Several sources describe an earthquake in Damascus which one source stated struck at dawn on 24 November 847 CE (11 Rabi' II A.H. 233). That source was the Damascus native and scion Ibn ʿAsakir as quoted by as‑Suyuti. As all of the sources wrote about this event at least 300 years after it occurred, Ibn ʿAsakir’s account appears the most reliable. He was widely known for his encyclopedic work Taʾrīkh Dimashq (History of Damascus) and likely had access to many documents recording the city’s past.

Ibn ʿAsakir wrote that many bridges and houses collapsed in Damascus and appears to indicate that the Great Umayyad Mosque was damaged. The later Damascus writer Ibn al‑ʿImad also recorded damage to the same mosque. Ibn ʿAsākir reported that the earthquake affected the surrounding districts of “al-Ghuṭah, Darayyah, al-Mazza, Bayt Lihyah and others” as well as Antioch. Damascene historians al-Dhahabī and Ibn al-ʿImād further claimed that Antioch and Mosul were heavily damaged by the same earthquake, though their casualty figures seem exaggerated and likely conflate this event with earthquakes at Antioch (850 CE) and Mosul (846 CE). They also stated that the earthquake in Damascus lasted three hours, perhaps reflecting the interval between the main shock and its last strong aftershock.