Michael the Syrian wrote that “there was an earthquake at Damascus which lasted for days and shook her like leaves on trees”. Chronicon Ad Annum 1234 recorded a similar account: “there was an earthquake at Damascus and in the whole surrounding area, which lasted for days, and in which the area trembled and was shaken.” Neither text provides reliable chronology, but dates can be triangulated to January 749 CE from other authors who describe these events (Williams, 2024). Hoyland (2011:270–273) showed that both authors may have derived this information from the lost chronicle of Theophilus of Edessa, perhaps through the intermediary of the mostly lost chronicle of Dionysius of Tell Mahre.

as-Suyuti compiled Arabic accounts and recorded two earthquakes in Damascus around this period. For the first event in A.H. 130 (11 September 747 – 30 August 748 CE), he preserved what may be eyewitness testimony transmitted through an isnād-like tradition: an earthquake struck Damascus, forcing its inhabitants to flee the city, and “the Dajjāj suq [poultry market] fell from the ‘Great Rocks.’” He added that rescue operations to dig through the ruins did not begin until “several days after the catastrophe,” implying strong aftershocks. In a second entry for A.H. 131 (31 August 748 – 19 August 749 CE), as-Suyuti wrote that “the platform of the mosque opened, allowing the sky to be seen” at “the time of the catastrophic earthquake of A.H. 131,” after which another earthquake “closed the gap.” The reference to the sky being seen may indicate that the A.H. 131 (31 August 748 – 19 August 749 CE) earthquake took place during the day. Karcz (2004) notes that a dual date tradition of A.H. 130 and 131 for the Sabbatical Year Quakes also exists in the accounts of Arabic writers Sibt ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn Taghri Birdi. Thus, as-Suyuti may have been describing the same earthquake striking Damascus that, through repetition and retelling, became duplicated in chronicles—or he may have been referring to another shock or series of shocks in A.H. 130 (11 September 747 – 30 August 748 CE) that were part of the Sabbatical Quake sequence.