Originally published on May 6, 2024 (Episode 359)
Introduction
At 2 PM on July 9, 1860, a mob attacked the Christian quarter of Damascus. For over a week, shops, churches, houses, and monasteries were attacked, looted, and burned. Men were killed, women raped and abducted, children taken from their families. Some 5,000 Christians were ultimately killed, about half of them refugees from Mount Lebanon and the others native Damascenes—around 15% of the city’s Christian population. These eight days of terror became known as “the Damascus events.”
In his new book, my guest Eugene Rogan traces the external and internal pressures that led to the violence, its outbreak and horrific course, how it ended, and how the Christian community was ultimately reintegrated into Damascus society.
About the Guest
Eugene Rogan is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Oxford and Director of the Middle East Centre at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He is the author of numerous books, most recently The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Basic Books, 2024).
For Further Investigation
Eugene Rogan, The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Basic Books, 2024)
—, The Arabs: A History (Basic Books, 2011)
Leila Fawaz, An Occasion for War: Civil Conflict in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860
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💬 Listen & Discuss
What do the Damascus events tell us about the fragility of coexistence—and about how violence can fracture, yet also reshape, communities? Share your thoughts below, and pass this along to anyone studying sectarianism, empire, or Middle Eastern history.
