Editing Damascus (section)

===Ottoman period===
{{see also|Damascus Eyalet|Syria Vilayet}}
[[File:Damaskus in Syrien - Peeters Jacob - 1690.jpg|thumb|Damascus in 1690 by [[Jacob Balthasar Peeters]]|left]]
[[File:A Turkish Divan-Damascus - Carne John - 1836.jpg|thumb|A Turkish Divan in Damascus, in 1836, by [[John Carne]]|left]]

In early 1516, the [[Ottoman Empire]], wary of the danger of an alliance between the Mamluks and the Persian [[Safavids]], started a campaign of conquest against the Mamluk sultanate. On 21 September, the Mamluk governor of Damascus fled the city, and on 2 October the [[khutba]] in the Umayyad mosque was pronounced in the name of [[Selim I]]. The day after, the victorious sultan entered the city, staying for three months. On 15 December, he left Damascus by Bab al-Jabiya, intent on the conquest of Egypt. Little appeared to have changed in the city: one army had simply replaced another. However, on his return in October 1517, the sultan ordered the construction of a mosque, [[Khanqah|tekkiye]] and mausoleum at the shrine of Shaikh [[Ibn Arabi|Muhi al-Din ibn Arabi]] in [[Al-Salihiyah, Damascus|al-Salihiyah]]. This was to be the first of Damascus' great Ottoman monuments.
During this time, according to an Ottoman census, Damascus had 10,423 households.<ref>"Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century"</ref>
[[File:Eduard Hildebrandt - Ansicht von Damaskus (1852).jpg|thumb|View of Damascus, by [[Eduard Hildebrandt]], 1852]]
[[File:The universal geography - the earth and its inhabitants (1876) (14578799080).jpg|thumb|Damascus, view taken from the Christian quarter, in 1876.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/cu31924095158964/page/401/mode/1up?view=theate |author=[[Élisée Reclus]], [[Ernst Georg Ravenstein]], [[Augustus Henry Keane]]|title=The universal geography: the earth and its inhabitants |date=1876 |publisher=[[James Sprent Virtue|J.S. Virtue & Co Ltd]] |page=401 }}</ref>]]
The Ottomans remained for the next 400 years, except for a brief occupation by [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]] from 1832 to 1840. Because of its importance as the point of departure for one of the two great [[Hajj]] caravans to [[Mecca]], Damascus was treated with more attention by the [[Ottoman Porte|Porte]] than its size might have warranted—for most of this period, [[Aleppo]] was more populous and commercially more important. In 1559 the western building of [[Sulaymaniyya Takiyya]], comprising a mosque and [[caravanserai|khan]] for pilgrims on the road to Mecca, was completed to a design by the famous Ottoman architect [[Mimar Sinan]], and soon afterward the [[Salimiyya Madrasa]] was built adjoining it.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Abd al-Qadir al-Rihawi |author2=Émilie E. Ouéchek |year=1975|chapter=Les deux ''takiyya'' de Damas|title=Bulletin d'études orientales|volume=28|pages=217–225|publisher=Institut Francais du Proche-Orient|jstor=41604595|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41604595|access-date=24 June 2022|archive-date=17 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617171138/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41604595|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Gustav Bauernfeind - A Street Scene, Damascus (Sotheby's, ShafikGabrCollection) 001l2010.jpg|thumb|A painting by [[Gustav Bauernfeind]] of a crowd in Damascus street, circa 1890]]
Early in the nineteenth century, Damascus was noted for its shady cafes along the banks of the Barada. A depiction of these by [[William Henry Bartlett]] was published in 1836, along with a poetical illustration by [[Letitia Elizabeth Landon]], see {{ws|[[s:Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837/Cafes in Damascus|Cafes in Damascus]]}} Under [[Ottoman rule]], Christians and [[Jews]] were considered [[dhimmi]]s and were allowed to practice their religious precepts. During the [[Damascus affair]] of 1840 the false accusation of [[ritual murder]] was brought against members of the Jewish community of Damascus. The [[1860 Druze-Christian conflict in Lebanon|massacre of Christians in 1860]] was also one of the most notorious incidents of these centuries when fighting between [[Druze]] and [[Maronites]] in [[Mount Lebanon]] spilled over into the city. Several thousand Christians were killed in June 1860, with many more being saved through the intervention of the Algerian exile [[Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri|Abd al-Qadir]] and his soldiers (three days after the massacre started), who brought them to safety in Abd al-Qadir's residence and the [[Citadel of Damascus]]. The Christian quarter of the old city (mostly inhabited by Catholics), including several churches, was burnt down. The Christian inhabitants of the notoriously poor and refractory [[Midan]] district outside the walls (mostly Orthodox) were, however, protected by their Muslim neighbors.

American Missionary E.C. Miller records that in 1867 the population of the city was 'about' 140,000, of whom 30,000 were Christians, 10,000 Jews, and 100,000 'Mohammedans' with fewer than 100 Protestant Christians.<ref>Ellen Clare Miller, 'Eastern Sketches – notes of scenery, schools and tent life in Syria and Palestine'. Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Company. 1871. page 90. quoting Eli Jones, a [[Quaker]] from [[New England]].</ref> In the meantime, American writer [[Mark Twain]] visited Damascus, then wrote about his travel in ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]'', in which he mentioned: "Though old as history itself, thou art fresh as the breath of spring, blooming as thine own rose-bud, and fragrant as thine own orange flower, O Damascus, pearl of the East!".<ref>{{Harvnb|Twain|1869|p=283}}</ref> In November 1898, German emperor [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]] toured Damascus, during his trip to the Ottoman Empire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abdelraoufsinno.com/periodicals/docum_41.pdf|title=The Emperor's visit to the East: As reflected in contemporary Arabic journalism|author=Abdel-Raouf Sinno|pages=14–15|date=1998|access-date=10 June 2021|archive-date=23 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123135139/http://www.abdelraoufsinno.com/periodicals/docum_41.pdf|url-status=usurped}}</ref>