Essay Sample on Cities of Damascus and Aleppo

Damascus City

Damascus stands in history as one of the oldest cities in the world. Having being found in the 3rd millennium, Damascus was a city perceived to be a significant commercial and cultural center. Damascus is located at the crossroads of the occident and orient between Asia and Africa. The city was not documented to be a famous city until the Aramaean arrived. The city was an excellent place for a flourishing craft industry during the medieval periods. At that time, the city had different areas of it specializing in only trading and crafts. The incidences of civilization that is documented to have created the city include the Hellenistic, Byzantine, Romans, and the Islamists. To be specific, the Umayyad caliphate was the group that organized the capital city of Damascus. They gradually set the foundation for the city to be recognized as an Arab city which was dominated by Muslims. (Moubayed, Sami, 13)

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The city stands as an achievement of civilization; this can be noted by the Great Mosque which is a masterpiece of Umayyad architectural design. The Umayyad mosque together with some other great architectural drawings in the Azem Palace, the Citadel, and Khans demonstrates the vast architectural achievement of the city. Damascus being the center for the Umayyad caliphate, which is the first Islamic caliphate, was an essential identity for the development of the other Arab capitals. The mosque is at the helm of a Graeco-Roman grid, the city sets as an exemplary model for the different Muslim world. The Great Mosque of Umayyad being one of the biggest and oldest mosques in history, it holds to be a significant cultural, social, and artistic development to the rest of the world and the Arab nation at large. Other aspects that have helped shape the cultural view of the city is because it is closely linked to significant historical events, specific old ideas, their traditions, which are precise of Islamic origin. These all have helped see the city to be an image that represents the authentic culture of the cit.

The City Of Aleppo

It is located at a crossroad of trade routes since the 2nd millennium, the city was successfully ruled by the Hittites, Akkadians, Assyrians, Umayyad's, and the Greeks for instance, and who has a result left an imprint in the city. The great town is an Arab center, sets as testimony for Arab might exist between the 12th century and 14th century. The city is a representation of the vastly wealthy and cultural diversity of its successive occupants. The architectural fabrics across the city stand as the point of influence by the past inhabitants. The city is an excellent center for Islamic culture having so many historic mosques and other features such as Madrasa, Suqs, and the Khans. (Kennedy, Hugh, 16)

Aleppo again has some bit of military might of its inhabitants. For instance, it has the Ayyubid in the 12th-century city which had military fortification built as the central point after the success of Salah El-Din who was against the Crusaders. Evidently to this the encircling ditch and also the defensive wall that is above a massive, slopping, and stone-faced glacis, and again the great gateway with the machicolations contain a significant ensemble of military architecture. The architecture was at the height of Arab dominance. Work centuries during the 13th and 14th centuries, including the high towers and the stone entry bridge reinforce the quality of the architecture ensemble it all.

Conclusion

The cities of Damascus and Aleppo hold in history as one of the oldest Arabian cities in the world. Their great architectural quality design and the cultural history behind their existence makes them very important to the Muslim community. They hold paramount historical importance as they date from the early 11th century up to date and that makes them remain as significant cities in the world.

Works Cited

Kennedy, Hugh. The early Abbasid Caliphate: a political history. Routledge, 2016.

Moubayed, Sami. "Two September Weeks That Saved Damascus in 1918." Arab Studies Quarterly 37.4 (2015): 367-385.