Ta'rikh al-Sham by Mikha’il Burayk

Biography

Biography

Excerpts

English Paraphrase from Ayalon (2014)

• from Ayalon (2014:61)
• paraphrase of the account in Mikha’il Burayk (1982:78-80)

It was three hours before sunrise on 19 October 1759, and Mikha’il Burayk, a Greek Orthodox resident of Damascus, was sleeping.¹ Suddenly he woke up: The earth was shaking. In the morning, cries were heard all over the city as the damage of the nocturnal earthquake was discovered. Many houses were razed, and parts of the Umayyad and other mosques were damaged. That disaster turned out to be a prelude to another, more violent quake. The next month, late in the evening, a “strong and frightening earthquake” again hit the city. “Walls were torn down, foundations weakened, minarets collapsed, and the Umayyad mosque with its minarets, domes and baths was destroyed.” Numerous other buildings were ruined too, among them the Greek Church, and fires broke out in many quarters. In the next few days, city residents left in mass numbers and settled temporarily in gardens surrounding the city, where they set up huts as provisional lodging.²

Footnotes

1 Sections of this chapter are taken from my IJMES article, “Ottoman urban privacy.

2 Mikha’il Burayk, Ta’rikh al-sham (Damascus: Dar Qutayba, 1982), 78–80.

Chronology

30 Oct. 1759 CE Earthquake

Date	Reference	Corrections	Notes
three hours before sunrise 30 Oct. 1759 CE (Gregorian Calendar)	three hours before sunrise 19 Oct. 1759 (Julian Calendar)	none	Date converted from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar using fourmilab The Gregorian Calendar reform took place in October 1582 CE but not everybody got the message

25 Nov. 1759 CE Earthquake

Date	Reference	Corrections	Notes
Nov. 1759 CE	The next month, late in the evening	none

Seismic Effects

30 Oct. 1759 CE Earthquake

• The earth was shaking
• In the morning, cries were heard all over the city as the damage of the nocturnal earthquake was discovered
• Many houses were razed, and parts of the Umayyad and other mosques were damaged

25 Nov. 1759 CE Earthquake

• The next month, late in the evening, a “strong and frightening earthquake” again hit the city
• “Walls were torn down, foundations weakened, minarets collapsed, and the Umayyad mosque with its minarets, domes and baths was destroyed.”
• Numerous other buildings were ruined too, among them the Greek Church
• fires broke out in many quarter
• city residents left in mass numbers and settled temporarily in gardens surrounding the city

Locations

30 Oct. 1759 CE Earthquake

• Damascus

25 Nov. 1759 CE Earthquake

• Damascus

Online Versions and Further Reading

References