Jerusalem; One City, Three Faiths

East Jerusalem, Palestine

I arrived at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem at 2.30am, deposited on the cobblestones opposite the citadel, under the balconies of the Imperial Hotel where I was staying. At 3.00am as I was about to nod off, a clanging of bells from one of the nearby churches jolted me awake - far from the gentle peal of an old English church, this was an exuberant cacophony. About an hour and a half later the muezzin rang out the first call to prayer from a nearby mosque and then the fearsomely joyous bells rang again at 0600. It all seemed a fairly fitting start to a stay in the city holy to the three monotheistic faiths.

When Ibn Battuta visited in 1326, the city was almost entirely Muslim. At the end of the 14th century under the Burji Mamluks, a building program of mosques, schools, hospitals, caravanserais and palaces left Jerusalem - along with Cairo, Damascus and Aleppo - with one of the most intact Islamic medieval cities in the world.

I decided to wander the streets the first day and get my bearings. It was the first day of Eid and much of the Old City was closed. (You will notice this part of my journey is entirely out of sequence. Unlike Ibn B. I will confess to this immediately. It is however due to 20th century politics which have already been much-mentioned so no need to go into it all again.)

Amman to Damascus

Amman, Jordan to Damascus, Syria

The last day in Amman I spent at Darat al-Funun, www.daratalfunun.org an arts center run by the Khaled Shoman Foundation. Several early 20th-century houses set in landscaped gardens cascade down a hillside, the complex includes galleries with the works of contemporary artists, an art library where I spent a contented hour, workshops, and at the bottom of the hill, an old Byzantine church with columns. At the top is a lovely outdoor cafe set in a peaceful shady courtyard. (T.E. Lawrence penned part of Seven Pillars of Wisdom in one of the houses.)

From there I got thoroughly lost en route to Wild Jordan. Amman is not huge but being built on hills, its streets wind round and round and can be quite complicated to navigate, especially when you are not armed with a proper map, and taxi drivers do not know street names. In the Middle East street names change frequently, so old people know the names of the streets from 50 years ago but not today, and young people have no idea of the old names. I tried several times to explain to taxi drivers where I wanted to go - I tried in Arabic and English, several otherwise innocent passers-by got involved, but I eventually thought it best to set off on foot before we tied up the whole of downtown traffic.

 

The Tribes of Ma’an

Ma’an, Jordan

Today we left Amman fortified with Turkish coffee and manakish - flatbread with thyme and sesame seeds or with cheese, and toasted in a pizza-style oven in front of you, and started off on the drive south to Ma’an, a historic town central to Jordan’s history. It has always been on the pilgrimage route and even today, the city lies on the Desert Highway, Jordan’s north-south highway that cuts through the badia (stony desert steppe) like a die.

After driving round a bit we came to old Ma’an in the form of half stone-built, half mud-brick ruins, surrounded by date plams and tamarisk. The ruins were hard to date for the layperson but had clearly been re-built at different periods; one round tower, one square tower, different size stone, etc. and the denizens had incorporated the ruins into their housing. There was nary a plaque or a signpost in sight, nothing in the guidebook, and my guide had never been there before.

Old Ma'an

We set off to find someone who could tell us about falling-down Ma'an, stopping at a 16th century Ottoman-era renovated khan to talk to the local Dept of Antiquities, but they could not tell us anything about 14th century Ma'an. We then got somewhat distracted by the shops which were old-fashioned in a way that reminded me of the Old American West - perhaps not so far off the mark in these rebellious parts....... Moawia bought a sheepskin and was a fraction away from possessing several Bedouin flatweave rugs. For my part I almost came away with a metre long coffee-bean roasting spoon. I came to my senses just in time.

The Castle of Ravens

Amman to Karak, Jordan

I am staying at the Hisham hotel in Amman. It is centrally located near the 3rd circle, is clean and well maintained and the management and staff are exceedingly pleasant and helpful - it is apparently frequented by UN people, journalists, writers and the like. The only downside as far as I am concerned is the food. Breakfast consisted of ‘air bread’, triangles of cream cheese, packets of jam and Nescafe. I don’t think there was a vitamin in the entire package. It would be undoubtedly cheaper, tastier and certainly healthier if they were to offer flat Arabic bread, labneh (yoghurt), olives, boiled eggs, local cheese and jam. Just a suggestion for the new owners......

And now, picking up from Bosra where we left Ibn B............