A major Syrian city and Ayyubid political center where Saladin died and was buried.
Damascus was one of the most important cities in the medieval Islamic world and a key political center in the conflicts between the Crusader States, the Zengid rulers, the Ayyubids, and the Mamluks. Saladin took control of Damascus in 1174 and built the Ayyubid sultanate from it.
The Umayyad Mosque — built in the early eighth century — was one of the most prestigious mosques in the Islamic world.
Damascus was the capital from which Saladin built the Ayyubid sultanate after inheriting Nur ad-Din's Syrian territories. He died in Damascus in 1193, and his tomb in the city remained a place of veneration.
The Second Crusade's failed siege of Damascus in 1148 — a strategic blunder that alienated the city's rulers and helped push them toward alliance with Zengi and then Nur ad-Din — is often cited as a turning point that undermined crusader influence in Syria.