al-Dhahabī wrote that a dreadful three-hour-long earthquake struck Damascus in A.H. 233 (17 August 847 CE – 4 August 848 CE). Walls were said to have collapsed and many people died in the ruins. al-Dhahabī reported that it was said 20,000 people in Antioch perished from the same earthquake, and that another 50,000 people died in Mosul, likewise attributed to the same event.