Byzantine Empire up until the Muslim conquest
in 635 c.e. During the rule of the Umayyad caliph-
ate (662–750), Damascus became the capital of
this, the first Islamic dynasty, and an important
cultural and economic center of the region. They
built the beautiful congregational mosqUe that
still stands in the heart of the old city. In 750, the
Abbasids defeated the Umayyads and installed
their capital in baghdad. Damascus then became
a provincial town subject to the rule of different
Islamic dynasties that conquered the area. Only in
the 12th century did Damascus regain its splendor
under the rule of the Zenkid Turkish prince Nur
al-Din (d. 1174) and his Ayyubid successor, sala-
din (r. 1174–93). It became a center of religious
learning and literary production. In 1260, the city
was devastated by the same Mongol invasion that
had obliterated the abbasid caliphate oF baghdad
in 1258.
By 1517, the Ottoman Turks had conquered
all the territory from syria to egypt. Under the
Turkish dynasty, the city of Aleppo, in the north
of Syria, became the most important economic
center of the region. Nonetheless, Damascus still
played an important economic and religious role,
as is attested to by the numerous khans (trade
centers and rest houses) and the proliferation of
religious sites. Along with cairo and Baghdad,
it was used as one of the main staging points for
caravans that conveyed pilgrims to Mecca for the
annual haJJ.
During World War I, under the British prom-
ise of the creation of an Arab Syrian state, British
troops commanded by General Allenby entered
the city in October 1918 and established the Syr-
ian Kingdom of Amir Faysal ibn Husayn ibn Ali
(r. 1918–20), whom the British would later make
king of Iraq. The British occupation violated the
terms of the Sykes-Picot agreement signed with
France in 1916, according to which Syria and
Lebanon were to remain under French influence.
On July 25, 1920, France entered Damascus and
occupied Syria and Lebanon, establishing a colo-
nial mandate system in the area. In 1925, Damas-
cus became the capital of the federal state of Syria
under French mandate, and it remained the capi-
tal after Syria’s independence in 1946.
See also cities; ottoman dynasty.
Maria del Mar Logrono
Further reading: Afif Bahnassi, Damascus: The Capital
of the Umayyad Dynasty (Damascus: Dar Tlass, 2002);
Lynn Theo Simarski, “Visions of Damascus.” Saudi
Aramco World 42, no. 2 (March/April 1991): 20–29.
Daoud Ahmed (1891–1980) pioneer American
Muslim
Sheikh Al-Haj Daoud Ahmed Faisal led one of
the early successful efforts to spread Islam in
America. Born in morocco, he moved with his
family to Bermuda at the age of 10. He subse-
quently migrated to the United states in 1907.
He attended the Juilliard School in Manhattan,
where he mastered the violin and specialized in
both classical and jazz music. In 1920, he married
Dakota Station, later known as Sayidah Khadijah.
Through the 1920s, he associated with several
Muslim groups, including the ahmadiyya, but
in 1928, with his wife’s assistance, he founded
the Islamic Propagation Center of America in
Brooklyn. Located at 143 State Street, it came to
be known informally as the State Street Mosque.
From Brooklyn, he spread Sunni Muslim teach-
ings, somewhat in competition with the effort of
Noble Drew Ali, to propagate his form of sectarian
Islam. In 1934, he purchased the Talbot Estate in
East Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York, and
turned it into a Muslim community known as
Madinah al-Salaam (City of Peace). He was able
to sustain the community for eight years, but it
finally folded for financial reasons.
At some point, he made the haJJ to mecca,
possibly at the end of the 1930s. In 1943, he
added the title sheikh (Arabic shaykh) to his name
as a sign of a relationship with King abd al-aziz
ibn saUd (d. 1953), who had a decade earlier
consolidated his control of modern saUdi arabia.
Daoud Ahmed 181 J