Damascus Eyalet

The Syrian economy does not flourish under the Ottomans.

At times, attempts are made to rebuild the country, but on the whole, Syria will remain poor.

The population decreases by nearly thirty percent, and hundreds of villages virtually disappear into the desert.

Only one-eighth of the villages formerly on the register of the Aleppo pashalik (domain of a pasha) will still be inhabited at the end of the eighteenth century.

Only the area now known as Lebanon achieves economic progress, largely resulting from the relatively independent rule of the Druze emirs.

Syria, although impoverished by Ottoman rule, continues to attract European traders, who for centuries have imported spices, fruits, and textiles from the Middle East to the West.

Aleppo is the Middle East's chief marketplace by the fifteenth century, and has eclipsed Damascus in wealth, creating a rivalry between the two cities that continues.

With the traders from the West come missionaries, teachers, scientists, and tourists whose governments begin to clamor for certain rights.

France demands the right to protect Christians, and in 1535 Sultan Suleiman I grants France several "capitulations"—extraterritorial rights that will develop later into political semiautonomy, not only for the French but also for the Christians protected by them.

The term Greater Syria will be coined during Ottoman rule to designate the approximate area included in present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel.

The Mamluk sultans of Egypt, successors to the Ayyubids, rule from the Nile to the Euphrates by the fourteenth century, after repelling repeated invasions by Mongols from the north.

Their great citadels and monuments still stand, although Timur's destruction of much of Damascus in 1402 seriously damages such edifices as the Great Umayyad Mosque.

The Ottoman sultan in Turkey defeats the Mamluks at Aleppo in 1516 and makes Syria a province of a new Muslim empire.

The Ottomans are nomadic Muslim Turks from Central Asia who had been converted to Islam by Umayyad conquerors in the eighth century.

Led by Uthman (whence the Western term Ottoman), they had founded a principality in 1300 amid the ruins of the Mongol-wrecked Seljuk Empire in northwest Turkey.

Uthman's successors had invaded Europe fifty years later.

They conquer Constantinople in 1453 and in the sixteenth century conquer all of the Middle East.

From 1300 to 1916, when the empire falls, thirty-six sultans, all descendants of Uthman, will rule much of the Muslim world.

Europeans refer to the Ottoman throne as the Sublime Porte, a name derived from a gate of the sultan's palace in Istanbul.

Beginning in 1516, the Ottomans rule Syria through pashas, who govern with unlimited authority over the land under their control, although they are responsible ultimately to the Sublime Porte.

Pashas are both administrative and military leaders.

So long as they collect their taxes, maintain order, and rule n area not of immediate military importance, the Sublime Porte leaves them alone.

In turn, the pashas rule smaller administrative districts through either a subordinate Turk or a loyal Arab.

Occasionally, as in the area that is to become Lebanon, the Arab subordinate maintains his position more through his own power than through loyalty.

Throughout Ottoman rule, there is little contact with the authorities except among wealthier Syrians who enter government service or study in Turkish universities.

The system is not particularly onerous to Syrians because the Turks respect Arabic as the language of the Quran and accept the mantle of defenders of the faith.

Damascus is made the major entrepôt for Mecca, and as such it acquires a holy character to Muslims because of the baraka (spiritual force or blessing) of the countless pilgrims who pass through on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Ottoman administration often follows patterns set by previous rulers.

Each religious minority—Shia Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Maronite, Armenian, and Jewish — constitutes a millet.

The religious heads of each community administer all personal status law and perform certain civil functions as well.

Janbirdi al-Ghazali had joined the Mamluk governor of Aleppo in defecting to the Ottomans and severed allegiance with Mamluk sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri.

Selim I is reportedly impressed by al-Ghazali's loyalty to his superiors and in a bid to have him serve under the Ottomans, appoints him as governor of Damascus in February 1518.

At this time, Damascus Province encompasses much of the Levant, including much of central and southern Syria, the Syrian coastline, Palestine, Transjordan and Lebanon.

He pays an annual tribute of two hundred and thirty-three thousand dinars to the Ottoman sultan.

As governor of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali is in charge of safeguarding the pilgrim caravan destined to make hajj in the Hejaz for the pilgrim route from Damascus to Aqaba in southern Transjordan.

In order to do this successfully, he subjugates the Turkmen nomads in the area.

After two years, he manages to have those same Turkmen tribes protecting the pilgrims.

By 1520, hajj caravans are traveling without incident.

In line with Ottoman state policy at this time, al-Ghazali embarks on major development projects in Damascus.

Having been appointed the nazir or "supervisor" of Damascus's main waqf, he has the Umayyad Mosque repaired and redecorated.

He also has a number of other mosques, schools and canals rebuilt and repaired.

Supervisors of madrasas ("religious schools") who are deemed negligent are stripped of their position and their school buildings restored.

Following the succession of Süleyman the Magnificent to the sultanate after Selim's death in 1520, al-Ghazali revolts against the Ottoman state.

He seeks to restore Mamluk suzerainty, declaring himself "sultan" or al-Malik al-Ashraf ("the most noble king").

He bans preachers in mosques from upholding the Ottoman sultan's name in Friday prayers, purges Ottoman officials and soldiers from Syria, and bans Ottoman dress by the provinces's citizens.

After he declares himself sultan, the cities of Tripoli, Hama, and Hims joins his rebellion.

Following failed attempts to enlist the support of Shah Ismail of the Safavid Empire and Kha'ir Bey, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, he nonetheless raises an army and sets out to conquer Aleppo.

The residents of Aleppo support the Ottoman sultanate, however, and resist al-Ghazali's efforts.

His army besieges the city for fifteen days, during which over two hundred residents and Ottoman soldiers are killed, but to no avail.

He withdraws to Damascus soon after to rally his forces.