Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2026 - HUM 340 B100

Great Cities in Their Time (4)

Damascus

Class Number: 2572

Delivery Method: Blended

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 5 – Apr 10, 2026: Tue, 11:30 a.m.–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Exploration of the cultural and intellectual accomplishments of a specific city that achieved prominence in a particular time period, and had substantial impact and influence on human civilization. Examines the political, social, religious, and cultural factors that help to explain a city's significance and investigates the achievements of its citizens. May be repeated for credit when a different topic is taught. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Damascus

In recent years, Damascus has often appeared in the news as the capital of a war-ravaged country: the brutal fifteen-year-long Syrian civil war left indelible scars as, more recently, did the Israeli air strikes after the fall of Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Asad. Yet for anyone who visits, Damascus still offers extraordinary richness—historical, cultural, social, and culinary. 

One of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, Damascus has lived through countless transformations. Over the centuries, it has been a Roman outpost, a Byzantine Christian stronghold, the first capital of the Islamic Caliphate, a target of Crusaders, a centre of Mamluk learning, an Ottoman pilgrimage hub, a site of colonial contest under the French, and the capital of independent Syria. Each empire, ruler, and community left their mark on its streets, monuments, and stories. 

This course explores Damascus as a city of layers: a place where churches became mosques, mosques became symbols of empire, and ruins became stages for both memory and forgetting. We will study how Jews, Christians, Muslims, Alawites and Druze lived side by side, how rulers used architecture to display power, how poets and travellers described its splendour, and how its heritage has been reimagined again and again. 

But Damascus is not just a city of the past. In recent decades it has stood at the centre of brutal conflict during the Syrian civil war. Even as bombs fell and neighbourhoods were destroyed, debates raged about heritage, identity, and survival. Today the city emerges scarred but alive, forcing us to ask: how do cities carry memory through war? How do they rebuild, and who decides what their future will look like? 

Why Take This Course? 
Damascus is more than a city - it’s a story about empires, faiths, resilience, and survival. Studying its long and turbulent history will help you think about how cities everywhere embody both greatness and fragility, and how memory and identity are contested in the ruins and rebuilding of urban life. 



COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of this course, you will be able to: 

  • Trace Damascus’s history from Roman and Byzantine times through Islamic, Ottoman, colonial, and modern eras. 
  • Read and analyze chronicles, travel accounts, poetry, art, architecture and modern reports to understand how people experience, imagine and remember the city. 
  • Explain how communities of Muslims, Christians, Jews and other minorities shaped urban life. 
  • Critically analyze the politics of heritage, destruction, and rebuilding - especially in light of the Syrian war. 
  • Produce your own research project that connects Damascus’s past to debates about cities, memory, and power. 

Grading

  • Informed seminar participation 20%
  • Four short reflections 10% each 40%
  • Paper proposal 10%
  • Final paper  30%

NOTES:

This course fulfills the Global Humanities requirements for the  


Format & Assignments 
We will mix lectures with group discussions, source workshops, and film screenings. Assignments include short reflections, close readings of primary sources, and a final research paper or project.

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

We will read selected passages from academic monographs and excerpts from all manner of primary sources written in the period under study. All books and assigned primary source materials will be available online on Canvas or freely accessible on the SFU library website.
 
You will not need to buy a textbook. 


REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.

To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit: 


RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.