156506History of Early Civilization in Syria

156506

History of Early Civilization in Syria

Syria is a country with a long history and ancient civilization. As far back as the early Paleolithic period, Syria had primitive humans. Around the 4th millennium BC, the inhabitants there began to settle and use bronze wares. In the 3rd millennium BC, Syria transitioned from a primitive society to a slave society, and some slave city-states centered on commercial cities appeared.

Sym civilization period

From 3000 BC to 1000 BC, the nomadic Semi people in the Arabian Peninsula made three great migrations to Syria and its surrounding areas. In the last few hundred years of the 3rd millennium BC, the Amores among the Semites entered Syria and established many small kingdoms, forming the first Seminization of Syria. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the second large-scale migration of the Semites into Syria, Lebanon and Palestine was the Canaanites. They established a number of separate city-states on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and inland, creating Canaanite culture.

At the end of the second millennium BC, Syria entered the Iron Age. At that time, a group of Canaanites living in the central area of the eastern Mediterranean coast, the Phoenicians, developed maritime trade and promoted the economic and cultural exchanges of the countries along the Mediterranean coast; at the same time, they created the Phoenician script with 22 consonants. , made a great contribution to world culture.

From the 2nd millennium BC to the middle of the 1st millennium BC, the third group of Semites who migrated to Syria were the Aramites. The cities they built, such as Hama and Damascus, and the Aramaic script they used, are precious heritage of Syrian culture.

From the 2nd millennium BC to the 6th century BC, there were also the Hyksos, the Hurians, the Egyptians, the Hittites, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Persians who entered and contested Syria.

Hellenistic period

In 333 BC Alexander the Great defeated the Persian army and occupied Syria. By the time of the Seleucid Kingdom (312-64 BC), the Greek culture and the Symite culture penetrated each other to form a Hellenistic Syrian culture, which provided an important source for the formation of the Arab culture.

In 64 BC, Rome annexed Syria. During the period of Roman rule, Syria appeared as an Arab state founded by the Palmyra people. From the 2nd century AD to the 3rd century AD, the Palmyra played an active intermediary role in the trade between East and West. In 272, Palmyra was destroyed by the Eastern Roman Empire.

Arab period

In 636, Caliph Umar I conquered Syria. The establishment of Arab domination over Syria was a major turning point in Syria’s history. Since then Syria has been Arabized and Islamized.

In 661, the governor of Syria, Muawiyah, seized power, called the I, and set the capital of Damascus to establish the Umayyad Dynasty (661-750) of the Arab Empire. During his reign, the feudal relations of production in Syria further developed, and various cultural sources began to converge. During the Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258), although the center of the empire had been transferred to Baghdad, Syria still played an important role in creating a splendid Arab-Islamic culture.

In the second half of the 9th century, the Abbasid dynasty declined. Since then, the Toulon Dynasty, the Ikhshid Dynasty, the Hamdan Dynasty, the Fatimid Dynasty, the Seljuk Empire, the Crusaders, the Zanji Dynasty, the Ayyubid Dynasty (1171-1260), the Mamluk Dynasty ( 1250-1517) and the Ilkhan Dynasty successively occupied or ruled Syria.

From the 11th century to the 13th century, the Syrian people actively participated in Saladin’s war to curb the Crusaders’ aggression and the Babels to repel the Mongols’ attack.