent rebels from infiltrating the Ghouta, and a new road was built outside the northern ramparts to facilitate the movement of armored cars.

The city's growth rate is higher than in Syria as a whole, primarily due to rural-urban migration and the influx of young Syrian migrants drawn by employment and educational opportunities.

Today, the ancient city encompasses over 125 cultural heritage sites that represent Damascus’ long history, including archaeological and architectural remains from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, and Ottoman periods.

[citation needed] The Harat Al Yehud[137] or Jewish Quarter is a recently restored historical tourist destination popular among Europeans before the outbreak of civil war.

Due to the rapid decline of the population of Old Damascus (between 1995 and 2009 about 30,000 people moved out of the old city for more modern accommodation),[140] a growing number of buildings are being abandoned or are falling into disrepair.

In March 2007, the local government announced that it would be demolishing Old City buildings along a 1,400 m (4,600 ft) stretch of rampart walls as part of a redevelopment scheme.

[151] The green line will be an essential west–east axis for the future public transportation network, serving Moadamiyeh, Sumariyeh, Mezzeh, Damascus University, Hijaz, the Old City, Abbassiyeen and Qaboun Pullman bus station.

[155] These coffeehouses had an international reputation in the past, as indicated by Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poetical illustration, Cafes in Damascus, to a picture by William Henry Bartlett in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837.