Portland Public Library

Damascus, paradise on Earth

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Damascus

829704524

57

Sites of the world's cultures

paradise on Earth

Once the legendary dynasty of the Omayyads had chosen Damascus as its capital in the 7th century, the Syrian city acquired a fabulous reputation. For almost 100 years Damascus was the cultural linchpin of the world, a city where the most learned men of the Mediterranean region lived and the most skillful craftsmen worked. The Omayyad caliphs contributed to this golden age; they summoned the most skilled craftsmen in Byzantium to work on the mosaics in the newly constructed Omayyad Mosque

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Paradise on Earth