The Damascus Events

The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East

De: Eugene Rogan

Narrado por: Ronan Summers

An award-winning scholar’s account of an ancient city’s descent into unprecedented communal violence—an event that would mark the end of the old Ottoman order and the beginning of the modern Middle East

On July 9, 1860, a violent mob swept through the Christian quarters of Damascus. For eight days, violence raged, leaving five thousand Christians dead, thousands of shops looted, and churches, houses, and monasteries razed. The sudden and ferocious outbreak shocked the world, leaving Syrian Christians vulnerable and fearing renewed violence.

Drawn from never-before-seen eyewitness accounts of the Damascus Events, eminent Middle East historian Eugene Rogan tells the story of how a peaceful multicultural city came to be engulfed in slaughter. He traces how rising tensions between Muslim and Christian communities led some to regard extermination as a reasonable solution. Rogan also narrates the wake of this disaster, and how the Ottoman government moved quickly to retake control of the city, end the violence, and reintegrate Christians into the community. These efforts to rebuild Damascus proved successful, preserving peace for the next 150 years until 2011.

The Damascus Events offers a vivid history, one that masterfully uncovers the outbreak of violence that unmade a great city and examines the possibility, even after searing conflict and unimaginable tragedy, of repair.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A propulsive account...A harrowing piece of storytelling with enormous insight, this is a must-read for Middle East history buffs."—Publishers Weekly, Starred

“Compelling and authoritative, powerful in narrative, and filled with new revelations, this book offers a superb account of the 1860 Damascus massacres—much neglected nowadays but central to the creation of the modern Middle East.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem

“In the hands of the distinguished historian and master storyteller Eugene Rogan, an incident of communal violence in Damascus in 1860 is at once an evocation of the vanished world of the Ottoman empire and an ominous foreshadowing of the communal violence tearing apart the Middle East of today.”—Margaret MacMillan, author of War

“This book stands out for its impeccable scholarship, gripping narrative, and captivating prose. There is a great deal of new material here that not only brings events alive, but also leads to fresh assessments of one of the most momentous events in modern Arab history. Rogan uses the full panoply of primary sources in French, Ottoman Turkish, and Arabic to brilliantly illuminating effect. A remarkable book by a remarkable historian.”—Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall

“Rogan’s book is a much-needed addition to the Middle East library, covering the monumental events of 1860 whose repercussions can be directly linked first to the Lebanese civil war that erupted in 1975 and then to the Syrian conflict that started in 2011. The events of 1860 wiped out an entire neighborhood in Damascus and killed over 5,000 Christians; creating a new Muslim elite for Damascus; and triggering a series of upheavals that accumulated with the Great Revolt of 1916, which eventually brought down Ottoman rule in Syria by the end of World War I. Although the 1860 massacres have been studied before by both Western and Arab academics, this is the first book that delves into the papers and dispatches of Mikhayil Mishaka, a firsthand survivor who was a practicing doctor also serving as the US vice-consul in Damascus in 1860. The last serious approach in English at understanding what happened in Damascus in 1860 is now thirty years old, making it academically outdated. And it doesn’t delve into the US archives, concentrating mainly on dispatches from European consulates and nineteenth-century memoirs of Syrian eyewitnesses. This is what makes Rogan’s book fresh, balanced, and thought-provoking; a must-read for historians, scholars, and Syriatologists.”—Sami Moubayed, chairman, the Damascus History Foundation

very enjoyable reading and listening

Great book of a time in Syria's history that I was very oblivious of. it shed the lights on a time that has huge impact on our modern history yet not taught in school. the audio version of the book was very enjoyable to listen to. high recommended

Facts and facts, not bias

The book is excellent, the story was narrated in a beautiful and elegant way, although it was dark and bloody, but we must acknowledge our past in order to build our future, there is path for reconciliation in our beloved and wounded Damascus.