st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

"
THE MAHOMETAN RULE IN SYRIA. 19
type of that of the city. Originally shared between
the contending parties, the followers of Islam soon
gained the predominance. In 66 1, Moawiyah, from
whom the dynasty of the Omeiyades took its name,
made Damascus the seat of his government, and lies
buried in the Cemetery of the Little Gate." Near
him are laid three of Mahomet s wives, and his grand
daughter, Fatimeh and
; along with them the Arabic
historian, Ibn Asaker, from whom much of our know
1
ledge of these events is derived.
It must be confessed indeed that if the Arabs took
possession of Damascus, they showed themselves able
to appreciate its beauties and the
; eulogies of their
poets and romancers have compensated for the little
notice taken of it
by classical writers. The Omeiyad
caliphs continued to reside there till Mirwan II., the
last of the dynasty, was defeated and slain, in 750,
after the disastrous battle on the Zab. When, like a
second Alcibiades, the hunted caliph had rushed out
from the little building by the Nile in which he had
sought a temporary shelter, and fallen, sword in hand,
before the lances of his pursuers, his young rival,
Abul-Abbas, removed the seat of empire to Bagdad,
and there it continued for the next 500 years.
Our ignorance of the exact date of the birth of
John Damascene a subject to be spoken of more
fully hereafter leaves it doubtful which caliph had
the most influence upon the fortunes of his family.
From the length of his reign (684-705), Abd al
Malek is the most deserving attention ;
and in him,
1
Porter, "Five Years in Damascus," i., p. 45.
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