This study "The Emirate of Damascus During the Early Crusading Period 488-549/1095-1154 deals with this Emirate which was established in 488/1095, after the defeat and the murder of Taj al-Dawla Tutush near Rayy in 488/1095 by his nephew Sultan Berkiyaruq Ibn Sult-an Malik-Sh5h. The dominions of Ti al-Dawla, mainly in Syria and the Jazira divided between his elder sons King Fakhr al-Mullik Ridwan in Aleppo and King Shams al-Muliik Ducfaq in Damascus. The Kingdom of Damascus comprized south Syria and some parts of the Jazira such as al- Rahba and Mayyafäriqin. Zahir al-Din Tughtekln, who was Atabek of King Duclaq, became the de facto ruler of Damascus during the reign of King Duqaq 488-497/1095-1104. After the death of Duqaq, Tughtekin was to be the real Amir of Damascus, and his dynasty was to gain control of the Emirate until its fall at the hands of Niir al-Din Mahmild of Aleppo in 549/1154. In this thesis, the following matters are discussed: 1. The conditions which led to the foundation of this Emirate. 2. The role of Tughtekin in establishing his authority in the Emirate. 3. The foreign policy of the Emirate, and the factors which shaped this policy. 4. The effects (on the Emirate) of the coming of the Crusaders particularly those of Jerusalem. S. Internal rivalries in the Emirate, and their influence on the stability of the Emirate and its external relations. 6. The policy of alliances adopted by the Emirate and the factors which affected this. 7. The influence of the growing power of Zangi of Aleppo and Mosul (521-541/1127-1146) on Damascus and why he did not succeed in annexing Damascus to his united front in Syria and the Jazira aimed at challenging the power of the Crusaders. 8. The reasons which helped Mir al-Din Mahmüd Ibn Zangi of Aleppo to annex Damascus to his state in 549/1154. 9. The importance of the military power of Damascus and Its role in protecting the Emirate. Finally a concluding section sums up the achievement of the Emirate of Damascus in maintaining its Independence during the period and the role of the Emirate in the Counter-Crusade.

Since the rise of the first urban centers, the Middle Euphrates has functioned as a routeway between Mesopotamia and Syria. The towns and caravanseri located along the river served as important conduits of international exchange and as frontier towns buffering larger empires to the east and west. My research has investigated one small district along the Middle Euphrates. I have tried to document not only site distribution but also levels of communication between the middle valley of Euphrates and the southern Mesopotamian and western Syria core areas. Site distribution patterns show over and over again the location of entrepots, staging posts, and forts in this district. The chronological span of this study extends from ca 10,000 B.C. to A.D. 1980, an identifiable longue duree in which recurring cycles of conquest, depopulation, and revivification can be discerned. The area appears to have fared best during periods of intense competition among rival states for access to long-distance trade routes. However, when interactions between rival states in the stronger core areas of Syria and Mesopotamia resulted in the formation of empires whose capitals and interests lay far from the Middle Euphrates, the towns of this region perished. Nevertheless, the capture of the Middle Euphrates appears to have always been an important strategic battle in expansionistic efforts of such empires. I have analyzed the spatial distribution of sites in this region using data from a multi-stage field program. This program combined data from reconnaissance survey, intensive surface survey, intensive jeep survey, and test excavations at the Uruk period site of Tall Qraya with information from the broad-scale excavations at the regional center at Tall Harīrī and the provincial center at Tall al 'Ashārah. It is only with such archaeological data of long time depth gathered from many sources, in combination with information from textual sources, that one can attempt a "total history" of this area.

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Jamal ad din Abu'Abdullah Muhammad b. Salim b. Nasrallih b. Salim b. Wasil was born in Hamah on 2 Shawwal, 604. He was brought up there, and educated at Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo. He spent seventeen years in Egypt, (642-659), and was there at the time of St. Louis' Crusade, and of the beginning of the Mamluk dynasty. He resided at the courts of several of the leading Ayyubid princes of the Seventh Century, A.H. (Mu'azzam of Damascus, Nasir Daud of Kerak, Ayyub of Egypt, Muzaffar II of Hamah, and his two successors), and he knew intimately many of their leading courtiers, soldiers and scholars. In the latter part of his life he was for many years chief Qadi of his native city, where he died on the 22 Shawwal, 697.;His great work, the Mufarrij al Kurub, fi Akhbar Bani Ayyub, was written towards the end of his life, and contains the history of the Ayyubids from their first appearance until 659. Ibn Wasil had devoted much of his life to the study of History, and had written at least one and probably more books on the subject already, so that the Mufarrij combines the merits being written by a first-class historian and a close observer of most of the events he relates.;The Seventh Century, A.H. was a great period of scholarship, and especially was this so in Syria. Damascus and Aleppo were at this time replacing Bagdad as centres of learning, under the patronage of the Ayyubid princes. Up to the end the Sixth Century, almost all the leading scholars had studied in Bagdad, but with the founding of Madrasas in large numbers by Nur ad din and Saladin, the Syrian cities (1) became increasingly a gathering place for men of learning. Particularly rich was this period in historians. While Ibn Wasil was growing up, there was a flourishing school of historians at Aleppo, another at Damascus, and in his own town of Hamah there were at least three historians at work. As the century went on, the work of Baha ad din b. Shaddad and Ibn abi Tayy was carried on in Aleppo by Kamal ad din b. al 'Adim and Izz ad din b. Shaddad. In Damascus, the three great historians, Abu Shama, Sibt b.al Jauzi and Ibn Khallikan were all writing their books a few years before Ibn Wasil composed the Mufarrij, and Ibn abi Usaibi'a belongs to the same period. Ibn Wasil is the last of the great historians of the century, and was himself the master of his successor, Abulfida. The Egyptian school of historians does not appear until the beginning of the Mamluk dynasty, and it is to the Syrian historians that we look for our knowledge of the Ayyubid dynasty. Of these Ibn Wasil was in the best position to give first hand information on the later period.;The style of these Seventh century histories is clear and concise, and Ibn Wasil snares this characteristic. The flowery eloquence of the lives of Saladin was looked upon with some contempt, as "a characteristic of the writers of former times, whom, you will observe, have much talk and little meaning, expressing themselves metaphorically. This is not really good style" (1) This is Abu Shama's opinion, and Ibn al Athir says much the same in his Preface to the History of the Atabeks. He has resolved, he says, not to write at length because of "the preference people have in our time for brevity." (2) This last word, (Ikhtisar), indicates the character of much of the work of scholars of this time, including Ibn Wasil. Many books were merely summaries of previous works on a subject, whether history or some other branch of learning, and Ibn Wasil's first historical work was a "Mukhtasar", to be followed by a longer "Tarikh Kabir". Besides this he wrote Mukhtasars of the Kitab al Aghani, of a work on theology by Fakhr ad din ar Razi, and of Ibn al Baitar's book on medicine. Three others of his works were commentaries on previous books, (Chapter X.).

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Cylinder seal impressions occur in many contexts in the ancient Near East. This disssertation focuses specifically on the function of sealing in the manipulation of state resources (land, labor, and goods) in second millennium B.C. Syria. The sources of information utilized in this study include textual references to sealing practices, sealed documents, bullae, and the seals themselves. The archives of Mari, Alalah, and Ugarit are particularly important as they provide textual and archaeological information on seals and sealing within the physical and institutional context of the palace, the center of state administration. Chapter 1 surveys the previous research on seals and sealing and briefly outlines Syrian geography and political history in the second millennium B.C. Chapter 2 examines the physical qualities of the seals--materials, methods of production, distribution and style. Chapter 3 addresses the problem of the physical and institutional context of seal use. A functional division between legal and administrative texts is reflected in the use of seals on them. On both types of documents, however, the use of a seal acknowledges the obligation of the sealer. The nature of that obligation varies with the contents of the text itself. Chapter 4 evaluates the use of seals on legal texts in palace archives. Most of these sealed documents record land grants. The historical trend in second millennium Syria is to an increasing involvement of heads-of-state in granting state land. Other sealed legal documents were kept in palace archives because the participants were in some way associated with the palace. Chapter 5 details the administrative use of seals at Mari. Receipts and expenditures are the most common sealed documents. The use of seals on these texts signals the acceptance by the sealer of responsibility for the goods or actions described therein. The conclusions (Chapter 6) summarize the differences in sealing practices in Mari, Alalah and Ugarit in light of the different historical circumstances and political needs of each state.

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