THE STREET CALLED ST

THE “STREET CALLED STRAIGHT”

Yesterday was a religious and classical day.  Having decided that we would take a walk along ”Straight Street”, at first we thought that our plans had been thwarted because Robert did not feel well during the night and was still under the weather in the morning.  However, by late morning he felt better so we went ahead with our plan as best we could.

Most guide books advise starting the walk along “Straight Street” at the western end just to the right of the Souk al-Hamidiye but, as the straightness of the street is somewhat confused (Mark Twain said it was straighter than a corkscrew but not as straight as a rainbow), we thought it would be easier to start at the eastern end, so we made the mistaken decision of trying to get there by car, which meant that we were caught up in a traffic pandemonium with cars and lorries pulling in every direction and tooting and cutting in in the manner which makes Damascus traffic the chaos it undoubtedly is. Getting to the eastern end of Old Damascus involves driving through a narrow winding street with room enough for only one vehicle to squeeze past and lined on either side with tiny businesses of every description: metalworkers making everything from stoves to decorative brass trays, cobblers with a queue of clients waiting to have their trainers sewn together again on an ancient machine, sweet sellers, bakeries, woodworkers and butcher’s shops with their offputting wares displayed.  I find it sad to see the animals hung up on the hooks, particularly a camel’s head and neck with the hook strung through its nostrils.

Finally we arrived at Bab Sharki, or the Eastern Gate of Old Damascus, which was called the Gate of the Sun by the Romans.  This is the oldest extant monument in Damascus and it marks the eastern gateway to the city and one end of the Via Recta or Straight Street of Roman times, which comes out at the western end via the Bab al-Jabiye.  The gateway is made up of three arches, the central one is the widest and was (and is) for wheeled traffic, whereas the two smaller side arches are for pedestrians.  Just inside the gate are the remains of several columns on either side.  In Roman times this street, which was the decamanus, or main east-west thoroughfare of Damascus, was 24 metres wide and was lined along its full length with columns on either side which supported a cloth awning to filter the sun’s rays.  In the course of time, however, the 24m. span was gnawed away by encroaching stalls and shops which make up the various small souqs still in existence today.

The Romans were not the first to plan their city on this site by any means.  Halfway along the street is a small mound, as yet unexcavated, which marks the point of the original bronze-age settlement at Damascus, and all the subsequent conquerors and rulers used this site, because the importance of Damascus was due to its strategic position as a caravan centre for the caravans coming from the East.  The caravanserais, or khans, still exist today though no caravans now arrive. The city is mentioned in the Ebla tablets which date from the 3rd millenium B.C. and on numerous occasions in the Bible, as Damascus was ruled by King David and only regained its independence under King Solomon. The Greeks made a major contribution in terms of town planning with their tidy grid system and, although there would seem to be little of that Greek order left in the warren of tiny streets of the old town, aerial photography shows that the basic skeleton is still discernible.  However, the Romans, who were much “flashier” and pretentious in their fever for municipal embellishment, lost no time in tracing their main east-west and north-south roads through the city.  “Straight Street” was the Via Recta or decamanus.  However, even when it was originally laid out, the street was not absolutely straight because it had to make detours around buildings which already existed, so its name is something of a misnomer. On account of this, the Acts of the Apostles in perhaps one of the few strokes of humour contained in the gospels and similar texts, refer to this street as the “Street called Straight”.  


The New Testament associations of this street are many, and they are mostly related to St. Paul.  When Saul of Tarsus, a Roman soldier, was sent to arrest the followers of Jesus at Damascus, he was, as we all know, struck down not far from Damascus at a place we have still to visit.  His companions brought their now blind leader to Damascus where Ananias, a Christian, had a vision in which he was told of Saul’s arrival.  Ananias sought Saul out and and took him to his home where he instructed him in the fundamentals of Christianity which Saul embraced. After that he was known as Paul. When Paul then began to preach Christianity declaring Jesus to be the Son of God, he raised the ire of the Jewish population and had to flee.  The spot where Ananias’s house stood, about 150m. down the first street on the right just as you come through the Bab Sharki, is now a chapel and the earliest remains do date from the first century A.D., although the actual chapel now standing is from about 7A.D., but we were unable to visit it because it was closed.

Another monument connected to the origins of Christendom and St. Paul stands to the left of the Bab Sharki at another gate to the city, the Bab Kaysan.  Blocking up the entrance to the ancient gate is now a chapel called St. Paul’s chapel built by the Greek catholic community to mark the spot where, according to tradition, St. Paul was lowered over the city walls to escape from Damascus when he was being pursued.  This chapel was also closed, so, from the point of view of Pauline history, our morning was rather
frustrated.  

In any case, it is clear that Damascus played a major role in the development of Christianity, and undoubtedly Christendom would never have become what it is today without the skills of Paul, that arch marketing man and Billie Graham of the first century A.D., who saw what had to be done to make this essentially Judaic offshoot attractive to the Roman world and lost no time in selling his “product” in a highly successful fashion, which would be the envy of many marketing departments today.

As we walked though the Bab Sharki, people were milling about all around.  The atmosphere in this part of town is quite different from elsewhere.  The women are not veiled and there is scarcely a long garment to be seen.  This is the Christian quarter of Damascus, which the Moslem conqueror consecrated as a Christian domain when Islam became the dominant religion in the seventh century in order to ensure that the Christian community could have continued access to their churches concentrated at the eastern end of the city.  This tolerant attitude is typical of early Islam, which always sought to live in harmony alongside the other main religions.  Conversion to Islam in those early days was more a result of tax incentives than anything else.

Here the women were wearing western style clothing, albeit with the hallmarks of an Eastern aesthetic sense, and the children were all dressed in white.  We followed the throng into the church which stands just inside the city walls.  This is the Armenian Orthodox church and the hymn books and prayer books are all in Armenian script.  Many people were speaking Armenian among themselves.  The building is modern and has no artistic merit, but it was interesting to see the iconostasis, where the predominant colour is blue, and the icons.  To the right of the main door is a little chapel with a picture of the crucifixion and in front there is a long bank of candle holders where everyone was lighting candles and setting them in the sand.  As all the liturgy was in Armenian, we had no idea what was going on, but yesterday’s liturgy was obviously geared towards the children and everyone had an elaborate white candle. At the end, families had their photographs taken with their children in front of the iconostasis and the candles. People were also carrying olive branches.  At first I thought this was strange until I realized that, as the Orthodox liturgy follows the Julian calendar, Palm Sunday in the Orthodox Church is next week.

Next stop was the Syrian Catholic church which is not far down on the same side of the street as the Armenian church. Here the altar and general disposition is similar to that of catholic churches in most places.  The mass had ended, but the sacristan was explaining the significance of the statues (one of Our Lady of Lourdes) to two Europeans who had dropped by.   The thing I like about Orthodox churches is that they use abundant incense, and clearly the Syrian church has not lost its Oriental roots as far as this aspect is concerned, because the smell of incense permeated the church, which has a beautiful large patio with a fountain in the middle around which huge palm branches were arranged to form a kind of canopy.  There was also an arch of palm branches at the entrance to the church precinct. The liturgy here is in Arabic. Talking about Palm Sunday and entering Jerusalem in triumph on the back of a donkey, it occurs to me that, given the diminutive size of the donkeys here (and there is no indication that they were any larger in antiquity), if modern standards of cruelty to animals with a maximum weight of 45Kg. per donkey were applied, Jesus would be up before the magistrate’s court!

This fairly wide stretch of street flanked by shops on both sides carries on for about a kilometre at the end of which, just to the right, is a large precinct which is the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Damascus.  The church was closed, so we could not go inside, and renovations were being carried out on an adjacent building which we could only assume was community halls and such like.  There is a tall bell-tower in the middle of the precinct.  As we intend to attend midnight mass there to mark the Greek Orthodox Easter, we should have a better idea of what it is like after that.


The streets on either side of the Via Recta are narrow and winding, the balconies of the houses on either side often meeting half way creating a kind of tunnel effect.  These houses are built on the typical Middle Eastern model of a central patio on to which the  rooms of the house open.  This is the same model which is typical of Andalusian architecture, although it must be said that Andalucía could give lessons on the embellishment and decoration of the patios.  We have been told that houses in the Christian quarter are extremely expensive because the modus vivendi is much more liberal than in the Islamic quarters and houses there are very sought after.

It is also worth noting that the goods sold in the shops in this district are of extremely fine quality: silk Oriental carpets, fine marquetry inlay work using real mother-of-pearl, top quality hand-blown coloured and hand painted glassware as well as wine (mostly Lebanese although some Greek is to be found) and arak, both of which are unobtainable in other parts of town.

Suddenly a Roman arch stands out, though not in the middle of the road as it runs today.  This arch was discovered five metres under the present surface, having been buried by the debris of ages, and under the French mandate it was excavated and raised to be re-erected on the surface where it now stands. This arch marks the end of this relatively tranquil stretch of the Via Recta and the limit of the Christian quarter.

Beyond the Roman arch, what can only be described as bedlam reigns.  The street narrows as it makes its way through the bazaar with barely enough space for a single vehicle to pass, pedestrians weaving in and out and around as best they can.  In true Damascus fashion the horn dominates all traffic activity, despite the uselessness of any form of protest in this congested space where nothing can move until the vehicle in front moves on.  Added to this cacophony of horns was the siren of the fire brigade truck which may still be stuck there for all I know.  A snake of buses was stopping to pick up a mass of children of all ages being vomited forth from a number of schools.

The assault on the senses has to be experienced to be believed: horns, voices, colours, smells of spices and food and perfumes, music and the pure crush of humanity all combine to create an atmosphere which can only be found in the east.  If Robert was feeling rather weak to begin with, he was truly washed out by the time we reached the far end of the souq where underwear, bedouin goods, clothes, food, fruit, shoes, both new and second-hand, and a range of other products mostly of inferior quality are sold.  So, to escape the bedlam for a few minutes we took a side street through another smaller covered souq which, though crowded, was quiet and relatively serene.

Then we had to repeat the journey in reverse order to get back to Bab Sharki where we had left the car.  We were certainly thankful that we had left the dog at home, because the noise and the crush and the heat would have been too much for him to digest.  Fortunately the sun was now over the city wall which was casting a shadow on the car reducing the heat just a little.  The return trip through the traffic was even more chaotic than the outward journey and we vowed never to take the car into the vicinity of the old town again but to park at one of the big hotels and walk.  In the end it will be quicker and less frustrating.  The temperature seems to have suddenly risen yesterday and the flushed cheeks of the women enveloped in their long gowns and head coverings made me think of how uncomfortable it must be for them in high summer. In fact, the transition from loose traditional clothing to more modern constraining styles but maintaining the need for cover is a step backwards for the women, particularly when cotton and silk head coverings are exchanged for polyester, and some women even wear a tight head-hugging hat of man-made fibres either with or without a scarf on top which must be a recipe for poached brains when the heat increases!

April 5th 1998