The Road to Damascus in Pre-war Times

Blog number 21: Lockdown stays in the U.K. Nearly 11.5 million adults received their first Covid vaccination in the U.K. 07.02.2021

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The road to Damascus in Pre-war times

"Damage to harmonious cultural heritage is a blow against the identity and history of the Syrian people…It is a tragedy against the universal heritage of humanity." A rich cultural heritage built over 5000 years in past has all but disappeared under the rubble of civil and political anarchy "(UNESCO)

Ummayad Mosque, Damascus

Damascus attains its name from the ancient technique of weaving pattern onto the cloth (Damask) when it was a notable textile centre with merchants travelling along the Silk Road, often would stop and trade-in silken cloth.

Illustrated Books on Syria, written in recent time:

In the last ten years of the worst humanitarian crisis in the 21st century, many books became eye-openers to the world, written by Syrian authors. Many of These books describe an honest and balanced narrative of the events in Syria. These books became the stage for Syrian people to express their tales and let the world know their voices. I have read the famous book named The Pianist of Yarmouk by Aeham Ahmad. This book is an excellent testimony to life, loss, survival and the escape from the extreme and most brutal regimes in the world. The other two famous books are as below. I look forward to updating myself by reading these books very shortly,

The home that was our country by Alia Malik, and Assad or we burn the country by Sam Dagher.

Saida Zainab Mosque in Damascus

In current times, Syria is one of the most dangerous places on the planet. The rebel against the Assad regime that began in 2011 turned into a brutal civil war. The ordinary humble Syrians have paid the heaviest toll; as many as 500,000 people have lost their lives in this conflict. Several million more, have been forced to escape and into an exile. Journalists, aid workers and NGOs from the outside world have been targeted, for kidnapping, blackmailings and video-based executions. The UNESCO world heritage archaeological sites in Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Latakia have suffered limitless damages and destructions. Some of these sites are merely tipping sites now. In this region, the Middle East has not prevailed the same, all ancient and past glory put to shame! Peace looks as far away as it was at the start of the warfare game in 2011. Syria prevails as a War Zone!

Thousands of people are crowded between half-collapsed buildings, emaciated, and filthy, like phantoms, that they appeared amidst the rubble. They stand in silence; everyone gazing in the same direction spellbound. They stared at a passageway, and everyone who wants to receive an aid package must pass through it. A passage from the famous book I illustrated above, The Pianist of Yarmouk.

Damascus then ( in 1992) and now:

In 1992, with an Indian passport, not requiring a visitor's visa for Syria, prompted us to take a stopover for three days to visit Damascus on our way back from a holiday in Egypt. In Damascus, as we took a taxi from the airport, on the way we saw many buildings were raw, unfinished, unpainted, but streets were jammed with people, full of honking cabs, cars, scooters and road crossers. 

Street buildings in Damascus

Walking in the narrow streets of old Damascus, tiny alleyways branched off the main roads, narrow and crooked, barely wide enough. All these alleyways met and re-met somewhere, sounding complex, but we didn't get lost at all. 

Street scenes

Romantic concepts of the old orient – filled with its winding bazaars, haggling merchants, conical mounds of fragrant spices, towers of greasy soap blocks manufactured using the famous Syrian olives grown in its fertile valleys welcomed us in the famous Al-Hamidiyah souk by mutual greetings of Marhaba.

Outside Al-Hamidiyah souk

Further scenes across

Several ancient minarets, mosques, and opulent Damascene open houses filled my imagination with tales of 1001 nights. The restaurants and eateries smelled of pungent zatar and sourly sumac spices used extensively in Syrian cooking. The famous shawarma stands rotated on spits with bulks of meat roasting subtly. 

Shawarma stalls etc

The shawarma owners stand prepared the rolls wrapped in wax paper expertly and neatly, checking with customers about spices' choice and salads' added selection before the final wrapping of the kebab. Yummy! They were delicious and to die for!

Delicious Fatayers and stuffed wine leaves

People set on Mother of pearl laden tripod-like stools smoking Shisha, enjoying Black tea with mint and playing backgammon. We came across many fresh fruit juice stalls squeezing fresh juices using Pomegranates, guava, grapes, oranges, and other fruits like bananas, mangoes and papayas for smoothies. Smoothie phrase was not used then; it was still called a juice. I could hear the prayer calls from the nearby famous mosque, children's football thumping against the walls in the street, and the smell of jasmine and olives and cheeses with freshly baked Kubj, all together. 

Views from Qasioun Mount 

One could look towards Beirut from the Qasioun mount, glancing over the town of Duma, a famous wine-growing region, with juiciest grapes. Locals played street music on instruments like violin, keyboard or banjo, some entertaining a few and very well-known Bollywood tunes, to my surprise. Bollywood films being favourite there, people identified and talked to us, of Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi, favourite Bollywood pair then. The shops in Al-Hamidiyah souk were full of useful commodities including ladies fashion, woollens, handicrafts, household stuff and bulks of table clothes etc. with the Aghabani embroidery Syria.

Food scenes in souks

Multiple and small restaurants were budding everywhere serving a simple but delicious meal consisting of Hummus, tabbouleh, baba ganouj, kofta, baked potatoes, roasted courgettes, tahini all consumed with Kubj, tearing off pieces with hands. No knife or fork needed!

Historical Damascus in 1992

In a land as ancient as the Middle East, the city of Damascus stood out. Founded in the third millennium BCE, nearly 5000 years in current times, modern Syria's capital city had withstood the trials of time, turned back invaders, fallen to conquers, and is possibly one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the entire world. Damascus was an essential and active cultural and commercial centre, by its geographical position at the Orient and the Occident's crossroads, between Africa and Asia and the famous Silk Route.

It developed through different urbanization stages in 2nd millennium BCE reaching its zenith at the beginning of the 7th-century C.E. when it became the Ummayed empire's capital. Damascus's Old City centre, which contains most of the city's historical monuments, is Greek/Armenian in origin, with significant Roman additions. The town has changed hands innumerable times over the centuries. Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Nabataeans, Romans, the Umayyad caliphate, Seljuk Turks, Mongols, Ottomans, French and many others sway here. Each group left echoes back that became part of the city's rich tapestry only to vanish.

Christian quarter in Damascus

Damascus' rich history is alive in the famous old quarter. Narrow lanes wander through warrens of ancient buildings, passing lively markets, and revealing historical sites—all surrounded by remnants of esteemed walls and fabled gates. As I read through literature before summarising this blog, it appears that Damascus's old city has been saved from the ravages of deadly civil war in current times. Syria once was one of the Middle East's highlights. Along the silk route, this part of the Middle East has a long, memorable history. The oldest civilizations in the world, the biblical narrative, the crusades, the influences of Egypt, Greek, Roman and Arabic cultures, Syria, has it all, or shall I phrase as ''had it all.'' One of the oldest still inhabited cities in the world. The Old City of Damascus is home to numerous cultural venues, including the outstanding Maktab Museum, the historic Shukri al-Quwatli House, Madrassa az-Zahariyya, Azm palace, Ummayad mosque, etc. Bab Sharqi Street, or Street Called Straight, is one of the main roads in Old Damascus and home to exciting architecture including the historic Eastern Gate, the magnificent Roman Arch, unique local shops and various churches. Orthodox Armenian church, Syrian Catholic church are located in the Christian quarter of the old city. 

The central point of any Middle Eastern city is the souk, a market, a labyrinthine space of alleys, stalls, and tiny shops that also include ancient mosques and shrines. Traditionally, the residential quarters of a city were divided along ethnic and religious lines. Today, this system has been replaced mainly by divisions along class lines, with some wealthier neighbourhoods and poorer ones. The Great Omayyad Mosque, which dates back to Islam's early days, is one of its oldest and most famous buildings. In the old Damascus. It formerly served as a Byzantine church honouring Saint John the Baptist and was constructed on an ancient temple's site to pre-Islamic gods. The walls are lined with marble and overlaid with golden vines. Six hundred gold lamps hang from the ceiling. 

Exemplary gold engravings on the buildings 

When I visited Damascus in April 1992, senior Assad was on the verge of winning the fourth, seven-year term of his presidency, successfully, managing a stronghold on the power since 1971 with Damascus being the powerhouse of Assad's regime. It was an obligatory binding on people to hang Assad's photo frame everywhere on any wall, shops, cafes, restaurants, offices, etc.

He managed to hold power longer than any leader since Syria's independence in 1946 with ruthless suppression and guile. In 2000, Bashar Assad became president, succeeding his father. A medical doctor by profession (from Damascus University) Bashar trained in ophthalmology first locally and then travelled to Western Eye Hospital in London, England in 1992 for further training. Though promising to be a modern and contemporary state head who would have propelled Syria into the 21st century, al-Assad, instead followed in his father's footsteps, not yielding to demands for reforms. Instead, he launched a deadly and deathly civil war in Syria, now lasting for more than ten years, killing nearly half a million Syrian people including women and children. Bashar Assad and his brutal regimen survives and lives on!

Souk snap

How ten years of war turned Syria's cities into 'hell on Earth'.

It is a piece of mortifying news to anyone with even a passing interest in ancient civilizations. In present times, Damascus and Aleppo, the historical cities (UNESCO World heritage sites) have been torn apart by point-blank shellings, missiles, and air- raids. And thousands of years of carefully integrated civilizations lies waste in what was once one of the wealthiest and most diverse countries in the Middle East. Architectural masterpieces dating back centuries have been exterminated. Bustling marketplaces turned ghostly and still. Necessary infrastructures, hospitals, schools, roads, have been hammered into dust.

Famous Roman arch in Damascus

Since the beginning of 2011, the Syrian civil war is a continuous multi-sided civil war between Baath party heady by Bashar Al-Assad and various domestic and foreign allies and forces opposing both the Syrian govt and each other in varying combinations. It is far more complicated, indeed. The Syrian civil war has claimed more than 500,000 lives( estimated by the U.N.). Once the business heart of Syria, Aleppo has succumbed from a bustling city of more than 2 million people to crumbling darkness, soaked and drenched in blood. Hundreds of thousands died to managed to escape into exiles. Hundreds of thousands of residents have returned to try and salvage what's left of their homes. Many of my Syrian colleagues back in Riyadh, bought lands and built beautiful mansion-like houses in the outskirts of Aleppo furnished with all mod- cons and luxury items having an inborn panache for an extravagant lifestyle. Piles of grey concrete rubble and charred, hollowed-out buildings have replaced these beautiful newly built homes and other facilities including school and hospitals. The extremist group solicited to destroy cultural sites that did not fit its extreme views of Islam, including the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria. Only a few years ago, Syria featured regularly as a tourist hotspot in various international travel magazines. Images of a war-torn country now fill the international news everywhere. The aiding agencies, world governments and NGOs are unwilling to give Assad-controlled Syria for reconstruction and redevelopment. Syria continues to decay and die!

While the UNESCO World Heritage-listed old city has escaped some of the ravages of war, its sprawling outer suburbia has been pounded to their non-existence. These suburbias were once the garden of Eden, where people went for regular family picnics, playing under the shades of trees laden heavy with fruits. Today, it is perhaps the closest thing to hell on Earth.

Shops on the high street back in 1992.

During my time in Riyadh, my husband Vinod and I met some of the finest medical professionals from Syrian having qualified from famous universities of Damascus or Aleppo. Majority of Syrian people we knew and befriended with belonged to Aleppo with their secondary families still living there. We often heard the first-hand accounts of their rich cultural heritage, strong family ties, and dynamics and admired their excellent fashion tastes. Their homes had utmost style decors with French flavours and a kind of impeccability and delicateness surrounding them. The Syrian women were beautiful and often covered their heads with unique white scarves. Majority of our colleagues were multilingual with Arabic as the first language flanked with English and French with equal fluency.

Food in Daily Life. 

Wheat is the main crop and is the staple food in Syria. Vegetables, fruits, nuts and dairy products are available in abundance. Meals consist of roast or grilled chicken or lamb with side dishes of rice, chickpeas, yoghurt, and vegetables.

A typical mezze of Hommus, Baba-Ganouj and Tabbouleh

Mezze is a meal composed of up to five or six smaller plates including Hummus, a puree of chickpeas and tahini (ground sesame paste); muttabal,  an eggplant puree with sesame paste; stuffed grape leaves; stuffed zucchinis, tabbouleh (a salad of cracked wheat and chopped green parsley and tomatoes); falafel (deep-fried balls of mashed chickpeas); grilled cheeses and pita bread. 

Fatoush and zatar bread, mouth-watering!

Other salads are like Fattoush, Baba ganouj with olives, while lemon, parsley, onion, and garlic are used for flavouring. The routine diet includes various nuts including wall-nuts, almonds and pine nuts used lavishly in sweets like baklava and kunafa.

Delicious Baklava & Kunafa

I possess my personal experiences of discovering to cook the famous dishes mentioned above from my colleagues at work who comprised many nationalities including Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Palestinians and Saudis.

Famous chicken shish taouk

 I discovered that though the food was much similar, holding the same names of the dishes, Syrian food was an exceptional delight. It had the touch of French culinary style due to the country's political affiliations in the past. Damascus has several French restaurants remaining from the time of colonial rule. I started preparing the Syrian/ Lebanese food at home; my family began to enjoy it to my delight. Since then, Syrian/ Lebanese food remains the ultimate homecoming food on the table in our household.

  Zatar flavoured fish and grilled halloumi cheese.

What is happening in Syria now, as we all are aware?

The facts and figures below are fresh up to Dec 2020 (U.N.)

As many as 75% of Syrians live in extreme poverty. The children have not seen anything beyond war, causing severe mental, physical and social effects on their health. These affected children would one day be rebuilding Syria.

The humanitarian support network cannot access conflicted areas, with limited knowledge of the civilian's needs. 

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are displaced needing urgent shelter, clothing and food.

Syrian refugee crisis:

It is the largest refugee crisis in our times, affecting approx 17.6 million people spilling into neighbouring countries. Nearly 12 million people in Syrian need humanitarian assistance; half of them are children.

How can I help Syrian refugees?

Give: One can help by becoming a partner in World vision's work to help refugee children and families.

Learn more: read forced to flee: top countries refugees are coming from, to find out more about the lives of 70 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced.

This is the picture of old Syrian Pound notes back in 1992,. I intend to write my next blog on Petra's famous valley and the Dead Sea, Jordan and Israel. I thank you for reading and commenting on my blogs.