Damascus, its Citadel, and the Mongol Menace

 

The Citadel has taken its current form under the ʾAyyūbīds, at the beginning of the 13th century C.E. Two major challenges have faced this impregnable edifice since.

Ġāzān was the first Mongol emperor to embrace Islam. He raided Syria towards the end of 1299. Damascus surrendered without a fight in January 1300, but the Citadel held out. The invaders subsequently erected their trebuchets in the courtyard of the ʾUmayyād Mosque, aiming their projectiles at the recalcitrant fortress, with the result that the quarters between the two edifices were severely damaged. Ġāzān's efforts to reduce the Citadel were frustrated, and he eventually had to withdraw, but not before unleashing his troops on the defenseless city, and aṣ-Ṣāliḥīyyā suburb in particular, which was looted and its inhabitants massacred or violated.

The second and more formidable test came a full century later when the Asian hordes under Tamerlane laid siege to Damascus in 1401—contrary to a commonly held belief, Tamerlane was a Turk, not a Mongol, though he admired and faithfully copied their war tactics. Once more, the city surrendered peacefully to the invader, and once more, the Citadel denied him access. Like Ġāzān, Tamerlane positioned his ballistic machines in the courtyard of the ʾUmayyād Mosque, but this time his efforts were crowned with success as his engineers managed to mine and destroy the northwest tower, therefore opening a breach in the massive fortifications. The small garrison surrendered on February 25 and was put to the sword. As the exhausted Damascenes failed to procure the huge tribute demanded by the victor, Tamerlane unleashed his brutes to sack Damascus on March 16. After the rampage had run its course, the city's artisans and craftsmen were rounded up and deported to Samarkand. Some of Timur's apologists justify the massacre as a payback for the ʾUmayyād's persecution of ʿAlī's followers 700 years prior.

The attached illustration by Rembrandt is of the famous encounter of Tamerlane and Ibn H̱aldūn outside the walls of Damascus.