ist, Nouri al-Maliki (b. 1950), in May 2006. The
Daawa Party favors the creation of a government
based on Islamic law but no longer requires
that it be ruled by Shii ulama. Its major partner
(and rival) is the Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI, changed to Supreme
Islamic Iraqi Council in 2007), a Shii party that
was established in Iran by Iraqi exiles during the
1980s. Like the Daawa Party, its followers had also
returned to Iraq as soon as Husayn’s government
had fallen. The strongholds of support for both
parties are located in the Shii cities of southern
Iraq, and both enjoy cordial relations with the
Islamic Republic of Iran.
See also baath party; commUnism; politics and
islam; shiism.
Further reading: T. M. Aziz, “The Role of Muhammad
Baqir al-Sadr in Shii Political Activism in Iraq from 1958
to 1980,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 25
(1993): 207–222; Amatzia Baram, “Two Roads to Revo-
lutionary Shii Fundamentalism in Iraq: Hizb al-Dawa
al-Islamiyya and the Supreme Council of the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq.” In Accounting for Fundamentalisms:
The Dynamic Character of Movements, edited by Martin
E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, 531–586 (Chicago: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1994).
dai See da awa; ismaili shiism.
dajjal See antichrist.
Damascus
Damascus has been the capital of the Arab Repub-
lic of syria since 1946. It is densely populated,
with about 3.5 million inhabitants, or about 19
percent of the total population of the country.
About 40 miles from the Mediterranean coast, it
is situated on the edge of the desert at the foot of
Mount Qassioun, one of the massifs of the eastern
slopes of the Anti-Lebanon. The Barada River
crosses the city and provides water to the rich
agricultural area known as the Ghuta, which Mus-
lim tradition regards as one of the three earthly
paradises, along with Samarkand (in modern
Uzbekistan) and al-Ubulla (in iraq).
The exact date of the foundation of the city
remains unclear, although archaeological evi-
dence suggests the fourth millennium b.c.e. as the
beginning date for continued human habitation.
The first historical mention of the city refers to
its conquest by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmoses
III in the 15th century b.c.e. Damascus was later
inhabited by Assyrians, Babylonians, Achaeme-
nids, Greeks, Nabateans, Romans, and finally theThe Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, Syria ( Juan
E. Campo)K 180 dai