Two powerful earthquakes struck on 30 October (Safed Quake) and 25 November (Baalbek Quake) in 1759 CE, each followed by a series of aftershocks. The shocks caused heavy destruction and numerous deaths in Lebanon, Syria, and northern Palestine. Based on paleoseismic trenching, geomorphological surveys, and a report from the French Consul in Saida (Sidon) describing a fissure over 110 km long near Baalbek, Daëron et al. (2005) proposed that the 1759 earthquakes resulted from rupture of the Rachaiya Fault in October, followed by rupture of the Serghaya Fault in November. They estimated (2σ) magnitudes of 6.4–7.3 and 7.0–8.0 respectively. Both earthquakes caused death and destruction in Damascus, although the second earthquake on 25 November produced higher levels of local intensity. Casualties may have been fewer in the second event because much of the population had left their homes to live in tents in the countryside after the initial 30 October shock.

After both earthquakes, a letter from the French Consulate in Saida (Sidon) stated that Damascus was “three quarters destroyed,” while another letter from Archbishop Boutros Jalfaq of Sidon wrote that Damascus suffered “severe destruction” and “at least several hundred dead.” Dr. Patrick Russell, a Scottish surgeon and naturalist living in Aleppo at the time, wrote a long letter describing both earthquakes. After the 30 October shock, he reproduced parts of a letter from Damascus which stated that the earthquake had “done considerable damage.” After the 30 November shock, he reproduced parts of another letter written around 3 December: Damascus was now one third “thrown down,” and many people “perished in the ruins.” The survivors fled the city to sleep in the fields due to continuing aftershocks, which impeded relief efforts. Russell noted that some reports claimed 20,000 dead in Damascus, though he believed this number exaggerated.

The earthquakes were also reported in European newspapers. The London Chronicle had a terse entry stating that Damascus was struck by a “dreadful earthquake,” after which it “was visited with the plague.” La Gazette de France offered more detail, noting that two earthquakes (30 October and 25 November) had struck the Levant and that Damascus was “badly damaged.” Aftershocks were “so numerous that they cannot be counted,” and the city was “no more than a heap of ruins.” It also reported that people were living outdoors in tents after the quakes. Although some reports contained exaggerations, damage appears to have been extensive. Ottoman Work Orders in Damascus show that “no fewer than 430 structures” required “full or partial repair,” including the Great Umayyad Mosque , the Selimiye Mosque , numerous smaller mosques, madrasas , soup kitchens (imāret/takiyya) , walls, gates, domes, and the Tomb of Ibn ʿArabī, Damascus (Ayalon, 2014).

Contemporaneous source Ahmed al-Budayr, the “Barber of Damascus,” as quoted by Abou Karaki (1987) from Taher (1979), reported that after the two earthquakes the “upper parts of almost all minarets of the mosques of Damascus fell.” There was “much destruction and many victims,” and the upper parts of the east and west minarets of the Umayyad Mosque collapsed onto its side, destroying part of the three mihrabs . The al-Nasr Dome and the entire northern part of the Umayyad Mosque collapsed. Continuing tremors caused “the collapse of the eastern and northern walls of the eastern minaret.” Around 15 mosques were damaged, and cracks were seen in the eastern wall of the al-Mazbour Mosque. Al-Budayr also recorded that the 25 November earthquake lasted four minutes and the 30 October shock two to three minutes.

As paraphrased by Ayalon (2014: 61), Mikhaʾil al-Burayk produced an eyewitness account of both earthquakes as experienced in Damascus. The 30 October shock woke people up; that morning they found “many houses razed, and parts of the Umayyad and other mosques damaged.” The 25 November earthquake was a “strong and frightening earthquake” in which “walls were torn down, foundations weakened, minarets collapsed, and the Umayyad mosque with its minarets, domes and baths was destroyed.” He added that numerous other buildings, including the Greek Church, were ruined. Fires broke out in many quarters, and a mass exodus of residents left the city to live temporarily in gardens surrounding Damascus, where they set up huts as provisional lodging — a strong indication of continuing energetic aftershocks.