Welcome to Syria

Syria April, 2008

I am returned from a very un-solo trip to Syria, a country labeled a 'state sponsor of terror' by the US  administration. It did not feel like that as we walked unmolested late at night through the streets of Damascus, or met with scores of teenage girls in Maloula, mingled with thousands of schoolchildren in Bosra, went shopping in Palmyra and had a private visit of the citadel in Aleppo.  Just for good measure we met with Dr. Mohammed Habash, a member of the Syrian parliament and General Director of the Islamic Studies Center in Damascus http://altajdeed.org/en/.

He gave us a very frank talk touching on subjects as diverse as the US invasion of Iraq, the historic link with and involvement of Syria in Lebanon,  reformist and conservative Islam, the evolution of the Shia/Sunni divide and the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli crisis with its attendant rise in militant extremism there and elsewhere.   

We began our tour of the country by driving north. Krak des Chevaliers - supreme expression of medieval castle-building - had a moat again, the first time I have ever seen it.

Reflected blue moat of Krak des Chevaliers abutting its infamous steep glacis.

Hama sits on the banks of the river Orontes; at dusk swallows flitted and darted in and out of the city's ancient eaves, and its waterwheels glowed amber in the floodlights, while in the morning a barrage of twittering avian exuberance filled the yellow limestone and black basalt paved courtyard of the hauntingly lovely Azem Palace – smaller but more refined than its sister palace in Damascus. 

The waterwheels or norias at night.

The highly-decorated windows of Azem Palace in Hama.

 

Musings and news from the Republic

Sana'a, Yemen

In the last month having spent a great deal of time in airplanes and untold hours in airports, I have reached the conclusion that despite hardship it must have been immeasurably more satisfying to have traveled by boat and camel caravan like Ibn Battuta. Flying and the whole associated business of getting on a plane is now perfectly loathsome unless you are in the rarefied atmosphere of First Class, and I never am.

And just to start on a controversial note - can I possibly be the only person on the planet who would like to see the occasional ‘child-free’ flight? I suspect nobody dares admit it and the marketing and PR departments of airlines would probably turn an alarming shade of puce at the thought of having to dream up politically correct ways to sell the concept, but I believe nonetheless that an anonymous poll would reveal that most passengers (including parents traveling without their offspring) would delight in the prospect of a flight where there was no possibility of sitting in the vicinity of a tantrum-addled small person for 10 hours. I do not in truth blame the child – traveling in steerage is enough to induce anyone to wail, but as every parent knows it is useless to remonstrate with a two year-old on the ground let alone in a pressurized chicken coop at 35,000 feet……

In the meantime air travel in the Middle East grows exponentially – the Arabian peninsula economies, or at least most of them, are booming despite creeping inflation rates. New low-fare airlines such as Air Arabia are springing up like mushrooms, and the larger carriers are giving the more established European and Asian carriers a major run for their money. Meanwhile I dream that the governments will give some of their oil revenues to the French so they can criss-cross the entire peninsula with a high-speed rail network……

A sunny, wintry day in my native land. The Birks o' Aberfeldy in Perthshire, Scotland

A rather different vista - the hills of Kampala, Uganda, taken the same week. Neither has anything to do with Ibn Battuta but it does reference my airline tales of woe.....

Life in the Medina Qadima (Old City)

Sana'a, Yemen

Sana’a is a very dusty place and the tower house I had rented had not been lived in for three months. The house is about 350 years old and few of the windows fit their frames, so dust and sand had seeped in through every crack, with the result that several millimeters of the stuff coated the entire abode. From the outside, the house clearly lists at one corner, and as I conducted my “walk through” I came upon one tiny room at the top of the house which is at some point going to disengage from the rest of the building. Knowing my luck it will happen at the first hint of the summer monsoon when I am on the roof with no other way of getting down. The owner is remarkably sanguine about the imminent destruction of his property, as when I suggested he should fix the large crack that runs across the ceiling and down the wall, as well as the roof beam that is split in two, before it fell to bits he said not to worry.......

Garden near my house

Tales of the Imamate from the Sultanate

Nizwa, Oman

Oman is a land of forts, perfect sandcastle forts; pale honey-colored and smooth-sided, with round towers, square keeps, machiolated parapets, arrow slits, cannon and massive wooden iron-studded doors, they are a veritable medieval desert fantasy sprung to life. Nizwa’s fort is no exception although Ibn Battuta would not have seen it - the 17th century fort which has the largest circular tower in the country, took 12 years to build. From its corner towers one has a panoramic view over the whole oasis of Nizwa framed and hemmed in by a ridge of ancient, coal-black serrated crags.

The interior of Nizwa fort

Nizwa’s souk has been renovated to resemble an old souk with little shops clustered together in a central square, half the goods stacked outside; typical Omani products are the wooden, studded chests which were used for storage – the more elegant being used to store the most prized possessions such as special occasion clothing and jewelry - pottery frankincense burners, ewers and water holders, and woven palm and leather baskets. The walled and gated souk lies at the foot of the castle and with impeccable timing I arrived at lunchtime when everything was closed and everyone had gone home…. nonetheless all the merchandise which was outside had been left there unattended. I can’t imagine many places in other parts of the world where there would be anything left. Oman’s 2.5 million denizens are apparently a very law-abiding people – Omanis routinely park their cars, leave the engine running and go into a shop. It never occurs to them that their vehicle will not be there when they come out.

Typical Omani chests in Nizwa souk

Turtle Beach & The Road to Nizwa

Sur to Nizwa, Oman

Before leaving the region of Sur, I paid a visit to Ras al-Jinz, a tiny beach which belies its immense importance to several endangered turtle species; loggerhead, green, Olive Ridley and Hawksbill. On a small stretch of sand under honey-colored cliffs, female turtles come up on to the beach at night to lay upwards of 100 eggs deep in the sand.

The beach at Ras al-Jinz

After about 50 days the eggs hatch all at once, and guided instinctively by the moonlight the tiny black creatures, about two inches long, set off determinedly for the sea. Only a few meters separate their birthplace from the ocean but they are treacherous – birds, crabs and foxes catch them on the sand, and if they reach the ocean alive, fish and sea birds await them. For this reason they swim far out to sea for hours after hitting the water. It is not surprising that only about 1 of every 50 survives.

The government of Oman is arguably the most proactive in the Arab world with regard to conservation in general, and the turtles are no exception. Many have had little satellites attached to their shells so their movements can be tracked to enable us to learn more about them. The day of my visit a dead turtle lay on the beach – a female who for whatever reason had not made it back to sea, (males do not leave the sea). It seemed symbolic both of the struggle the little hatchlings face at the very start of their lives, to the ongoing pressures turtles face as adults sharing their habitat with increasing human encroachment and the attendant detritus that 21st century man in the form of 6 billion people brings to the earth.