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The lost identity of the city: The case of Damascus

Conference Paper · September 2015

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CITTA 8th Annual Conference on Planning Research
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BECOMING LOCAL: GENERATIVE PLACES, SMART APPROACHES, HAPPY PEOPLE

The lost identity of the city: The case of Damascus

Hasan Mansour
Master student in Spatial Planning and Urban Project, University of Porto.
E-mail: up201309995@fe.up.pt
Phone number: 00 351 935096216

Abstract:
In contemporary urban planning literature, a significant concern is being paid towards the concept of “urban
identity” after the loss of characters, essence, soul, individuality and distinctiveness of many cities, especially
those with a heritage, cultural, and historical significance.
As long as the city is a space for living, it is in a permanent attempt to cope and adapt to serve the human
needs and development. That imposes multiple temporary identities on the city, which in many cases, especially
in Arab cities, led to distortion or losing of their original inclusive identity that supposed to be felt and sensed out
so we can feel the timeline that brings us inside the wall of time to remind us of how the city was formed as a
result of the accumulation of events.
The contemporary Arab cities are living under a lot of urban pressures and in a case of constant loss for many
of their civilizational and cultural gains. Many defects in the temporal-spatial structure of the city are happening,
and the distorted situation is becoming prevalent. This drives them into more deformity and loss of their
aesthetic and historical values.
In this paper, I will study the loss of identity subject in Arab historical cities taking Damascus as a study case. I
will give detailed information about the unique qualities and characteristics of Damascus, then define the start of
the change in the physical and social combination of the city and its role in the loss of the identity by studying
the proposed general plans in the early 20th century, the role of slums areas, and the effect of urban growth and
globalization on the urban environment and identity.

Keywords: Urban Identity; Urban transformation; Cultural Identity; Spirit of place; Urban heritage.

Introduction:

Cities were formed as an expression of spiritual, material, social and political conditions. The
changes in these conditions from one city to another makes each one a unique unrepeatable
phenomenon. Since the city is a humanitarian situation, it is in a constant state of change, as the
communities and their circumstances are changing through time. “Cities reflect as well as shape
their inhabitant’s values and outlooks in various ways” (Bell & Shalit, 2011). Each of these changes
constitutes a time layer represented by a material reality in the physical structure of the city. Each
layer is supposed to be built on the basis of the previous layer, enrich and add to it not abolish and
erase it. This turns the city into a group of nested and accumulated loops that are difficult to
disband, and broadcast the sense of time intensively to us. “The city is a cumulative reality in space
and time” (Mumford, 1937). Understanding these layers and their relationship to each other is a
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 2

crucial factor in understanding the city and sensing its identity. Problems start when something
goes wrong in this temporal, spatial structure of the city and the distorted situation becomes the
prevailing, which causes loss of the city properties and adversely affect its identity and could lead to
losing it.

This is experienced by the Arab cities as they began to lose their historic stockpiles, and many
parts of their old centres faded spiritually and materially. Distinguishing characteristics of these
cities became absent and mysterious because of attempts to save those old parts of the city
physically like a museum without paying attention to the time track of its formation. "...Accordingly
the design is oriented towards creating a monotonous, standard, "any place" image rather than
enhancing a sense of heritage and tradition..." (Oktay, 1998).

This led to the loss of the urban environment, its ability to deliver a sense of viewing, and it fell into
a circle of chaos, which brings us to inquire whether there is still a real presence to the Arab identity
of the city, as it was pre-existing, under the urban pressures that are facing the contemporary Arab
cities.

1. The concept of city identity:

"Only once have I been made mute. It was when a man asked me, "Who are you?"
(Khalil Gibran, a writer and philosopher)
How do we define something? How do we identify ourselves? Can we abbreviate who we are in a
word or a sentence? The issue of identity has been a subject of study and observation for long
periods, not only in urban context, but also in Philosophy, literature, anthropology, and sociology
which is represented in the various definitions of this issue. In the Urban context, the issue of the
city and place identities received a great interest from many architects and urban planners, who put
hundreds of definitions from different points of view.
“Identity is a case where an object is unique.” (Lynch, 1960). “The main characteristics which form
spatial identity are the physical structure forming the space, the facilities it embodies, and the
meanings created by users.” (Relph, 1976). “Environmental factors are one of the most important
factors impacting the identity an urban area adopts, and the people living in that environment add
their own culture and lifestyles to that urban area in time, thus they allow the urban area to stick in
minds.” (Norberg-Schulz, 1979). “Urban identity, architectural identity and the urban images about
them are sometimes formed by very different components in a long period in urban space.” (Yaldız,
Aydın, & Sıramkaya, 2013).
Obviously there are a large number of views in the concept of identity of the city, and every writer
has identified it depending on different items. Some depended on the built physical structure of the
city, while others involved the social life and people, and others looked at the emotional aspects
and memory like Prohansky, Fabian, and Kaminoff or admitted the natural factors and climate as
intervening factors in the identity of the city such as Charles Correa. See figure1.
In my opinion, linking all the above factors, is an essential point in understanding the identity of the
city, but that is not all. We have to stop thinking about the city as a physical three- dimensional
object and expand our horizons to include the fourth dimension, which is time. As long as the city is
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a humanitarian situation, and the man is in a process of continuous change over time according to
all the factors mentioned earlier, the city has a three-dimensional memory that dives into the future
as into the past and reflects permanently the present reality in a unique form and character, that
makes this timeline of events tangible and understandable through the architectural, social, and
physical form of the city. This makes the formation of the city’s identity, a process that is mainly and
directly linked to the factor of time. “Identity is not a ‘found object’ but a process. We develop our
identity by reacting to our problems and our circumstances.” (Correa, 1980).

Figure 1. Formation of urban identity. (ÖKESLİ & Gürçınar, 2012).

In this context, we must distinguish between the concept of identity of the city and a number of
other related concepts that are commonly mistaken to mean the same thing. “Urban identity,
architectural identity and the urban images about them are sometimes formed by very different
components in a long period in urban space.” (Yaldız, Aydın, & Sıramkaya, 2013).

1.1 Collective identity:

Refers to the general characteristics, such as clothing and language, of a large community that
comprises some other different small societies which differ in other things that are less inclusive.
For example, when we meet someone from East Asia, we can easily tell that this person is from
there according to different general characteristics. This is called the collective identity, but at the
same time we may not be able to tell whether this person is Japanese or Chinees.

1.2 National identity:

Refers to the particular characteristics that make an individual unique from others. It is the
individual’s sense of self as a national and refers to a feeling of belonging to a nation. According to
the work of ( Al Ani, 2013), there are five essential elements that compose this identity:
 Psychological: consciousness of forming a community.
 Cultural: sharing a common culture.
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 4

 Territorial: attachment to a clearly demarcated territory.

 Historical: possessing a common past.
 Political: claiming the right to rule itself.

1.3 City Image:

The most important work addressing this concept was the book “The image of the city” by Lynch
1960 where he studied the idea of the city’s image. He clarified that the image of the city is the
people’s perception of the elements in the built environment and the way that they adapt and
interact with the city by creating mental maps based on five elements; Paths, edges, districts,
nodes, and landmark.
In other words, the image is not only a physical or visual element, but is also a mental analysis of
all the components of the city, which reflects in the way we use and access our cities. In order to
get an image, we would usually need a scene, a camera, and a processing of the image. By
projecting these concepts on the city, we find that the scene is the physical and social urban
environment of the city, and the camera is the people and the users of this environment, and the
process of taking a picture is to live in the city, while the production and processing of the image is
the mental process of formation the impressions and mechanisms of interaction and overlap with
this environment. This is stored in the users' memories and is different fromone to another, whereas
identity is to recognize what is the reality of something and cannot vary from one person to another
as it is determined by the identified object itself and the characteristics it owns, and is not based on
a personal impression. “Urban identity is the whole qualifications, which allows urban areas to be
read or to become meaningful for humans, becoming separated from the others.” (Lynch, A Theory
of Good City Form, 1981).

1.4 City symbols:

When we say that the identity of the city is its reality components and characteristics that make it
different from other cities, people tend to simplify this concept and identify cities by single objects or
monuments. For example, they identify London by Big Ben-Westminster; Paris by Eiffel Tower;
Sydney by the Sydney Opera, and Damascus by the Umayyad mosque. In addition, the
municipalities are marketing these cities through logos that designed on this basis, which increases
the confusion in understanding the identity of the city. These logos are static and have a fixed visual
expression, trying to promote the city through a single visual form. This is what might be called the
city symbol, but does not amount to be called an identity. The identity of the city is not the image
that we see and can represent in a symbolic and optical way. We can go to a city and buy a
souvenir that symbolize it, but we cannot buy anything that expresses its identity. Identity is the
essence of the city and has tangible aspects and other aspects that are linked to the time, and the
Intangibles events and circumstances which can be observed and felt through the city combination.
The perception of the identity requires experiencing the city and having friction with it, and this
cannot be transferred outside its borders.

1.5 City impression:

“City impression represents an overall feeling retained as a consequence of experiencing inherent
characteristics and temperaments of a city. When this overall feeling is widely accepted by the
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majority of the society, city impression has become the historical and cultural component meaning
of the city. Hence, the impression becomes a symbol. To residents, city impression is a soulful
attachment about the place they live. To visitors, city impression means a kind of attractive
newness and mystery.” (Chen, 2009). There might be a similarity between the city impression and
the city image, but from this definition we can see that the concept of the city impression is wider
than the city image, where the impression is not only about how the city looks but also about the
contribution of the people and their lifestyles in projecting the overall city images. The city
impression comes into contact with the concept of identity of the city and can affect it positively or
negatively. If we misunderstood this concept, it would lead to a deformity and loss of the identity of
the city.

As a conclusion for the notion of city identity, we can say that it is a very complex idea that
interferes with many other concepts but differs from them. It is the totalitarian state that expresses
the city and distincts it from other cities. This cannot be exported outside the city limits, therefore
cannot be realized without the experience of living in the city. Although it is impossible for someone
who has never lived in a city to accommodate its identity but he can have a mental perception of it,
and link it to one of its symbols in a simple way. For example, when I think about Damascus, I don’t
think about the Umayyad mosque or the old Damascene houses. Damascus for me is that place
where I never feel thirsty as there is a public water tab in each corner, the children who play football
in those narrow streets, the smell of jasmine and wet soil and wood in a narrow alley shaded with
houses lying on each other, and my beautiful neighbour putting out her washing on the roof of her
house in front of my room’s window. whereas a foreigner would probably buy souvenirs with visual
symbols of Damascus and consider them representative of its identity. This doesn’t mean that the
identity is something not related to the image, symbols, and impression of the city, on contrary, they
are the primary factors in understanding and feeling the urban identity as it is the ultimate and
overall outcome of these factors and other ones clarified previously.

2 The identity of Arab cities:

I clarified the concept of city’s identity, and the different elements and factors that shape it through
time. I spoke about the Collective identity and national identity. In this part, I will clarify the collective
identity of Arab cities in general and then move into the core of the paper which is the national
identity of Damascus city.
When we talk about the concept of the Arab city, theoretically, we are talking about 24 countries
comprising hundreds of cities that share a number of traits and general features. The question here
is, does the word Arab has the capacity to represent a collective urban identity of these cities? Are
there for real what are called Arab cities, or there are only different, scattered and dispersant cities
that have nothing in common?
Most of the people will say that the concept of Arab cities does exist, and that these cities have
similar geographical, cultural, religious, and social characteristics which gives them a collective
identity. In fact, these common characteristics had been spread in what is known now as the Arabic
world at the hands of Muslims, where the Arabic language was also spread by Muslims. Before the
Islamic empire, there were different civilizations with different physical, psychological, moral and
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 6

social qualities, where the identity of Egyptian civilizations differed greatly from those of Levant and
Mesopotamia. Therefore, the word Islamic is more capable of giving a collective identity to these
cities but alone would not be true. The right collective identification to the reality of this group of
cities is “Islamic Arab cities”, as we have many other cities where Islam is the main religion but Arab
cultural inventory, stemmed from the Arabic language and its speakers, was not inherited to these
cities, and only spiritual values of the Islamic religion were spread.
We must note that, some of the Islamic Arab cities have older cultural and architectural legacy than
the Islamic one but, unfortunately, most of them totally lost it after the Islamic spread or still only
have some monuments in a physical architectural style without any spiritual value. This era was the
start of losing national identities of the cities in favor of the collective Islamic Arab identity, and led
to a weakness and loss of the identity that the cities show nowadays. “The city continues its
existence carrying the traces of each period because of the changing society culture in time as well
as it is an expression of a historical accumulation.” (Cetin, 2010)

2.1 Arab-Islamic city urban standards:

Some orientalists claimed that, the Arab-Islamic cities did not depend on an urban basis or
standards, butthey were rather random cities, where the only effect of the Islamic religion was in the
designing of residential houses that are closed to the outside and open to inside spaces. In fact, the
Arab-Islamic cities have unique characteristics that differ from the western cities, “Historic Arab
cities show a variety of origins and growth patterns, they were nonetheless established by a
common set of social, geographic, and religious factors leading to similar morphological principles
developing the urban fabric.” (Kiet, 2011), where the streets and roads have a big importance in
terms of classifications and the organic relation with the surrounding traditional urbanism, and that
is also different from the concept of roads in the modern city planning.
Arab-Islamic cities were built for many reasons (military, administrative, capitals, and religious).
Other Arab-Islamic cities were formed long ago before the Islamic period so they had a number of
cultures, traditions, ideas, and urban forms that were different from the Islamic ones. As a result of
the Islamic expansion in these cities, they were affected profoundly by the Islamic concepts in
terms of functional organization and the urban form and streets network such as Damascus city.
Sometimes this effect erased the old character as if it never existed. “The Arab City can be seen as
an integration of multiple cultures and eras as they came into contact with the Islamic culture,
eventually leading to the urban structures and morphological form common in Arab cities today.”
(Kiet, 2011)

2.1.1 The main components in the urban planning of the old Arab-Islamic cities:
The grand mosque: the mosque played the role of the heart in the city, as it was the religious,
scientific, and social center, and all the other public buildings were located around it.
Small mosques: served the residential areas.
Markets: were typically located around the grand mosque, each one having its own kind of
merchandise, and distributed very carefully in terms of place, size, activity, and craft as were found:
 Main markets: located directly around the grand mosque
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 Covered commercial streets: located on the main roads that connect the different parts of the
city.
 Small markets: served a residential neighborhood and the daily needs of the inhabitants.
The roads in the Arab-Islamic city connected all the activities but not in the same way as the
western cities do. The roads in Arab-Islamic city were narrow and crooked and took into
consideration the human dimension physically and socially as the priority in designing was to
distinguish between the internal spaces being public or residential, and they are in harmony with
the urban fabric.
Thus, we can see that the Arab-Islamic city has a unique urban character stemmed from the
religious, traditions, and other factors. For example, privacy was an important principle of the Arab
social life and Islamic spiritual principles. This was reflected in the urban fabric, where the houses
were closed to the outside and opened to the interior spaces, as well as architectural elements in
interfaces which helped to achieve privacy. On the street level, the gradual principle from the public
to the private was very clear. The main streets linking the commercial and public events was
divided by a secondary road network connecting residential areas to each other, and then narrow
blocked-end lanes that served a number of houses. “Figure 2.”
These properties in the urban environment of the Arab city were not only a result of the above
factors but also was a solution to cope with the warm climate and other external factors which
makes this type of urbanization a very good one.

Figure 2. Arab-Islamic city urbanization. Source: (Bianca, 2000). Edited by the author.

2.2 Transformation of Arab-Islamic cities into their current form:

Throughout history, the Arab-Islamic cities represented a genuine reflection of the diversity of the
Arab Culture and a clear expression of the cultural transitions of their different communities. At the
same time, they highlighted their identity in which formed their environmental and social
characteristics, their historical and artistic components, in addition to their ideological and religious
principles, spiritual values and memory. Assembled within the framework of a collective, consistent
and cultural unity. However, if we looked at the current situation of these cities, we realize that their
process of growth and development after the independence of their countries at the beginning of
the twentieth century, led to the loss of their identity and ability to continue as a collective,
contemporary, cultural, and social phenomenon. The urban fabric of these cities became a jungle of
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 8

cement blocks distributed randomly without any rhythm or pattern that is able to reflect the cultural
or social appearance. “The transformation of Arab city until the end of 20th century can be
summarized by a gradual shift from an urban texture of pedestrian scale and formal homogeneity of
the physical environment into a fabric of vehicular scale and formal fragmentation of the physical
environment, thus, from a social order based on total harmony and integration into a social order
based on economical & technological dominance and social segregation & disintegration.” (Cetin,
2010).
As an attempt to mitigate the harshness of this reality, Arab planners and architects tried to resort
to confront it with naive attempts to save the old parts of these cities in its current shape and only in
a visual form, which made these parts look like a museum without any spirit or life. Outside the
walls of old areas, some attempts to accommodate the urban growth were found by copying the
west cities and their images, which makes the crisis of the identity in Arab-Islamic cities deeper and
more complicated. Recently, the Arab awareness to the problem of identity started to pay off, and
many studies have emerged on how to find a contemporary urban Arab-Islamic character in the
face of the foreign global urban currents, especially from the West with its unparalleled views and
different schools. The search began for the innovation of a contemporary Arab-Islamic urban style
that doesn’t comply with the forms or architectural elements invented by ancestors, but carries the
same social or environmental implications that are commensurate with the Arab societies and
combined with the continued progress and technological development in the world.

3 The case of Damascus:

Damascus is considered one of the most important cities in the Arabic world, and is regarded in
many references as the oldest inhabited capital in the world. Its old part has been listed as a world
heritage site since 1979.
The importance of Damascus city in the topic of identity comes from the rich history, high number
of civilizations, and the urban, social, and cultural patterns that passed through it. “Damascus
measures time not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise and
prosper and crumble to ruin. She is a type of immortality. Damascus has seen all that has ever
occurred on earth, and still she lives” (Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, 1911). Also, Damascus is
one of the few rare Arab-Islamic cities that have maintained some traces of the civilization that was
older than the Islamic one. For example, the old Roman Market and the columns of the temple of
Jupiter. Damascus is suffering as most, or all, of the Arab-Islamic cities from the danger of losing its
identity as a response to the change of its historical, cultural, social, and urban components.
The change in the city’s urban structure and identity started during the French mandate and after
the independence. All of these changes will be discussed in details but to understand the structure
of the city I feel that it is important to give a brief history of its formation.

3.1 Formation of Damascus city:

As the oldest trace of ancient civilization that exists in the built structure of Damascus city -not
inside the walls of its national museum- dates back to the Greek period, then I will start my
historical preview from that period and I will not talk about the older ones as they have no major
influence in the city nowadays.
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3.1.1 Greek Period:

The Greeks arrived in Damascus in 333 BC and applied their planning methods in the city and
mixed them with the existing Aramean city. The general planning methods of Greek cities at that
period was based on the ideas of the planner Hippodamus of Miletus where the city was composed
of a perpendicular straight streets network intersecting with each other, and included two main
perpendicular streets where the center of the city, or what was called “Agora”, was located at the
intersection of these town streets. Dwellings are arranged in a network of consistent lines and equal
streets lines. In Damascus, these principles were applied, and the streets width was equal to the
half-width of the houses and the “Agora” dimensions where 45*100 meters. (figure3)

3.1.2 Roman Period:

The peace and economic prosperity, obtained by Damascus in the Roman and Byzantine period
led to a doubling of the population and a state of urban development, that required the expansion of
the city and creation of a new organization. Therefore, the city extended and built on the
foundations and principles of Roman urban planning. New neighbourhoods were constructed and
enclosed by a fenced area of 105 hectares in the form of rectangular dimensions of 1,500 meters *
750 meters and had a wall of seven gates, three in the northern facade and two in the southern
facade and one in the east and one in the west and those two were the most important because
they were located on the main road (Djelkomanus), which ran through the city from east to west
and currently it is known as “Medhat Pasha” market. Also, there was the rebuilding of the Temple of
the City in accordance with the Romanian style of architecture called the Temple of Jupiter, and the
expansion of the city was on the same Greek system Ctranji. In the Byzantine era, there is no
change occurred to the layout of the city, but the Temple of Jupiter was converted into the Church
of Saint John and new markets were created.
(Figure4).

Figure 3. Greek plan of Damascus.

Figure 4. The Roman Plan of Damascus

3.1.3 Islamic Period:

The Islamic period in Damascus could be divided into four main periods (Umayyad, Abbasid,
Ayyubid, and Mamluk) where Damascus became one of the most important cities in the world after
the Umayyad claimed it as the capital of the Islamic state and the building of the Grand Umayyad
mosque that until now represents the center of gravity of the old city. Afterwards. the Abbasid
period that was full of wars and political struggles started, and Damascus was not the capital of the
Islamic state anymore. Many fires happened in the city and one of them arrived at the Umayyad
mosque which led to the transformation of the city’s layout. In the Ayyubid period prosperity in
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 10

Damascus rebounded again and in this period the Damscus castle, which is now one of the most
famous buildings in the old city of Damascus, was built. After that, and in the sixteenth century
under the rule of Mamluks, Damascus reached the peak of its proserity and was described by
travelers as the best and most beautiful city in the world. It was also in this period where the
expansion of the city began outside the Roman wall. (Figure5).

Figure 5: the Islamic Plan of Damascus

3.1.4 Ottoman Period:

The Ottoman period started in 1516 and lasted until 1918 and was divided into two periods; “Early
and late periods”. In the early period, there were no big changes in the city.Some Khans, which do
the function of hotels nowadays, were built, in addition to some schools,important markets, and the
lavish palace named Azem Palace, which now exists in the form of a museum of folklore. In this era
the expansion outside the city increased and by the end of the Ottoman period the expansion in the
south-east reached three kilometers. Two important neighborhoods were created (Qanawat and
Medan) and are now considered as historic neighborhoods and are classified as world human
heritage by the UNESCO.

3.2 General notices on the change in the Old City:

Conserving the historic urban environment became an urgent and important priority in the last
century around the world, because of the threats that appeared as a result of the rapid urban
growth and development and the urban transformation in the cities. The most important factors that
affect the changes in urban environment are the globalization, quick and uncontrolled development,
demographic changes, and the economic pressure as in front of all these challenges the success of
the conservation of historic centers is determined by the success of their management. We need to
understand that the cities are living environments, and their change is a normal thing as we can’t
keep the city as a museum without any modifications. The importance and the midpoint between
the success and fail of these mentioned changes lies in the management of the change. According
to the report of (Getty Conservation Institute), the successful change management demands some
main principles such as:
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 A strong governance and legislative framework.

 Policies that provide guidance and trigger actions that implement the legislative framework.
 Economic instruments and tools that address market failures and secure conservation
actions where these occur.
 Education, communication, and mechanisms for public engagement to inform people about
the values of heritage sites, how to care for them, and how to provide for the public’s
active involvement in the process.

3.2.1 Changes that happen in the historic centers:

We can define three levels of change in the historic city center which are:
The level of the overall structure: which affect the function of these centers, the land use distribution
in it, and its social divisions and economic ingredients that affect its general urban form.
The level of historic elements: like the roads network, markets, public spaces, the central and public
buildings and the open spaces.
The level of architectural elements: like the elements that distinguish the architectural types from
structure materials.
There are different kinds of changes related to the cause of change, and we can find three trends of
change associated with its degree of effectiveness (Active change, Passive or relative change, and
Counter change). However, we can also distinguish three other types of change related to the way
or the style that the change process happened according to (Accidental change, Unwilling change,
and Intended change). (Figure6).

Figure 6. The relations of changes in the urban environment. Source: (Jawad, 2011).

In Damascus city, we can say that there is a transformation but not a change. The change
happened many years ago when the urban fabric changed from the Roman principles -in creating
the city based on a perpendicular and intersecting street network- to the Islamic urban fabric after
the fire during the Abbasid period. Many changes happened in the social, economic, and
demographic aspects of the city which led to a massive shift in the urban environment, on both
physical and social dimensions. Then in the Ottoman period another change happened because of
the rise in the population where the city grew outside the Roman wall and new functions in the city
such as the schools and a high number of markets were created. However, nowadays we cannot
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 12

say that there are changes in the urban fabric of the city after it was considered as a human culture
world heritage. There is a transformation caused by the social life change inside the city where the
people who inhabited it left their houses and went to live outside in new modern houses. This
happened because the type of the old houses inside the historic centers demanded a frequent
maintenance; the materials that these houses had been built from are organic materials that don’t
last long besides being expensive and unaffordable. Moreover, the strict rules of the renovation in
theses area, which implied having every element renovated in the exact same shape withoutany
contribution from the government in the process, led to the migration of the people outside the city
and selling their homes to rich people. Those new owners changed the functions of these houses to
hotels and restaurants or warehouses to their shops, and this led to a new social and traffic flood
modes in the city which in its turn affected the urban environment. (Figure7). “Old Damascus
restaurants are popular among some Damascenes, who see them as a way to preserve old houses
without forfeiting the comforts of modernity. While many Syrians enjoy leisure hours in the old city,
and some are profiting from the restaurant trade, few show any interest in reviving old houses for
other purposes.” (Salamandra, 2004).

Figure 7. The change in Damascus historic center. Source: the author.

3.3 Factors affected the Identity of Damascus:

If the built environment is the best expression of the identity of the city, in my opinion that the novel
and literature are unique ways to describe this environment. Writers and poets have a high level of
ability to observe things in details and sense their spirituality. The description of Damascus in the
works of poets, writers and travellers until the beginning of the 20th century, had always been done
through the tripartite of Barada River, Mount Qassioun and Al-Ghouta which is the green area
surrounding the city from all sides.
Now Barada River is going dry and has been filled with waste, Al-Gota has become a forest of
slums, and Qassioun Mountain has lost his real charm. The truth now, with no sugarcoating, is that
the resident of Damascus can no longer feel that he is enjoying the beauty of his city or connecting
with it. This sense of intimacy, spirituality and affinity with the contents of the city ended at the
CITTA 8th Annual Conference on Planning Research
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BECOMING LOCAL: GENERATIVE PLACES, SMART APPROACHES, HAPPY PEOPLE

borders of the old city wall, as if this wall is protecting the rest of the identity of the city. All what
exist outside the city wall driving to tension and discomfort where the city turned in its expansion to
the functional purpose to provide housing and workplace, and the people became like "employees",
who do not feel the city and it doesn’t feel them.
Despite that this case of losing the identity has started to enter into the heart of old Damascus, Old
City is still capable in some of its details to deliver a sense of watching and take us through time to
understand and realize the identity which is in the danger of loss as the time is passing. This seems
evident in the difference between the descriptions of the poet Mahmoud Darwish in the sixties of
the last century when he said about Damascus: “In Damascus, The sky walks on the old roads
barefooted. What is the need of poets for inspiration and rhyme? In Damascus the stranger sleeps
standing in his own shadow, such as a minaret in the bed of eternity, without feeling nostalgic
towards a country or anybody” and in the descriptions of the poet Naseer Assaf in 2014 where he
said: “These poor houses studded with satellites are similar as the wrinkles in sailors faces. I throw
my dilapidated view on them and prepare myself to a new defeat. In the Taxi, all people look
similar, the poet, the orphan, the quince seller and the taxi driver. We all exchange glances silently
and hastily. I think of my small home, how this small one dirty room with its roof could be called a
home. I will make fire to a guest who will never come, and buy you a bouquet of Narcissus with ten
pounds.” (Figure8).

Figure 8. The change between the old city and the expansion of the new city of Damascus.
This dramatic change in observing the city and the feeling that it gives to the people have happened
because of many factors which are:

3.3.1 Demographic and social changes:

The high rise in population is one of the most important factors that affected the city’s structure and
Identity, as it was the primary reason for losing control of the city growth. This created a strange
urban fabric and new traditions and way of living. “Damascus has experienced a steady and
significant population increase throughout the twentieth century. Between 1890 and 1945 the city’s
population nearly doubled, reaching almost 300000. During the post-world War II, post-
independence period it fourfold, rising to 1347000 in the early 1980s. Census figures from the mid-
1990s place the number at 3.5 million.” (Salamandra, 2004).
Year 1884 1913 1976 2004 2007 2010
Population 160000 300000 1000000 4 millions 4.15 millions 4.5 millions
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 14

Table 1. The population increase in Damascus city.

This population growth happened for various reasons including the natural increase and internal
migration. Moreover, in the years 1948 and 1967, about half a million Palestinians sought asylum
in Damascus and settled there, followed by around 900000 Iraqis in 2003 after the American
invasion of Iraq. This growth had many social consequences; the internal migration along with
immigration brought to Damascus different new lifestyles, religious groups, and ethnic groups such
as the Palestinians and Iraqis. These groups found it difficult at first to integrate into the social and
even urban fabric of the city as there were no planning policies able to accommodate this significant
increase in the population. This had them establishing random settlements outside Damascus's
borders which consequently had an adverse impact on the city and its identity. That effect could
have been avoided had these groups been included as a part of the Damascene community rather
than letting intolerance and division taking over the situation. The Syrians may try to make it look
like they are in perfect harmony, but for someone who lived in Damascus as I did, the sectarian
tension and social marginalization would seem pretty evident.

3.3.2 Environmental change (pollution):

The main problem that is causing the pollution inside the city of Damascus is the traffic. The most
affected part is the old one, as the expansion of the city demands new modes of transportation.
About 49% of all vehicles registered in Syria are Concentrated In the province of Damascus and its
countryside, and about 23% of the taxis’ fleet in the country. The percentage of cars that are
powered by gasoline in Syria is 80% and of those operating on diesel is 20%. (Figure9).
This increase in the number of cars had its effect on the whole city of Damascus and its historic
center. Regarding the historic center, the
urban environment of the old city was quiet
and calm and the roads network were
designed carefully in proportion to human
dimensions; without attention to the
accommodation of cars which weren't
invented when the urban form of the city was
completed as it is now. Nowadays, many
cars are trying to cross the historic center
through these roads for many causes, some for the inhabitants, and some for the commercial
activities inside the city, while others for tourism purposes as many Pilgrims visit the religious sites.
These road networks were designed for people not for such kind of traffic which led to a massive
congestion inside the old city and around it. This in turn caused a rise in air pollution and the
vibration and noise levels which directly affected the urban environment of the city and changed it
as the roads lost their original social life and function. In addition, as the city roads design was not
based on accommodating cars, it was normal not to find parking lots, which made the people take
advantage of each yard or open space in the city as a parking lot, and left its negative influence on
the city’s urban form and environment.
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3.3.3 The changes on the plan of the city and the urban policies:
“The first scheme for the city of Damascus was developed during the French mandate period in
1937, and its first building system was issued in 1938. With the economic growth in the 1950s and
the expanding of the urbanization, there was a need to a new scheme. The first try was with an
Austrian company in 1957, then the second was with the French planner Michael Ecochard in 1963
and there was a contract with him to develop the second scheme of the city in 1968.” (Jabbour,
2001).
In 1936 the community to organize the French colony of Syria started working on Danger Master
Plan for Damascus city, the master plan started by incision new road separating the organic urban
form famous in Damascus, transforming the city into a modern international city resulting in
destroying the city’s rich history carved in its ancient alleys. By 1968 the authorities of Damascus
started its project of developing Damascus planning process by introducing the Ecochard Master
Plan, the new master plan started its establishment by demolishing large number of the city iconic
heritage buildings like the famous municipality building of Damascus and the Yalbuga historic
mosque. The master plan also suggested demolishing Al-Hijaz station and replacing it with large
concretes masses which would have contracted with the historical surrounding.
The plan introduced several proposals that come in the context of the cities’ globalization, by
erasing the historical memory and weakening the cultural connection of the urban forms.
After labeling the old city of Damascus as world heritage, most of the Ecochard proposals for the
old city have been suspended, but establishing the proposal for expanding the city and developing
the existed neighborhoods caused a cultural shock for most of the city’s residents, which led to
erasing their cultural connection with their thousands of years inherited city. Perhaps the illusion of
contemporaneity justifies the globalization of the cities, but it is certain that this kind of behavior can
cause harsh damages to any city’s urban form.

3.3.4 The Slums areas and their effect:

The slums phenomenon is considered to be the main factor in the distortion of the urban, cultural
and social fabric in Damascus. This phenomenon started in the middle of the twentieth century, in
small and particular spots around the city, then grew until they surrounded the city from all sides.
The absence of an effective urban planning policies and disability of providing the residential needs
of the people, led to the emergence of these communities against the laws in places that are not
originally prepared for building uses.
According to the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics, Slums constitute about 60% of Damascus city
area, and 46% of Damascus residents are living in Slums which means more than two million
people. This created a new and strange urban and social environment which in turn led to a
distorting in the identity of the city.

3.3.4.1The reasons of the emergence of slums:

Political reasons:
Israeli occupation of Palestine led to the immigration of huge numbers of refugees to Syria in 1947
and 1967 where they made some temporary settlements around the main cities, especially
Damascus and by the time this temporary settlements raised and became Permanent communities
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 16

(such as Yarmouk camp - Palestine camp...), then shifted over time to a random housing areas and
collective irregularities areas.
In 2003 after American invasion of Iraq around million Iraqi refugees settled in Syria and that also
led to an emergence of new illegal houses
Social and economic reasons:
This is mainly about the immigration from rural areas to the main cities looking for jobs which
happened because of the unbalanced development between cities and the countryside. Which led
to the small level of public activities in the rural areas such as educational, cultural, health, and
entertainment activities, and high birth rate and increasing population growth rate in rural areas,
while there are no jobs opportunities. All main events of economic, educational, cultural and tourism
activities, and various work opportunities that follow them were centered in the cities.
Regulatory reasons (legislative and technical)
There are many laws related to housing strategies but they were not effective or were not
developed with the time, and the delay in completion the organizational charts and detailed plans
for the areas of urban expansion led to not provide the real need of the land which is prepared for
construction.

3.3.4.2 Characteristics of slums areas:

Physical:
The house in the Damascene intellect and architecture is a space of life, and it expresses the taste
and the social level of its owner. It had been designed to provide the best entertainment and
relaxing atmosphere with an internal courtyard filled with different plants, especially Jasmin, where
the smell was an important element in the Damascene architecture. In the middle of this courtyard,
there is a fountain that help to accommodate with the hot and dry climate of Damascus.
The slums have been built as a fast solution to provide a shelter to the new communities and
people. They have been built randomly, without paying any attention in the urban details principles.
No pattern or rhythm was implemented in constructing these settlements, causing it to lose any kind
of identity, and affects badly on the Identity of the original city.
Social:
These settlements form closed communities with the identity and character of the origins of the
people who lives there, and we can say that they are also closed communities from sectarian and
religious point of view, which is a very adverse impact on the social fabric of the city and the level of
interaction between population.
The families that live in this illegal settlements are not only from the poor class there are many
people from the middle class live there because the houses there are more cheap and after the
expansion of the city these areas are now considered to be an extension of the city and they
interfere with it, so they ae not suburbs far from the urban center of the city.

3.3.4 Globalization effect:

Theoretically, globalization is a modern system that hired science, economy, and technology for its
benefit, to decrease the distances separating human communities, and facilitate the exchange of
merchandise, people, information, and ideas between them. However, globalization in reality only
CITTA 8th Annual Conference on Planning Research
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BECOMING LOCAL: GENERATIVE PLACES, SMART APPROACHES, HAPPY PEOPLE

led to export the western ideology all over the world and westernize different aspects of other
civilization. In Syria’s case I believe the effect of this phenomenon came from the media, as Syria
was boycotted by the West due to its political positions at the time which kept it at a big distance
from globalization. However, the ideal image of the western society in the media did a real damage
to the social, economic, and urban Syrian structure, and imitation of the west became a sign of
civilization and advancement, which led to abandoning and forgetting our cultural and historical
heritage which directly reflected on the environmental and urban identity of the Syrian city,
especially Damascus being a capital. The high glass buildings became the evidence of urban
development and progression although it contradicted with the social and even climatic Syrian
requirements; the hot dry weather in Syria made the glass buildings turn into a very uncomfortable
heat reservoirs. This effect was not limited to the urban physical aspect but also to the social
aspects. Imitating the western lifestyle was the ambition of the Arabic person as he thinks that
development could only be achieved through this way and that any difference from that typical
western media drawn image was regarded as retardation and staying in the past. It is worth noting
that the Arabic cultural, historical, social, and urban heritage is pretty flexible and changeable in a
very modern and developed contexts while preserving its true soul and identity which distinct it from
other civilizations. This makes the world richer?? So what is wrong in turning the world into a small
village filled and coloured with different ideas and civilizations that exchange their experience in a
beneficial way to everyone, rather than imposing a single pattern on different contexts and
circumstances that might not be consistent with it?
For example, Instead of imitating the West in its modern buildings, we can draw patterns and
modern urban buildings from the old traditional architectural vocabulary in the Arab city. This has
been done in the Arab World Institute building in Paris, where the architect modified the idea of the
mashrabiyya, which is a traditional Arabic architectural element was used to achieve privacy and
alleviate the light inside the Space. This component was modulating and developed to be utilized in
the southern elevation of the building. (Figure10). This shows that the Arab culture has enormous
ability to cope with the requirements of the era, and we do not need to copy and imitate the
elements of Western architecture. So, we must define and adopt a clear thought linked to our
civilization and Arab culture, in order to produce cities that have Arab identity by recognizing the
characteristics of the elements of this thought and their relation to our culture. Then understanding
the relation of these civilizational, cultural and local elements with the same elements of other
nations and communities, in order to achieve the interaction between the language of the urban
identity of Arab-Islamic cities and the global ones.
Hasan Mansour, The lost Identity of the city: The case of Damascus 18

Figure 10. Design of Arab world institution

4. Conclusion:
“Do you know what it means to live in human perfume bottle? Our house was that bottle. I am not
trying to bribe you with an eloquent metaphor, but trust me, with this metaphor, I am not being
justice towards my home. Those who lived in Damascus and penetrated in the narrow alleys and
lanes, know how the paradise opens its arms for them without waiting. A small wooden gate opens,
and the journey starts between the green, and red, and lilac roses, and a symphony of light and
shadow and marble starts.” (Nizar Qabbani, Syrian poet)
It is clear that the Islamic Arab city lacks characteristics under these different physical, social,
cultural and political pressures, which makes it in an urgent need to stick to its identity, not only in
the form and image, but rather a sense and interdependence between man and the city. The loss of
this connection appears clearly in the young Arab generations, as they are the most affected by
these factors. The dream of a young Arab is to get out of his city and his surrounding and
orientation towards the West. While the spiritual link appears between the city and its elderly
inhabitants, if you ask an old Damascene about his opinion to leave Damascus, his natural reaction
will be “It is impossible, if I go far from Damascus I will choke and die”.
Damascus is a city that can deliver its spirit and charm to its inhabitant until now, but hardly. The
only part where you can feel this spirit is the old part. Despite its loss of character, it is not dead yet,
and we have to save it and revive its identity.
This cannot happen by the attraction toward "history," and the restoration of the historical figure
only, but the idea is to be "a renewed identity" not a standard fixed identity performed in the past
only. The identity is a kind of "speech" and "dialogue" that should be created in the city’s space and
centered on the pressing urban issues that are forming the personalities of population and even
shaping their face’s impressions.
By understanding the problem and its reasons, we will be able to put a plan to avoid the danger of
losing our cities identities and be more connected to our rich and impressive culture. Moreover, this
is what should be done.
CITTA 8th Annual Conference on Planning Research
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BECOMING LOCAL: GENERATIVE PLACES, SMART APPROACHES, HAPPY PEOPLE

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 CITTA 8th Annual Conference on Planning Research
AESOP TG Public Spaces & Urban Cultures Event
BECOMING LOCAL: GENERATIVE PLACES, SMART APPROACHES, HAPPY PEOPLE

Contents
Abstract: .............................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction: ........................................................................................................................ 1
1The concept of city identity:............................................................................................... 1
1.1 Collective identity: ..................................................................................................... 3
1.2 National identity: ....................................................................................................... 3
1.3 City Image: ................................................................................................................ 4
1.4 City symbols:............................................................................................................. 4
1.5 City impression: ........................................................................................................ 4
2 The identity of Arab cities: ................................................................................................ 5
2.1 Arab-Islamic city urban standards: ........................................................................... 6
2.1.1 The main components in the urban planning of the old Arab-Islamic cities: ......... 6
2.2 Transformation of Arab-Islamic cities into their current form: ................................... 7
3 The case of Damascus: ................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Formation of Damascus city: .................................................................................... 8
3.1.1 Greek Period: ......................................................................................................... 9
3.1.2 Roman Period: ....................................................................................................... 9
3.1.3 Islamic Period: ....................................................................................................... 9
3.1.4 Ottoman Period: ................................................................................................... 10
3.2 General notices on the change in the Old City: ...................................................... 10
3.2.1 Changes that happen in the historic centers: ...................................................... 11
3.3 Factors affected the Identity of Damascus: ............................................................ 12
3.3.1 Demographic and social changes: ...................................................................... 13
3.3.2 Environmental change (pollution): ....................................................................... 14
3.3.3 The changes on the plan of the city and the urban policies: ............................... 15
3.3.4 The Slums areas and their effect: ........................................................................ 15
3.3.4.1The reasons of the emergence of slums: .......................................................... 15
3.3.4.2 Characteristics of slums areas: ........................................................................ 16
3.3.4 Globalization effect: ............................................................................................. 16
4. Conclusion: ................................................................................................................... 18
Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 19

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