Today Damascus is the capital of Syria. But once it was the capital of the Islamic Empire under the Umayyad Dynasty.
to the 630s - Damascus was part of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire)
Damascus was conquered by the Islamic armies under Umar (who was a successor of Muhammad and Abu Bakr). A Muslim governor was appointed to rule the territory of Syria. Astonishingly, the Muslim state administered the conquered territories with a tolerance almost unheard of in that age. At Damascus, for example, the Muslim leader Khalid ibn al-Walid signed a treaty which read as follows:
This is what Khalid ibn al-Walid would grant to the inhabitants of Damascus if he enters therein: he promises to give them security for their lives, property and churches. Their city wall shall not be demolished, neither shall any Muslim be quartered in their houses. Thereunto we give them the pact of Allah and the protection of His Prophet, the caliphs and the believers. So long as they pay the poll tax, nothing but good shall befall them.
This policy was to prove successful everywhere. In Syria many Christians who had been involved in bitter theological disputes with Byzantine authorities (and persecuted for it) welcomed the coming of Islam as an end to tyranny.
The successors of Muhammad - Abu Bakr and Umar - were called caliphs (a short form of Commander of the Faithful). They were from a clan called the Ummayads and were known as religious and modest leaders, but their clan later began enriching themselves. Opposition to the Umayyads developed. Islam was plagued by the assassination of Uthman (third caliph) and civil war.
Then Ali (nephew of Muhammad) succeeded Uthman as caliph. But Ali had enemies. Aisha, one of Mohammed's widows, accused Ali of involvement in the murder of Uthman, the former caliph. Moreover, Muawiya (who was a cousin of Uthman) challenged his rival Ali to become the next leader of the Muslims. From his power base in Damascus, Muawiya sent military expeditions and conquered his opposition. Ali was killed. Muawiya became the leader of all Muslim territories which he continued to expand through conquest. Muawiya moved the capital of the Islamic territories from Medina, Arabia to Damascus, Syria. Umayyad conquests extended westward across north Africa into Spain and France and eastward into India and Central Asia - an empire greater than that of Rome at its zenith.
In 680 Muawiya died and Ali's son Husayn tried to claim the caliphate from the Umayyads. But Husayn and his followers were killed at Karbala in Iraq by the sucessor of Muawiya. Husayn's death is still mourned each year by the Shiites. These civil wars had divided the Muslims into Sunni (orthodox) and Shi'a (followers of Ali). Shi'a (or Shiite) Muslims claimed that the Sunni leaders in power were not faithful followers of Islam, and that their government was corrupt and thought about personal gain. The Shiites secretly planned to take over.
Abul al-Abbas was a descendant of Mohammed's family. Abul Abbas led the Abbasid revolution that overthrew the Umayyads in 749. He eliminated the corrupt power of the Umayyads in Damascus and initiated the dynasty of the Abbasids. Abbas safeguarded his victory by killing most of the surviving members of the Ummayyad house at a "deadly dinner" in Baghdad. The Umayyads had governed from Damascus, leaving Mecca only its religious predominance. The Abbasids founded a new city, Baghdad, from which to rule their territories.
There remained only one province which refused to recognize the Abbasids - that was Spain. There, one of the few Umayyads to survive founded an independent state in 756.
Fatimids began to organize to overthrow the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, 969, but around 1060 Fatimid power declined and in 1076 Damascus was taken over by Turkish warriors. [Fatimah was the daughter of Muhammad and wife of Ali - and the Fatimids traced their ancestry back to the Prophet Muhammad through this line. That is how they justified their leadership of the Muslims. They followed Shi'a ideas (Shi'a means "party of Ali") which rejected the legitimacy of the first three caliphs of Islam, Abu Bakr, Omar and Othman, who they thought stole Ali's right to succeed the Prophet Muhammad in leading Islam.]
1096 - Crusaders attack "Holy Land" Beginning of the Crusader campaigns
1260 A.D. Tartar (Mongol) invasion, led by Houlagou (son of Ghengis Khan), was stopped by Sultan Baybars, and Syria was taken over by the Mamluk "Slave" leaders. The Mamluks, an Egypt-based dynasty, ruled Damascus.
1299 - 1300 The Mongol army plundered Damascus
Another of the Mongol invaders came into the Middle East for a short but bloody time. After taking over, he became Muslim and built many mosques and buildings in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan, parts of eastern Turkey and northern India.
For a map of the Ottoman Empire at its peak of power, see http://history.adm.binghamton.edu/hist130/maps/ottoman.htm