syrain empire

Syrian Empire

Syria has often been called the Cradle of Civilization and the Gateway to History (History pp). Archaeological finds proves that Syria was inhabited deep into the Stone Age (Syrian pp). The remains of Ebla discovered a few years ago on Tel Mardikh, south of Aleppo, confirm the fact that a prosperous Kingdom existed in the second half of the third millennium B.C. (Syria pp). The finds at Tel Hariri Marie on the Euphrates River have provided valuable information concerning the ancient history of Syria and her relations with the kingdoms of Mesopotamia (Syria pp). Ancient Syria was the target of more powerful neighboring kingdoms of the time. For example, after defeating the kingdom of Ebla in 2250 B.C., the Akkadians controlled Syria as well as the Egyptians who sought to rule the entire of Syria in the second millennium B.C. (Syria pp). Then during the 12th century B.C., the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean experience dramatic changes through attacks by the 'Sea Peoples' and by the successive waves of immigration by Semitic tribes, which eventually led to the rise of new kingdoms such as the Aramaeans in the cities of Damascus, Hama, and Aleppo, and the Canaanite city states on the coastline, including Arwad, Tyre and Jbeil (Syria pp). Throughout history, it has been a great cross road for trade between the Mediterranean and the East, and is responsible for exporting the Alphabet to the West and has been linked to Religion from the Semitic Deities to the Monotheistic faiths (History pp).

Syria today constitutes only a small portion of the ancient geographical Syria (McGowan Pp). Until Western powers during the twentieth century began to carve out the rough contours of the contemporary states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, the whole of the settled region at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea was called Syria (McGowan Pp). The name Syria was given by the ancient Greeks to the land bridge that links three continents, and it is for this reason, historians and political scientists generally use the term Greater Syria to denote the area in the pre-state period (McGowan Pp).

Historically, Greater Syria rarely ruled itself due to its vulnerable position between the Mediterranean Sea and the desert (McGowan Pp). With powerful empires on the north, east and south, Syria was often a battlefield for the political destinies of dynasties and empires (McGowan Pp). Unlike other parts of the Middle East, Greater Syria was prized as a fertile cereal-growing oasis as well as a critical source of the lumber needed for building imperial fleets in the pre-industrial period (McGowan Pp).

Although it was exploited politically, Greater Syria benefited immeasurable from the cultural diversity of the peoples who came to claim parts or all of it and who remained to contribute and participate in the remarkable and extraordinary spiritual and intellectual flowering that characterized Greater Syria's cultures in the ancient and medieval periods (McGowan Pp). Incorporating some of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Greater Syria was in the unique position to foster and nurture intellectual activities (McGowan Pp). By 1400 B.C. many cities, such as Damascus (Dimashq), Aleppo (Halab), Hamah (Hamath), Byblos (Gubla), Joffa (Joppa), Homs, Gaza, Tyre (Sur), and Sidon already had been established and had flourished for many centuries (McGowan Pp). Due to the fact that Greater Syria was generally ruled by foreigners, the inhabitants traditionally identified themselves with their cities, and even today in contemporary Syria each city continues to have a unique sociopolitical character (McGowan Pp).

One recurrent theme of Greater Syria's history has been the encounters between Eastern and Western powers on its soil (McGowan Pp).

Even during the ancient period, Greater Syria was the focus of a continual dialectic, both intellectual and bellicose, between the Middle East and the West (McGowan Pp). During the medieval period this dialectic was intensified as it became colored by diametrically opposed religions regarding rights to the land (McGowan Pp). The Christian Byzantines contended with Arabs, and later the Christian Crusaders competed with Muslim Arabs, for this land that they all held sacred (McGowan Pp).

The advent of Arab Muslim rule in A.D. 636 provided the two major themes of Syrian history, the Islamic religion and the world community of Arabs (McGowan Pp). The greatest period of Islamic history, according to traditionalist Muslims, was during the brief rule of Muhammad and the first four caliphs, when man presumably behaved as God commanded and established a society on earth unequaled before or after (McGowan Pp). It was during this period that religion and state were one and Muslims ruled Muslims according to Muslim law (McGowan Pp). The succeeding Umayyad, 661-750, and Abbasid, 750-1258, caliphates were extensions of the first period and proved the military and intellectual might of Muslims (McGowan Pp). During the early medieval period, the history of Greater Syria is essentially the history of political Islam at one of its most glorious moments, the Umayyad caliphate when the Islamic empire, with Damascus as its capital, stretched from the Oxus River to southern France (McGowan Pp).