Al-Kiswah, the First Stage on the Damascus Hajj Road

A town on the Awaj river, about 13 km south of Damascus, at the southern tip of the Western Ghouta, the farmland belt around the city. Yaqut al-Hamawi and Ibn Battuta both described al-Kiswah as the first stage of the hajj road out of Damascus. In 1303 the Mamluks defeated the Mongols on the plain nearby. Today it is a busy local centre; a listed Great Mosque, a water mill turned by the Awaj and the clock of its Hejaz Railway station carry the town’s older layer.

Where the name comes from

Kiswah means garment in Arabic. In a tradition recorded by Yaqut, the king of Rum, the Byzantine emperor, sent envoys to demand tribute; the Ghassanid king had them killed and divided their clothes at this spot. The town also has Roman tombs and columns, and sources say some Ghassanid kings, Arab allies of Byzantium, had their seat here.

Al-Kiswah on the hajj road

This was the pilgrim caravan’s first stop heading south from Damascus; Khan Dannun came next, then Ghabaghib. Abu’l-Fida noted that the road between the two places crossed a beautiful pass called Aqabat al-Shuhura, and that al-Kiswah stood on the Awaj, which comes down from the mountain of snow, Mount Hermon. In Ottoman times the Damascus mahmil, the ceremonial procession that carried the covering for the Kaaba, also passed this way. In 1838 the American missionary Eli Smith recorded it as a village of Sunni Muslims in Wadi al-Ajam.

The battle of 1303

The battle known as Shaqhab or Marj al-Saffar began on 20 April 1303 on the plain near al-Kiswah and lasted three days. The Mamluks under Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad defeated the army of Qutlughshah, general of the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan. The battle ended Mongol attempts to take Syria, and it is remembered together with Ibn Taymiyya’s rulings against the Mongols.

What to see today

• The Great Mosque of al-Kiswah, on the Syrian register of monuments; no construction date was found in the sources.
• A water mill driven by the waters of the Awaj.
• The al-Kiswah station of the Hejaz Railway and its station clock.
• The bridge known locally as al-Kubri.
• Roman tombs and column remains.

Getting there

On the road south from Damascus to Daraa. Khan Dannun is 5 km south of town, so both stages fit into one day.

Do not miss

The water mill on the Awaj. It explains better than anything why the caravan spent its first night here: the first plentiful water after Damascus, a river coming down from the mountain of snow.