The Commercial Reorientation of Late Ottoman Damascus

In the mid-18th century, Damascus formed a hub that connected north to south, Constantinople to Mecca, and east to west, India and the Far East through Baghdad all the way to Cairo. For several months every year, pilgrimage constituted the backbone of the city's economy as somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000 human beings passed through Damascus on the way to or back from the holy cities of Hijaz. The Ḥaǧǧ was therefore a unique opportunity for commerce and business above and beyond its religious symbolism.

That was to gradually but inexorably change over the next 100 years or so. The process started with the treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774, signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire after a series of defeats suffered by the latter; it reached a climax with the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869. This treaty, in addition to forcing Constantinople to cede territories to the victorious Russians, stipulated opening the Black Sea to Moscow's ships and commerce. It was therefore a matter of time before newer, faster, and cheaper sea routes replaced the age-old land caravans that had passed through Damascus from time immemorial. So drastic those changes proved to be that by the late 1870s the number of pilgrims departing Damascus towards Mecca had dropped to somewhere between 1000 and 2000 persons. 

Damascus had to accommodate herself to the changing international situation. Starting in the second half of the 19th century, attention was turned toward improving land transportation in order to enhance the city's regional status. A stagecoach route was constructed between Damascus and Beirut in 1863, and eventually a railroad linked the two cities in 1895. This interval witnessed the rising importance of a rapidly expanding Beirut as Damascus' harbor on the Mediterranean Sea, whereas the Syrian capital remained the last station for European goods before the desert. 

Still, the pilgrimage retained its value as a religious symbol of immense importance to the Sublime Porte, as evidenced by the great Hijaz Railroad project. The changes did, however, result in a major reorientation of Damascus from south (Mecca) to west (Beirut). We can still identify the numerous administrative, touristic, and municipal edifices erected west of the Old City as a testimony to this crucial development.

Map credit: Arnaud.

References
Jean-Luc Arnaud. Damas Urbanisme et Architecture 1860-1925. Sindbad 2006. 
Dorothée Sack. Damaskus. Entwicklung und Struktur einer orientalisch-islamischen Stadt. von Zabern, Mainz 1989.
Stefan Weber. Reshaping Damascus: Social Change and Patterns of Architecture in Late Ottoman Times      
Stefan Weber. Ottoman Modernity and Urban Transformation 1808-1918. Proceedings of the Danish Institute in Damascus V 2009.