TheBlog@GSIA

News from the Corner Republic

ROYAL VISIT

HRH Prince Andrew came to town, evidently he's not afraid of a potential skirmish, he even took a stroll through the Old City.  I met him, photos don't lie. Except now they do, all the time in fact. But these are genuine. Cropped but genuine.

Struggling to find a suitable answer to the question of what I am doing here.
Old Sana'a; wildly unique city. 

Ibn Battuta took twenty nine years to complete his trip, at the rate I am covering it, it may take me about as long. When I set out to do this journey I had no idea how long it would take and I never really had a plan which is just as well; it has taken on a life of its own and now the plan is there's even less of a plan than before.  I had also not planned to park myself in Yemen but it feels oddly right.  Because I can't do the journey full time - I am funding it myself - the posts would be few and far between at certain times, so I am incorporating a blog within Girl Solo in Arabia called.....TheBlog@girlsoloinarabia.  In between Ibn B's travels, it will be a compendium of fact and nonsense, life here in Yemen, my opinion on news and events in the Middle East, life and its absurdities.

WHY IS THE MEDIA SO INTENT ON TALKING UP YEMEN AS A FAILED STATE 

Who does it benefit to see Yemen as a failed state - the United States, Saudi Arabia,  the Yemeni government itself?  There surely is at least one entity who sees this as a desirable outcome because in Pakistan bombs are detonating as regularly as the sun rises, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people and it's barely getting a mention, yet apparently Yemen, where there hasn't been a bomb blast for months - unless you count the bombing of the Houthi in the north by the Yemeni armed forces, and now the Saudis - is on the verge of collapse. This is according to 'experts' and journalists, most of whom admittedly seem to pop over to Yemen for a week or so, talk to a few people in government and become instant experts.  'Course there could be another attack tomorrow but it's still not Pakistan. 

Everyone knows what Yemen's problems are; war with the Houthis in the north, potential war of secession in the south, powerful and disruptive tribal rivalries, al-Qaeda, institutionalized corruption, unchecked population growth, poor education and low levels of literacy, poverty, water about to run out, oil about to run out with no other major source of government revenue (except LNG)...........OK so there are a few things that need attention. The point is everyone knows what Yemen's problems are so there's no reason for it to fail unless it's a deliberate strategic policy........

 

THE COMING GREAT AMERICAN TRAIN WRECK

And talking of strategic failures - what is the United States going to look like after a few years of a Republican rebound under the likes of far right, ultra-scary, extremists Sarah Palin and Michele "fool for Christ" Bachmann? Still, look on the bright side, imagine the ratings for the Daily Show...........

OLD CITY WEDDING 

Shortly after Ramadan, my 'fixer' friend Sami got married. As it is not the custom for Old City brides to be photographed, instead a photo of the proud groom resplendent in traditional finery. 

Eid Mubarak!

Wind Towers, Ice Houses and Towers of Silence; The Bride of the Desert

Yazd, Iran

"This was the city of Yazd, a fine, clean city with magnificent bazaars, perennial streams and verdant trees, whose population are merchants of the Shafi'ite rite." 

so wrote Ibn Battuta, although he never writes that he ever actually went there. Rather he was describing it with regard to the taking of the city by the Muzaffarids, a family of Arab origin who had settled in Yazd after the Mongol invasion. They controlled the city from 1318 but were engaged in constant feuding with the Shiraz-based Abu Ishaq Injuid. In 1350 Abu Ishaq tried to take Yazd but the then leader, Mubariz Muzaffar fled to nearby Meybon castle where he engaged in raids on the attacking party that were so daring that Abu Ishaq came to a have a grudging admiration for him, "for an affection for him had grown up in the heart of the sultan Abu Ishaq through witnessing his bold actions, and he said 'I should like to see him, and when I have seen him I shall withdraw and leave him'." as recounted by Ibn Battuta.  

Poets, scholars and sufis of Khorasan

Khorasan; Mashad, Torbat i-Jam, Tus, Sarakhs, Torbat-i-Heydarieh, Nishapur.

We had become a spectacle, the entertainment of the day; a host of foreign women struggling with chadors despite the best efforts and ministrations of the pilgrim guides sent to help us. We were in Mashad, outside the shrine of Reza, the Shi'a's 8th Imam, the only one to be buried in Iran. Non-Muslims while not allowed inside the shrine itself can visit the other buildings and courtyards in the vast complex which includes museums, a huge library with hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, books and historical documents, several institutes of learning in Islamic sciences, and mosques. People were giving away hard candy, a tradition at shrines on a holiday commemorating the death of one of the Prophet's family, women hugged and kissed us, unleashing a torrent of unintelligible (to us) Persian when they heard we were from the United States, and all the while our over-long chadors were being trampled by this throng of well-wishers, and kept falling off our heads exposing strands of hair, an absolute taboo here, and we were not even inside the shrine yet. 

Main entrance to the shrine complex taken hurriedly as we were being besieged by well-wishers. Cameras are no longer allowed inside. 

“The noble sanctuary is surmounted by a great dome inside a hospice, with a college, and a mosque adjoining it. All these buildings are of elegant construction, their walls being colourfully decorated with Qashani tiles. Over the tomb is a wooden staging coated with plaques of silver, with a silver candelabra suspended above it. The threshold of the door of the dome-chamber is of silver, and over the door itself is a curtain of gold-embroidered silk. The chamber is carpeted with different sorts of rugs. Facing this tomb is the tomb of Harun al-Rashid, the Commander of the Faithful and over it is a staging on which they place candlesticks. When a Rafidi enters to visit the tomb of al-Reza, he kicks the tomb of al-Rashid with his foot and pronounces a blessing on al-Reza.”  

The Warrior's fire and the Throne of Solomon

North-Western Iran, October 2009 

When I was in Kenya on Ibn Battuta's trail earlier this year, I came across two symbols, one at Gede which looked like a stylized cypress tree I thought might be Iranian in origin, and another a cross on a tomb at Ungwana which was not a 'Christian' cross but a universal symbol. At the Alavian Dome in Hamadan, a 12th century Seljuk building, I noticed exactly the same cross on the beautiful stucco carved doorway. As for the cypress tree it is almost identical in shape to the cypress trees on the Apadana staircase at Persepolis, as well as the nakhl, the contraption used in Iran at Ashura to commemorate the martyrdom of the 3rd Imam.  

The deities of the Kushites and the XXVth Dynasty

Jebel Barkal and Karima, Sudan 

Prior to the Meroitic period of 300BC to 300AD, the Kushite Kings of Egypt's 25th dynasty ruled both Egypt and Sudan from 747BC.  As far back as 1500BC it was recognized that Jebel Barkal in Nubia was the sacred site of the god Amun, and over the centuries the cult of Amun revolved around the Kushite royalty. With the 25th dynasty, the Kushite King Kashta laid the foundations for the Nubian capital of Nabata at Jebel Barkal.  His successors more traditionally ruled from Thebes (present-day Luxor, in Egypt), before the Assyrians under Ashurbanipal finally ended the dynasty with the defeat of the great King Taharqa's son in 663BC forcing the Nubians back to Nabata. Taharqa who ruled for 26 years is regarded as one of the great pharaohs - he is mentioned in the Bible in both the books of Isaiah and the second book of Kings, as Tirhakah, who fought with Hezekiah of Judah against the Assyrian King Sennacherib to save Jerusalem - because of his extensive building program including additions to the temples in Karnak, and as far north as Tanis in the Nile Delta.  

We went first to el-Kurru, a few miles south of Karima, to see the royal burial chambers belonging to King Tantamani and Queen Kalhata. 

Falcon-headed god Horus in the tombs of al-Kurru