AN OLD DAMASCENE HOU

AN OLD DAMASCENE HOUSE


Haldoun, the brother-in-law of the owner of our house, had suggested some time ago that we might like to visit the house in old Damascus where his mother was born.  However, we had heard nothing more about it until yesterday afternoon when he called to ask whether we were available to go that evening.  We arranged to meet him near the office.

The house is in a side street in the Midan quarter which lies just outside the walls of the most ancient part of Damascus.  This part of the city developed through the Arab middle ages and the period of Turkish rule to cater for the growing pilgrimage traffic to Mecca.  The name “midan” -  or “maidan” perhaps a more familiar spelling in the context of British India -  which means field, derives from the use of this area as an exercise field, and this open area attracted pilgrims’ caravans from the north keen to stock up and rest before tackling the dangerous desert crossing to Mecca.  The main street, called Al-midan, became lined with shops and mosques and schools to cater for this traffic.This trading aspect  has not been lost and that same street today is lined with places selling the typical roast meat consumed in most of the Middle East, fruitshops and shops selling a mouthwatering array of sweets and pastries of all kinds.  

In typical Arab fashion, the outside of the house is plain.  The main door opens onto a reception room or iwan lined with seats.  Haldoun’s uncle appeared to meet us wearing his white thoub.  Then his two son’s also appeared to greet us and quickly disappeared.  We were taken through the iwan out to the patio which is large and full of plants with a fountain in the middle.  Although the house is in the centre of all the pandemonium of the old city, not a sound is to be heard in the patio except the call to prayer at the appointed times.   During the French occupation the house was burned down and they had to rebuild it in 1925.  

Around the patio, doors lead off into various sitting rooms. Upstairs are the bedrooms and other sitting rooms as well as the kitchen and a terrace with an ancient vine growing over to provide shade in summer.  In the old days the full extended family would have lived there but now the uncle lives in the house with his wife, two batchelor sons and his daughter with her husband and two small children aged four and one. We were taken to one of the sitting rooms to see the furniture the grandmother brought with her to her marriage.  It must be worth a fortune today: a chest of drawers  and a dining suite decorated all over in intricate inlay designs of mother-of-pearl.  Quite amazing.  There were also antique hand decorated glassware ornaments and an antique Damascus glass lamp.

When we had inspected the furniture, chairs were brought and we sat outside in the patio.  The brother of the son-in-law appeared with one of the little girls.  He then rose to bring a tray with tea and home-made chocolate cake, large portions of which were served.  In these circumstances, the secret is to develop the art of eating slowly because, once you are finished, you are immediately served another huge portion which you cannot refuse.  Robert had not realized that!  After some time, the uncle got up and went inside to appear with another tray of Turkish coffee.  After that we left.

You may be asking yourself if only men lived in the house.  No.  The mother and daughter also live there but, although they prepared the cake and the tea and the coffee, I only caught the briefest of glimpses of a shadowy figure behind one of the upstairs windows.  The women kept to their quarters in the presence of an unrelated man.  As a foreign woman I am given more or less the status of a man! But no women appeared at any time.

This makes Robert feel very uncomfortable because he rebels against the idea of over fifty per cent of the population disappearing into thin air.  However, I suppose it becomes a problem only when the women themselves begin to feel that they do not accept the status quo.  Until then business as usual.  

May 10th 1998