Cruel summer A depiction of Christians being massacred in Damascus in July 1860. The bloody events of that summer “marked a critical turn towards increasing western influence”, writes Ryan Gingeras
The Damascus Events: The 1860
Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East
by Eugene Rogan Basic Books, 400 pages, £30
ALAMY
In July 1860, the city of Damascus exploded. Mobs of Muslim rioters tore through neighbourhoods, burning homes, sacking businesses and murdering Christians. The full restoration of order required both the intervention of European troops and the imposition of more direct rule from the Ottomans’ imperial capital, Istanbul. It would take years for the city to recover from the physical damage wrought by the violence.