Jund Dimashq (Arabic: جند دمشق) was the largest of the sub-provinces (ajnad, sing. jund), into which Syria was divided under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. It was named after its capital and largest city, Damascus ("Dimashq"), which in the Umayyad period was also the capital of the Caliphate.
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👉 Jund Dimashq in the context of Jabiya
Jabiyah (Arabic: الجابية / ALA-LC: al-Jābiya) was a town of political and military significance in the 6th–8th centuries. It was located between the Hawran plain and the Golan Heights. It initially served as the capital of the Ghassanids, an Arab vassal kingdom of the Byzantine Empire. Following the Muslim conquest of Syria, it early on became the Muslims' main military camp in the region and, for a time, the capital of Jund Dimashq (military district of Damascus). Caliph Umar convened a meeting of senior Muslim figures at the city where the organization of Syria and military pay were decided. Later, in 684, Jabiyah was the site of a summit of Arab tribes that chose Marwan I to succeed Caliph Mu'awiya II. Jabiyah was often used by the Umayyad caliphs as a retreat. Its significance declined when Caliph Sulayman made Dabiq the Muslims' main military camp in Syria.
In this Dossier
Jund Dimashq in the context of Bilad al-Sham
Bilad al-Sham (Arabic: بِلَاد الشَّام, romanized: Bilād al-Shām), often referred to as Islamic Syria or simply Syria in English-language sources, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates. It roughly corresponded with the Byzantine Diocese of the East, conquered by the Muslims in 634–647. Under the Umayyads (661–750), Bilad al-Sham was the metropolitan province of the Caliphate and different localities throughout the province served as the seats of the Umayyad caliphs and princes.
Bilad al-Sham was first organized into the four ajnad (military districts; singular jund) of Dimashq (Damascus), Hims (Homs), al-Urdunn (Jordan), and Filastin (Palestine), between 637 and 640 by Caliph Umar following the Muslim conquest. The jund of Qinnasrin was created out of the northern part of Hims by caliphs Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) or Yazid I (r. 680–683). The Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) was made an independent province from the Mesopotamian part of Qinnasrin by Caliph Abd al-Malik in 692. In 786, the jund of al-Awasim and al-Thughur were established from the northern frontier region of Qinnasrin by Caliph Harun al-Rashid. As centralized Abbasid rule over Bilad al-Sham collapsed in the 10th century, control over the region was divided by several potentates and the ajnad only represented nominal divisions. The Abbasids and the Egypt-based Fatimid Caliphate continued to officially recognize the province and its ajnad until the Crusader invasions of the coastal regions in 1099.
Jund Dimashq in the context of Al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri
Al-Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri (Arabic: الضَّحَّاك بْنِ قَيْس الْفِهْرِيّ, romanized: Al-Ḍaḥḥak ibn Qays al-Fihrī; died August 684) was an Umayyad general, head of security forces and governor of Damascus during the reigns of caliphs Mu'awiya I, Yazid I and Mu'awiya II. Though long an Umayyad loyalist, after the latter's death, al-Dahhak defected to the anti-Umayyad claimant to the caliphate, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.