Damaskus

The first systematic exploration of Damascus is credited to the German archaeologists and historians Carl Watzinger (1877-1948) and Karl Wulzinger (1886-1949), who rigorously researched and described the city's monuments, attempting in the process a restitution of its ancient urban fabric.

Their fieldwork started in January 1917 and continued until December of the same year. Its publication had to await the conclusion of the Great War (WWI). The end result was two priceless books: Damaskus, die antike Stadt (Damascus, the Old City), published in 1921, and Damaskus, die islamische Stadt (Damascus, the Islamic City), published in 1924.

Much has been written about the Syrian capital since, and quite a few of Watzinger & Wulzinger's conclusions have been challenged. Still, their work is so frequently quoted that it may not be an exaggeration to consider it the "reference standard" as far as the archaeology and history of Damascus are concerned.

One would think that a seminal and meticulously researched work such as this would be widely translated, but this is hardly the case. Part one, dedicated to pre-Islamic Damascus, has never been translated, and it took sixty years from the original German publication to produce an Arabic edition of part two, translated by Qāsim Ṭuwayr and annotated by ʿAbdel Qādir ar-Rīḥāwī, that left much to be desired.

Damascus deserves better. Part two should be entirely retranslated and amended/edited in light of our current state of knowledge. Translating part one should be an easier undertaking, as it is significantly shorter than part two, though by no means less relevant.