TimeMaps

Syria
1500BC

The region of Syria and Canaan has experienced repeated movements of peoples into it, from the arid lands to the east. These have formed city states, or have continued to live as nomads in the grasslands between the cities. Probably in the last few centuries one such set of wandering nomads has been a group from whom the Israelite people will eventually come.

The north of the region has come under the rule of Indo-European kingdoms, first the Mitanni, but shortly the Hittites. The south has come increasingly within the cultural orbit of Egypt, and will shortly come under its political domination as well.

Syria
1000BC

The decline of the great powers of the region, the Hittites, Assyria and Egypt, has enabled new peoples to come to the fore. The Phoenicians are a people who live in a group of coastal city-states which owe their wealth to maritime trade. Their sailors and merchants are pioneering trade routes throughout the length and breadth of the Mediterranean at this time.

Sometime over the past few centuries, an alphabetic script has been developed, probably in Canaan. The Phoenicians, a Canaanite people, have adopted this script, and Phoenician merchants will carry this innovation to other peoples in the course of their travels, including the Greeks. This alphabet will therefore be the ancestor of modern European alphabets.

To the south, a people have come into the land of Canaan over the past few centuries. These are the Israelites. Originally living in a confederacy of tribes, they have recently formed a powerful kingdom, which is at this time ruled by their famous king, David. The distinctive thing about the Israelites is that they have a monotheistic religion, focussed on the worship of the one God, Yahweh. In this religion are the origins of the modern Jewish faith,as well as the roots of Christianity and Islam.

In different ways, both the Phoenicians and the Israelites will have a deep impact on the future of the entire world.

Syria
500BC

The Phoenician city-states, particularly Tyre and Sidon, flourished as the leading trading powers of the Mediteranean Sea. To the south, the people of Israel inhabited a kingdom which, under kings David (c. 1006-965) and Solomon (c.965-928) became a leading regional power. After Solomon's death, however, the kingdom divided into two, the southern part centred on Jerusalem, the northern part centred on Samaria.

In both kingdoms, the Israelites continued to worship their one God, Yawheh, and their faith developed as a succession of prophets taught that it was not just a matter of belief and worship, but of ethical behaviour as well.

From the mid-8th century onwards, the small kingdoms of Syria and Palestine fell one by one under the power of Assyria. The Assyrians destroyed the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, many of its people deported to other parts of the empire; and the kingdom of Judah became a vassal state.

With the fall of Assyria in 612 BC, Syria and Palestine came under Babylonian control. The kingdom of Judah, having unsucessfuly rebelled against Babylon, was destroyed in 586 BC. Thousands of Jews were sent into exile. The region passed into the hands of the Persians in 539 BC, and the Persian king, Cyrus restored the Jewish people to their homeland, and encouraged them to rebuild their temple.

Syria
200BC

Alexander the Great conquered Syria from the Persians in 332 BC, and in the struggles for control of Alexander’s empire after his early death, his generals Seleucus and Ptolemy divided Syria between them. They founded powerful dynasties. Under them, many Greek-style cities sprang up, which became thriving centres of Hellenistic civilization. Antioch, the Seleucid capital, was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world.

The Jewish community in and around Jerusalem enjoyed a high level of self-rule under their own leaders. The influence of Hellenistic civilization was welcomed by some of the elite, but was regarded with the deepest suspicion by many ordinary Jews.

Syria
30BC

In the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, the power of the Seleucid kings declined, eventually finished off by the Roman conquest of the region by their general, Pompey the Great (64-63 BC). Syria now formed the eastern frontier of the Roman empire, facing the Parthian empire.

The Seleucid king, Antiochus Epiphanes (reigned 175-164 BC), inflicted one of the most traumatic episodes on the Jews when he tried to impose Hellenistic culture - including its paganism - on them, sometimes with great brutality. This attempt backfired, most notably in the successful rebellion of the Jews against Seleucid rule, under the Maccabees brothers. This led to the founding of an independent Jewish state in 141 BC, which lasted until the Roman conquest. Instead of governing the area directly, the Romans have given it to one of their main allies in the region, Herod, to rule.

Syria
200AD

Under Roman rule, the inhabitants of Syria experienced a long period of peace and prosperity. Magnificent cities, run by highly educated, Greek-speaking elites, studded the region.

In the south of the region the Jews remained unreconciled to Roman rule. A great Jewish revolt, lasting from AD 66 to AD 70, ended in the complete destruction of Jerusalem, and a second revolt in 133, after being harshly repressed by the Romans, resulted in the complete expulsion of Jews from central Judaea. Jerusalem was eventually rebuilt as a Roman colony.

By this time, the new religion of Christianity had appeared in Judaea, founded by an (apparently) ordinary Jew, Jesus of Nazareth (lived c. 6 BC to c. AD 31). It was soon spreading far and wide in the Roman and Parthian empires.

Syria
500AD

The Syrian provinces experienced invasions from the east in the 3rd century, and for a time was even ruled by a breakaway regime under the formidable queen, Zenobia of Palmyra.

With the unity of the Roman empire restored, peace and prosperity returned to the Syrian provinces in the 4th century. In the 5th century, while the western provinces were enduring massive German invasions which eventually led to the end of Roman rule there, the inhabitants of the Syrian provinces were enjoying a comparatively tranquil time, with no major disturbances.

With Christianity becoming the dominant religion of the Roman empire after Constantine's conversion in 311, Palestine became a centre of pilgrimage. Imperial patronage led to magnificent churches springing up in and around Jerusalem, and devout men and women from all over the empire came to live in the many monasteries which dotted the wilderness here.

Syria
750AD

The wars between the Byzantines and the Persians in the 7th century caused much devastation to the numerous cities of Syria, and were followed almost immediately by the Arab conquest of Syria (633-40).

The Arabs conquest was made easier by the local population's adherence to a branch of Christianity regarded as heretical by the Byzantine government, and therefore persecuted. This had weakened ties between Syria and Constantinople. The Arabs granted their conquered populations freedom of worship, and many Syrians regarded them as liberators rather than conquerors. The Arab garrisons were kept separate from the rest of the population, for whom life went on much as before.

The early Muslim period has in fact been something of a golden age for Syria. Under the Umayyad caliphs, Damascus is the capital of the Islamic Caliphate. As an imperial capital, it is beautified by palaces and mosques. Jerusalem also received special favour (and, for the first time for 500 years, Jews were allowed back by the Muslim authorities). The Great Mosque in Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are the first great examples of Muslim architecture. However, in 750 the Umayyad royal family was destroyed by a successful uprising which brings the 'Abassid family to the caliphate throne, and power immediately starts to shift eastwards away from Syria.

Syria
979AD

Syria, which had prospered as the centre of power of the Umayyad caliphs up to the 750s, became merely another province of the caliphate when the new ruling dynasty of caliphs, the 'Abbasids, founded their capital of Baghdad, in Iraq. Syria and Palestine were the locations for a number of revolts against the new dynasty, and were regarded with suspicion by them. The region experienced a decline in prosperity. 

As the 'Abbasid empire began to break up, Syria and Palestine came under the rule of the Tulunids, a rebel regime based in Egypt (877). Later, in the 940s, eastern Syria passed to the Hamdanids, an Arab tribe originally based in northern Iraq. The Hamdanid capital, Aleppo, became an important intellectual centre where Greek philosophy was synthesised with Islamic belief. Western and southern Syria, along with Palestine, is coming under the Fatimid regime based in Egypt.

Syria
1215AD

In 1071 Syria and Palestine, like much of the Middle East, passed into the hands of the Seljuqs. Then, after 1098, it fell to the Christian Crusaders from Europe.

The Crusaders set up four states in Syria and Palestine: the kingdom of Jerusalem, the principality of Antioch, and the counties of Edessa and Tripoli. These were organized along the feudal lines of European states of the time.

The position of the Crusaders, always an alien minority within their territories, was never secure; when a Muslim power arose which could unite powerful Muslim forces against them, their situation became very vulnerable.

In 1127, northern Iraq rebelled against the Seljuqs and came under the control of the Turkish Zangid dynasty. Like previous rulers of Mosul, they soon extended their control into northern Syria. The Zangid ruler Nureddin then proclaimed a Jihad against the Christian Crusaders and took Antioch and Edessa from them in 1144.  His general, Saladin, then gained complete control of Egypt and, on Nuredin’s death, became ruler of Syria and Palestine as well, founding the Ayyubid dynasty. He resoundingly defeated the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin in 1187, and all inland areas fell permanently back into Muslim hands. The Crusaders were left with only a sliver of coast, with Saladin and his heirs ruling the rest of the region.

Syria
1453AD

In the 13th century, Syria and Palestine became fragmented amongst several principalities based at Aleppo, Hamah, Damascus and other centres. These were all under princes of the Ayyubid family, and were subject to the loose control of the Ayyubid sultan in Cairo.

This was a time of economic and cultural progress for this region. The ports of the Levant coast in particular prospered, as the Crusaders had expanded trading links with Europe.

In 1260 the Mongols invaded Syria and sacked Aleppo; however, they were beaten back by the Mamluqs, a group of soldier-slaves in the service of the Ayyubids, at the battle of 'Ayn Jalut. The Mamluqs then took control of both Egypt and Syria for themselves, and brought both countries under a much more centralized rule than before. In 1291 the Mamluqs expelled the last of the Crusading strongholds from Syrian soil.

Although the Crusaders had been expelled, the maritime trade with Europe did not come to an end, and Syria continued to prosper under the Mamluqs. Then, in 1401, the armies of the central Asian conqueror Timur swept in. They sacked Aleppo and Damascus, and inflicted great destruction on much of the country. This put an end to the period of prosperity.

Syria
1648AD

Syria was conquered by the Ottomans in 1516, and has been a province of their empire since then. Local communities - whether heterodox Muslim, orthodox, Christian, Jewish or Druze - enjoy a great deal of self-government, able to live according to their own laws and customs so long as they pay their taxes. This has for the most part been a period of peace. Agriculture has flourished under official protection by Ottoman governors. Trade has expanded, especially with European traders, with English and French merchants replacing the earlier Italians as the dominant partners. Syrian merchants, both Muslims and Jews, have actively developed their own commercial networks in southern Europe.

Syria
1789AD

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Syria
1837AD

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Syria
1871AD

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