Sentence:  The young poet painter reproduces the French life of the streets ; he tells stories of the Thousand and One Nights , and conjures up before us the bazaars of <WSD>Damascus</WSD> . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  an ancient city (widely regarded as the world's oldest) and present capital and largest city of Syria; according to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul (then known as Saul) underwent a dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus