When ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAlī conquered Damascus after besieging it—in other words, when he wrested it from the Umayyads and stripped them of their dominion—the conquering army pulled down the city wall and discovered a stone bearing a Greek inscription. They summoned a monk, who read it aloud, and it ran:

“Woe to you, Iram of the giants! Whoever assails you with evil intent, Allah shall break him. When your western Jayrūn—that of Bāb al-Barīd—crumbles, woe unto you! (1) By the hand of Five ʿAyns your wall will be torn down. (2) After four thousand years you will live in ease, yet when your eastern Jayrūn collapses, (3) the victory will turn in your favor against those who attack you. (4)”

We found the Five ʿAyns to be ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (5)—ʿAyn, son of ʿAyn, son of ʿAyn, son of ʿAyn, son of ʿAyn.

This implies that the gate had stood in the wall for four thousand years until it was removed by ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAlī; his action took place in 132 AH, as we mentioned in the Major Chronicle. On that basis, the age of the gate up to the year of its ruin—132 AH—comes to four thousand, six hundred and twenty-one years. Allah knows best.

Ibn ʿAsākir relates on the authority of some that Noah (peace be upon him) laid the foundations of Damascus after Harran, once the Flood had subsided. Others say it was built by Damsaqs (6), a servant of Dhū al-Qarnayn, at his bidding; still others attribute it to ʿĀd, nicknamed Dimshīq, a servant of the Friend, Abraham. Various opinions exist, yet the most plausible is that it was founded by the Greeks, for the prayer-niches in its temples were oriented toward the northern pole. The Christians who succeeded them prayed there facing east, and thereafter the community of Muslims settled in the city and turned in prayer toward the noble Kaʿbah.

Ibn ʿAsākir and others add that the city once possessed seven gates, each associated with a festival for one of the seven celestial bodies: the Moon’s gate was Bāb al-Salāmah—also called the Lesser Bāb al-Farādīs; Mercury’s, the Greater Bāb al-Farādīs; Venus’s, Bāb Tūmā; the Sun’s, the Eastern Gate; Mars’s, Bāb al-Jābiyah; Jupiter’s, the Lesser Bāb al-Jābiyah; and Saturn’s, Bāb Kīsān.

Early in the odd-numbered month of Rajab, it spread throughout the land that the governor of Aleppo, Baybughā Urus, had reached an accord with the governor of Tripoli, Baklamish, and the governor