What is "damascus"

Damascus \Da*mas"cus\, n. [L.] A city of Syria.

Damascus blade, a sword or scimiter, made chiefly at Damascus, having a variegated appearance of watering, and proverbial for excellence.

Damascus iron, or Damascus twist, metal formed of thin bars or wires of iron and steel elaborately twisted and welded together; used for making gun barrels, etc., of high quality, in which the surface, when polished and acted upon by acid, has a damask appearance.

Damascus steel. See Damask steel, under Damask, a.

ancient city in Syria, famous in medieval times for silk and steel, mid-13c., from Latin Damascus, from Greek Damaskos, from Semitic (compare Hebrew Dammeseq, Arabic Dimashq), from a pre-Semitic name of unknown origin. Related: Damascene, from Latin Damascenus "of Damascus."

Damascus ( ) is the capital and the largest city of Syria after Aleppo prior to the civil war. It is now most likely the largest city of Syria, due to the decline of Aleppo because of the ongoing battle for the city. It is commonly known in Syria as ash-Sham ( ) and nicknamed as the City of Jasmine ( ). In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious centre of the Levant. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 .

Located in south-western Syria, Damascus is the centre of a large metropolitan area of 2.6 million people (2004). Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau above sea level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.

First settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries.

Damascus is the capital of Syria. It may also refer to:

• Damascus affair, an incident involving the Jewish community in Damascus in 1840
• Damascus steel, a material used in making blades
• Damascus (horse), an American Thoroughbred racehorse
• "Damascus moment" or "Damascene moment", in reference to the Conversion of Paul
• Damascus Securities Exchange
• A damson, once known as a Damascus plum.

Damascus (April 14, 1964 – August 8, 1995) was a Thoroughbred race horse sired by Sword Dancer (1959's Horse of the Year) out of Kerala (by My Babu) foaled at the Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1967, he won the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes*, Jockey Club Gold Cup*, Wood Memorial, Travers Stakes, Dwyer Stakes (closing from 12 lengths back and spotting the runner up 16 pounds), and Woodward Stakes and was named Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old colt, plus he shared the champion handicap male honors with Buckpasser. Also in 1967, Damascus finished third in the 1967 Kentucky Derby. A high-strung horse, he was enervated by the humidity and spooked by the crowd noise, so he was thereafter given a stable pony to calm him. During the same year, top horses Dr. Fager and Buckpasser were also competing. In Blood-Horse magazine's top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Buckpasser ranks 14th and Dr. Fager ranks 6th. In a race many consider the "Race of the Century," Damascus won the 1967 Woodward by 10 lengths over both of these horses after his connections, as well as those of Buckpasser, used stablemates to set a blistering pace, thus weakening Dr. Fager. Damascus himself ranks number 16 in the Blood Horse listing.