DAMASCUS

DAMASCUS. One of the oldest cities in the world, referred to by Pharaoh Thutmoses III, and prominently mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments (e.g., Acts 9), the city has been continuously home to Christians since the Apostles (q.v.). Damascus again became the capital of Syria (q.v.) in the 1920s, after having been eclipsed by Antioch (q.v.) from the Seleucid period, and has been the residence of the patriarchs of Antioch for several hundred years. As the patriarch’s see, it exercises primacy over the Orthdox communities in Lebanon, Iraq, and southeast Turkey (qq.v.). Since the 1890s, its leaders have all been Arabic-speaking, following centuries of leadership exercised by the Greek community in Constantinople, a situation that contributed to the schism of the Melchites (qq.v.).