It is now 3 years since the conflict in Syria began and I am not sick and tired of reading and seeing and hearing the skewed reports of what has been gong on there. Before this conflict broke out the EU and other western governments were saying in Damascus how much progress Bashar Al-Assad was making in modernising certain aspects of Syrian society. At the same time there was a noticeable build-up of so-called "press" and "cultural" people with embassy affiliations, notably to the US embassy.
It is worth remembering here that Syria was the only non-confessional state in the region and that the Sunni majority lived peacefully alongside their Shia, Alawite, Ismaili, Druze and Christian neighbours.
Now the country is torn apart notably by interventions from outside i.e. Saudi Arabia (Al-Qaeda) and Qatar (Moslem brotherhood) who are fighting their own proxy war on Syrian soil. Turkey is also exploiting the situation to its own ends They have turned the country into a terrorist camp where they are training terrorists with many thousands brought in from outside i.e. Britain, France, Belgium, Scandinavia, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and anywhere else where there are hotheads ready to plunge themselves and their families into violence and hatred.
The US plays a great role in all this and over the past decade or more they have been recruiting people to further their cause. The Syrian participants in this conflict are mainly people who have their own agenda and are prepared to take up foreign offers if that will get them where they want to be.
What is abundantly clear to anyone who knows anything about the region is that, despite all its flaws, the current Syrian regime under Bashar Al-Assad , who was after all elected by the people, is the only one that can guarantee the rights of the minorities in the country. What would take its place does not bear thinking about as we can see from the terrorist held areas enforcing Sharia law in the terrorist.
When US representatives e.g. Obama and Kerry make statements about democracy and other professed aims, the very last thing they are taking into account is the welfare and wellbeing of the people of Syria and they should certainly take a look at their own domestic situation before making pronouncements about how others should govern their lives. They might also consider the domestic situation of their allies i.e. Saudia Arabia and Qatar which cannot be regarded as democratic by any stretch of even gthe most overheated imagination.
The international media are their "Master's Voice" "reporting" on the situation in totally skewed terms and with a complete lack of analysis. I for one am tired of skewed, biased and uninformed (if we are to be generous) reporting or propaganda machines (if we believe that the press is simply another weapon in the war serving the interests of those fanning the flames).
Syria was an increasingly prosperous country before this proxy war began, but the task of rconstruction, when the times comes for it, will be an arduous and expensive one. Even if we look at this conflict only from the perspective of environmental destruction it is a totally reprehensible state of affairs.
Showing posts with label Druze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Druze. Show all posts
Sunday, February 02, 2014
Sunday, January 22, 2006
THE MARRIAGE STAKES
THE MARRIAGE STAKES
The day I arrived in Damascus Yahye, the driver, announced that the following Friday he was going with his parents to meet the girl they had chosen to be his wife. Yahye is twenty-six and the chosen bride is sixteen. When he told me, I thought, “OK, this is not an educated family, so ...”
However, I have since learned that this has nothing to do with education or social class or wealth. B., one of the consultants at the centre, is also twenty-six and he has decided that he would like to marry and settle down. He was brought up and studied in Canada and the United States and his father is a university professor. So, having told his family of his desire to marry, his mother made up a list of acceptable, eligible girls and every Friday he and his mother go to visit one of the girls on the list.
The real protagonists in the marriage market are the mothers - on both sides. The boy’s mother makes up her lists and, having done so, makes the initial approach to the mother of the girl. The first question, if the families do not know one another (which they very frequently do not), is “Is your daughter veiled?”. If she is, and the initial tentative telephone approach is successful, then the boy’s mother will arrange to visit the girl’s mother. If this first personal meeting proves positive, then the boy will attend the next meeting. The girl will not appear at first but leave about ten minutes for the mothers to explore family lineage, financial position and other aspects of mutual interest, and then she will make her appearance to serve tea. This gives her and the boy the chance to catch a glimpse of one another. The girl, even if she is veiled, should contrive during this meeting to uncover part of her leg so that the degree of whiteness of her skin can be appreciated.
What happens after that depends on the ortodoxy of the families. If the family is really orthodox, the second meeting may not take place at all because the marriage transaction is a purely economic one and, if the terms are right, the two mothers will come to an agreement. The two fathers will then meet to size one another up and, in some cases, no more than one week may elapse between the initial meeting and the marriage ceremony itself!
If the families are more liberal and the girl’s opinion is taken into account, and if the girl raises no serious objections, then the pair may be allowed to meet at the girl’s home to get to know one another a little better before proceeding with a marriage contract. In such cases perhaps three months may elapse before the marriage ceremony. Longer engagements usually only take place when the bride-to-be has been betrothed when she is still under marriageable age.
Often a religious marriage takes place on paper which means that the Islamic judge prepares a marriage document although no ceremony has taken place and the couple still live in their parents’ homes. This gives them the opportunity to meet more openly as this is regarded as a formal engagement. Sometimes, during this period, they discover that they are absolutely incompatible and a divorce must take place although in practice they have not been married.
If the initial encounters lead to a tacit engagement, the boy gives the girl a gift of jewellery. The value of US$3,000 is considered adequate for this first gift. If a formal agreement is reached, then a similar gift of jewellery to the value of about US$10,000 is given. If the marriage does not take place in the end, the girl usually returns the gifts because, if she were to keep them, her reputation would be ruined.
Marriage is really not just between the two people involved but a marriage of the two clans. This family component can lead to many problems and, according to the young people we know, most divorces are the result of family interference on one or both sides. It is also said that summer is the marriage season and winter the divorce season. Summer is a popular time for marriages because, when girls finish school, they become eligible for marriage.
In some cases a couple might meet either at school or at university but, until they are in a position to approach their families and request permission to marry or at least the families’ blessing, their relationship must remain clandestine, because any girl seen in the company of a man who is not a family member, her fiancé or husband immediately loses her reputation. This can cause friction too, because the young man is usually unwilling to approach his future father-in-law with such a request until his financial position is such that he can offer the girl a standard of living comparable to the one she enjoys in her parents’ home.
The custom of arranging lists and making visits to choose the future bride is not, it would appear, so common in the Latakia area in the north. The tailpiece to Yahye’s tale is that the girl decided that she would rather continue her studies after all.
One afternoon, Robert found two of the engineers conferring in low tones in the corridor. What are you two up to? We’re talking about what we’re going to do this evening. Are you going out jogging (They are both trying to lose weight as they are in the marriage market) or don’t tell me you have date?! This last remark was made in jest, but, lo and behold, they looked at one another and said, Well, yes, but we’ve just discovered that we both have an appointment with the same girl, so we’re trying to work out who should go. You go. No, you go! ....
The chief victims of this system are the women, but, ironically, it is the women who are the perpetrators and continuers of the very system which keeps them tied. In a way it is understandable, because the mother is the major player in the marriage game and, if the system were to change, she would find herself without a role and her importance as social go-between and maintainer of clan and tribal relationships would disappear so, unwittingly or not, she carries on the oppression of her own kind. B. summed up my feelings on the matter when he said “I’m glad I don’t have a sister. I would hate her to have to go through this”. However, most men are happy for the system to continue. A small number, such as B ‘s elder brother, refuse to play the game and he is seriously considering returning to Canada so that he can choose a wife and live a different kind of marriage. The brother of another young man we know refuses to return preferring to make his own way in Argentina.
The law forbids mixed marriages between the different religions but a Moslem man can marry a non-Moslem woman so long as she is a member of one of the monotheistic religions. She, of course,must convert to Islam. He could not, for instance, marry a Hindu. A Moslem woman, on the other hand, cannot marry a non-Moslem man unless he converts to Islam before the marriage.
Among the minorities, marriages tend to take place within the particular ethnic or religious community. The Greek Orthodox marry among themselves, as do the Armenians. Interestingly, the Circassian minority, who are Moslem, marry among themselves also and tend not to marry Moslems from the majority Arab community. As one girl told me, “No, we want to keep our minority pure, and we want to speak our own language at home and to our children. Anyway, you can’t marry an Arab. If you came home late one evening, instead of asking you if you were tired, he would ask you what man you had been with and then there would be a fight. No, no, we marry among ourselves”.
In general, inter-group marriage is frowned upon by social custom and, as is the case the world over, religious intolerance is one of the major causes of heartbreak for many people. One case we know of is a young, widely travelled Sunni man who met and fell in love with a girl from the Druze community. As religious particularisms are not important to him, he would be quite happy to convert to the particular branch of Islam which the Druze occupy, but that is out of the question because, as one of the tenets of Druze philosophy is salvation through a series of reincarnations, they believe that the Druze community is limited in size and, therefore, conversion is not acceptable. This poses a major problem for the young couple because, if the girl were to renounce her Druze status and convert to Sunni Islam, she would be pronounced dead by her family - or worse A possible solution to regularize their situation in legal terms could be a civil marriage, but civil marriage is not contemplated in the Syrian legal system so they would have to travel abroad to be married somewhere else. The upshot of the matter is that they are living together with all the social stigma for the girl that this step entails. However, it allows her family to pretend that nothing is happening and to keep her within the family circle. When she goes to visit, she must go alone. And all this when the family actually like and respect the young man in question! However, this is not a specifically Syrian or indeed Moslem problem but one which rears its ugly head the world over when two religious communities meet but will not accept one another.
The other day in the Arabic class, the subject of marriage came up, first of all as a joke. Then one of the two Italian ladies, who is married to a Syrian, said to the other “Fouad (her brother-in-law) wants to get married. Maybe Maha (the teacher) would be interested.” Fouad is a widower of 46 with two small children. The matter was explained to Maha who then asked whether he was a Moslem and then whether he was a Sunni. Yes. Then, out of the question. She is from Suweida and a Druze. Although the Italian lady is married here and has a grown-up family, she was not aware of the inter-group difficulties, so I explained about that to her. Then Maha illustrated the point with a story about a friend of hers, a Druze, who fell in love with and married a Sunni. When she became pregnant, her own family cut her throat!
July 1998
The day I arrived in Damascus Yahye, the driver, announced that the following Friday he was going with his parents to meet the girl they had chosen to be his wife. Yahye is twenty-six and the chosen bride is sixteen. When he told me, I thought, “OK, this is not an educated family, so ...”
However, I have since learned that this has nothing to do with education or social class or wealth. B., one of the consultants at the centre, is also twenty-six and he has decided that he would like to marry and settle down. He was brought up and studied in Canada and the United States and his father is a university professor. So, having told his family of his desire to marry, his mother made up a list of acceptable, eligible girls and every Friday he and his mother go to visit one of the girls on the list.
The real protagonists in the marriage market are the mothers - on both sides. The boy’s mother makes up her lists and, having done so, makes the initial approach to the mother of the girl. The first question, if the families do not know one another (which they very frequently do not), is “Is your daughter veiled?”. If she is, and the initial tentative telephone approach is successful, then the boy’s mother will arrange to visit the girl’s mother. If this first personal meeting proves positive, then the boy will attend the next meeting. The girl will not appear at first but leave about ten minutes for the mothers to explore family lineage, financial position and other aspects of mutual interest, and then she will make her appearance to serve tea. This gives her and the boy the chance to catch a glimpse of one another. The girl, even if she is veiled, should contrive during this meeting to uncover part of her leg so that the degree of whiteness of her skin can be appreciated.
What happens after that depends on the ortodoxy of the families. If the family is really orthodox, the second meeting may not take place at all because the marriage transaction is a purely economic one and, if the terms are right, the two mothers will come to an agreement. The two fathers will then meet to size one another up and, in some cases, no more than one week may elapse between the initial meeting and the marriage ceremony itself!
If the families are more liberal and the girl’s opinion is taken into account, and if the girl raises no serious objections, then the pair may be allowed to meet at the girl’s home to get to know one another a little better before proceeding with a marriage contract. In such cases perhaps three months may elapse before the marriage ceremony. Longer engagements usually only take place when the bride-to-be has been betrothed when she is still under marriageable age.
Often a religious marriage takes place on paper which means that the Islamic judge prepares a marriage document although no ceremony has taken place and the couple still live in their parents’ homes. This gives them the opportunity to meet more openly as this is regarded as a formal engagement. Sometimes, during this period, they discover that they are absolutely incompatible and a divorce must take place although in practice they have not been married.
If the initial encounters lead to a tacit engagement, the boy gives the girl a gift of jewellery. The value of US$3,000 is considered adequate for this first gift. If a formal agreement is reached, then a similar gift of jewellery to the value of about US$10,000 is given. If the marriage does not take place in the end, the girl usually returns the gifts because, if she were to keep them, her reputation would be ruined.
Marriage is really not just between the two people involved but a marriage of the two clans. This family component can lead to many problems and, according to the young people we know, most divorces are the result of family interference on one or both sides. It is also said that summer is the marriage season and winter the divorce season. Summer is a popular time for marriages because, when girls finish school, they become eligible for marriage.
In some cases a couple might meet either at school or at university but, until they are in a position to approach their families and request permission to marry or at least the families’ blessing, their relationship must remain clandestine, because any girl seen in the company of a man who is not a family member, her fiancé or husband immediately loses her reputation. This can cause friction too, because the young man is usually unwilling to approach his future father-in-law with such a request until his financial position is such that he can offer the girl a standard of living comparable to the one she enjoys in her parents’ home.
The custom of arranging lists and making visits to choose the future bride is not, it would appear, so common in the Latakia area in the north. The tailpiece to Yahye’s tale is that the girl decided that she would rather continue her studies after all.
One afternoon, Robert found two of the engineers conferring in low tones in the corridor. What are you two up to? We’re talking about what we’re going to do this evening. Are you going out jogging (They are both trying to lose weight as they are in the marriage market) or don’t tell me you have date?! This last remark was made in jest, but, lo and behold, they looked at one another and said, Well, yes, but we’ve just discovered that we both have an appointment with the same girl, so we’re trying to work out who should go. You go. No, you go! ....
The chief victims of this system are the women, but, ironically, it is the women who are the perpetrators and continuers of the very system which keeps them tied. In a way it is understandable, because the mother is the major player in the marriage game and, if the system were to change, she would find herself without a role and her importance as social go-between and maintainer of clan and tribal relationships would disappear so, unwittingly or not, she carries on the oppression of her own kind. B. summed up my feelings on the matter when he said “I’m glad I don’t have a sister. I would hate her to have to go through this”. However, most men are happy for the system to continue. A small number, such as B ‘s elder brother, refuse to play the game and he is seriously considering returning to Canada so that he can choose a wife and live a different kind of marriage. The brother of another young man we know refuses to return preferring to make his own way in Argentina.
The law forbids mixed marriages between the different religions but a Moslem man can marry a non-Moslem woman so long as she is a member of one of the monotheistic religions. She, of course,must convert to Islam. He could not, for instance, marry a Hindu. A Moslem woman, on the other hand, cannot marry a non-Moslem man unless he converts to Islam before the marriage.
Among the minorities, marriages tend to take place within the particular ethnic or religious community. The Greek Orthodox marry among themselves, as do the Armenians. Interestingly, the Circassian minority, who are Moslem, marry among themselves also and tend not to marry Moslems from the majority Arab community. As one girl told me, “No, we want to keep our minority pure, and we want to speak our own language at home and to our children. Anyway, you can’t marry an Arab. If you came home late one evening, instead of asking you if you were tired, he would ask you what man you had been with and then there would be a fight. No, no, we marry among ourselves”.
In general, inter-group marriage is frowned upon by social custom and, as is the case the world over, religious intolerance is one of the major causes of heartbreak for many people. One case we know of is a young, widely travelled Sunni man who met and fell in love with a girl from the Druze community. As religious particularisms are not important to him, he would be quite happy to convert to the particular branch of Islam which the Druze occupy, but that is out of the question because, as one of the tenets of Druze philosophy is salvation through a series of reincarnations, they believe that the Druze community is limited in size and, therefore, conversion is not acceptable. This poses a major problem for the young couple because, if the girl were to renounce her Druze status and convert to Sunni Islam, she would be pronounced dead by her family - or worse A possible solution to regularize their situation in legal terms could be a civil marriage, but civil marriage is not contemplated in the Syrian legal system so they would have to travel abroad to be married somewhere else. The upshot of the matter is that they are living together with all the social stigma for the girl that this step entails. However, it allows her family to pretend that nothing is happening and to keep her within the family circle. When she goes to visit, she must go alone. And all this when the family actually like and respect the young man in question! However, this is not a specifically Syrian or indeed Moslem problem but one which rears its ugly head the world over when two religious communities meet but will not accept one another.
The other day in the Arabic class, the subject of marriage came up, first of all as a joke. Then one of the two Italian ladies, who is married to a Syrian, said to the other “Fouad (her brother-in-law) wants to get married. Maybe Maha (the teacher) would be interested.” Fouad is a widower of 46 with two small children. The matter was explained to Maha who then asked whether he was a Moslem and then whether he was a Sunni. Yes. Then, out of the question. She is from Suweida and a Druze. Although the Italian lady is married here and has a grown-up family, she was not aware of the inter-group difficulties, so I explained about that to her. Then Maha illustrated the point with a story about a friend of hers, a Druze, who fell in love with and married a Sunni. When she became pregnant, her own family cut her throat!
July 1998
Friday, December 09, 2005
IZRAA
IZRA’A
Once again we ventured into the Hauran, this time to visit Izra’a, a place we had seen on the signposts as we passed on the way to Bosra and Dara’a but where we had not yet had the chance to stop. The main attractions in Izra’a are two Byzantine churches, the Church of St. George and the Church of St. Elias. In the Byzantine period, this small town, now a languishing provincial backwater, was a bishopric.
After a rather unpromising start to our search when we turned back because the road looked as though it was going nowhere of any interest, we stopped and asked for directions, first at a fruit stall and later from passers-by, and finally we retraced our steps along the unpromising road and even further out through old basalt stone houses dating from the Roman period but which, with the passage of time, are gradually acquiring upper storeys made of cement blocks! Eventually the onion-shaped dome of the Church of St. George appeared against the skyline.
We parked the car and asked a couple of men, from their dress obviously Christians, who would have the key, but they told us that the church would be opened at ten o’clock, so, in the meantime I took the dog out for a walk along what, if it were not for the litter everywhere, could be a beautiful country lane down past the church and a cemetery. Shortly the priest appeared with his black soutane flapping in the breeze and beckoning us to come into the church.
The descriptions in the books were not wrong. This is a little gem. The Church of St. George, which dates from 515A.D., is the oldest continuously used church in Syria, and it is in a remarkably fine state of repair. This may be due to the fact that St. George (he of the dragon) is widely venerated throughout the Middle East so the faithful would be forthcoming with their alms, particularly as, according to tradition, the church marks the spot where St. George was buried. What they did with the dragon I don’t know!
The source of the veneration to St. George in the Middle East apparently stems from the fact that he is identified with an ancient fertility cult. St. George is equivalent to St. Elias (interestingly the other church in the village is dedicated to this saint) and Elijah of the Bible and Khidr of the Moslems, who, in turn, are linked to the popular fertility deity and the cults of Baal of ancient Syria. This form of popular religion has survived, penetrating all the monotheistic religions, undoubtedly due to the importance of fertility in a basic peasant miilieu.
The church was originally a Byzantine martyrium and, in architectural terms, the martyrium was the most original form in early Christian architecture because these buildings were put up specifically to mark a burial place or a particularly holy spot where some venerated person had undergone martyrdom, rather than just convenient places where the faithful could gather to share their religious activities. In the early days that purpose was served by private houses and later the old Roman public buildings, such as the basilicas, were adapted for the purpose.
The Church of St. George, or Mar Georgis as he is known in the Middle East, is an example of one of the styles which developed, the octagon within a square. From the outside the building is a square with an extension forming an apse. From the inside, the shape is octagonal, the octagon being formed by using semi-circular chapels to cut off the corners of the square. The octagon then gradually transforms into a circular shape to allow for the cupola above which is more modern and probably replaces a previous wooden one. The aisle which goes all around the church is roofed with long rectangular basalt stones which fit neatly together. The stone walls were probably once covered with painted plaster and, although that has virtually disappeared over the last 1500 years or so, the impact of the church is still great. Sitting in it gave me the same feeling I get in the small Romanesque churches of northern Spain. There is something intimate about these small, all-embracing buildings. As the Church of St. George belongs to the Greek Orthodox community, there is an iconostasis at the eastern end. The icons on the iconostasis wall are very old. Although it is forbidden to go beyond this point, we managed to peer through at the collection of icons behind, which seemed to vary in age and artistic merit.
The priest led us straight away to his visitors’ book where we were asked to sign and put the date. For some reason which I was unable to fathom, he also wanted us to put the make and registration number of the car! As I couldn’t remember what they were, he rushed out himself to verify this vital piece of information which he hastened to record in the tome sitting on a table beside plans of the church drawn up by an architect/archeologist. When Robert gave him a contribution for the upkeep of the church, he was most disappointed that the cash was in Syrian pounds and not US dollars which, he said, were much better.
As the priest could only speak Arabic, this was an ideal opportunity for me to practise my six words, so I asked him about the community and his own studies. I managed to glean that the community in Izra’a is divided half and half between Christians and Moslems. There are about 1,700 Christians who, in turn, are divided between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic denominations. He studied for the priesthood at the college in Suweida, the provincial capital which we visited a few weeks ago.
Having taken a few photos of the church from the outside (we thought we had better not ask to take any inside) to record the metal covered dome and the horrendous modern concrete bell-tower which now disfigures the ancient building, we then walked up the road about 200 metres to the Church of St. Elias which is the domain of the Greek Catholics. This church, which was built in 542 A.D., was another martyrium, but this one was built on the cross-shaped plan which was to gain increasing popularity as a religious architectural form. However, the building has been extensively rebuilt and, as it was closed, we could not get a view of the interior. Outside the main door there is a walled yard with a metal gate which was padlocked. The original wooden dome has also been replaced by a modern one and the fashion for concrete bell-towers makes itself apparent here too. Why is it that bad taste is virtually universal?
Both churches are surrounded by the homes of the Christian community which are mostly old Roman houses made of basalt stone now being adapted - in the most vandalistic fashion - to the requirements of modern living, cement blocks and satellite dishes included. The crystalline voice of a young girl singing floated on the air. This was quite striking in a country where singing is almost never heard.
On the return journey, we opted not to take the main road but to follow some of the byways through the countryside of the Hauran which, despite the harshness of the climate, is remarkably beautiful. As we rounded a bend, we came upon a long, low building with at least a hundred women standing or sitting outside. As this is Druze country, they were all wearing long black dresses and white veils, although they do not cover their faces, only their heads. I got out of the car to ask what the gathering was about but I did not understand the reply, “ajaar”. A little further down the road, there was a great confusion of cars, mini-buses, buses and tractors full of Druze men who were coming out of an even larger round, roofless enclosure. The black oriental trousers and black jackets worn by the Druze men with their-well fashioned moustaches and white fez-like hats with a red top make a great spectacle, because they create a very elegant and venerable impression and the Druze, both men and women, are always impeccably groomed. We later discovered that “ajaar” means a funeral and Esma’a, one of the secretaries at the office who is herself a Druze, explained that, as the houses are usually too small for large gatherings such as weddings and funerals, two places are taken for such events, one for the women and another for the men so that the community can communicate their condolences to the bereaved family.
The next encounter was with a tortoise which was crossing the road. As it would not have stood a chance against the minibuses hurtling along after the funeral, we stopped the car and lifted her (Was it a her?) across to the other side of the road where she was headed. As he lifted her, Robert saw that the poor thing was covered with ticks on her feet and legs and neck (This is the tick season). Although she drew herself into her shell, he did his best to rid her of the all the ticks he could get a hold of before freeing her once again. Amazingly, there were even ticks on the underside of her shell and, when they were removed, blood came out through the shell!
May 29th 1998
Once again we ventured into the Hauran, this time to visit Izra’a, a place we had seen on the signposts as we passed on the way to Bosra and Dara’a but where we had not yet had the chance to stop. The main attractions in Izra’a are two Byzantine churches, the Church of St. George and the Church of St. Elias. In the Byzantine period, this small town, now a languishing provincial backwater, was a bishopric.
After a rather unpromising start to our search when we turned back because the road looked as though it was going nowhere of any interest, we stopped and asked for directions, first at a fruit stall and later from passers-by, and finally we retraced our steps along the unpromising road and even further out through old basalt stone houses dating from the Roman period but which, with the passage of time, are gradually acquiring upper storeys made of cement blocks! Eventually the onion-shaped dome of the Church of St. George appeared against the skyline.
We parked the car and asked a couple of men, from their dress obviously Christians, who would have the key, but they told us that the church would be opened at ten o’clock, so, in the meantime I took the dog out for a walk along what, if it were not for the litter everywhere, could be a beautiful country lane down past the church and a cemetery. Shortly the priest appeared with his black soutane flapping in the breeze and beckoning us to come into the church.
The descriptions in the books were not wrong. This is a little gem. The Church of St. George, which dates from 515A.D., is the oldest continuously used church in Syria, and it is in a remarkably fine state of repair. This may be due to the fact that St. George (he of the dragon) is widely venerated throughout the Middle East so the faithful would be forthcoming with their alms, particularly as, according to tradition, the church marks the spot where St. George was buried. What they did with the dragon I don’t know!
The source of the veneration to St. George in the Middle East apparently stems from the fact that he is identified with an ancient fertility cult. St. George is equivalent to St. Elias (interestingly the other church in the village is dedicated to this saint) and Elijah of the Bible and Khidr of the Moslems, who, in turn, are linked to the popular fertility deity and the cults of Baal of ancient Syria. This form of popular religion has survived, penetrating all the monotheistic religions, undoubtedly due to the importance of fertility in a basic peasant miilieu.
The church was originally a Byzantine martyrium and, in architectural terms, the martyrium was the most original form in early Christian architecture because these buildings were put up specifically to mark a burial place or a particularly holy spot where some venerated person had undergone martyrdom, rather than just convenient places where the faithful could gather to share their religious activities. In the early days that purpose was served by private houses and later the old Roman public buildings, such as the basilicas, were adapted for the purpose.
The Church of St. George, or Mar Georgis as he is known in the Middle East, is an example of one of the styles which developed, the octagon within a square. From the outside the building is a square with an extension forming an apse. From the inside, the shape is octagonal, the octagon being formed by using semi-circular chapels to cut off the corners of the square. The octagon then gradually transforms into a circular shape to allow for the cupola above which is more modern and probably replaces a previous wooden one. The aisle which goes all around the church is roofed with long rectangular basalt stones which fit neatly together. The stone walls were probably once covered with painted plaster and, although that has virtually disappeared over the last 1500 years or so, the impact of the church is still great. Sitting in it gave me the same feeling I get in the small Romanesque churches of northern Spain. There is something intimate about these small, all-embracing buildings. As the Church of St. George belongs to the Greek Orthodox community, there is an iconostasis at the eastern end. The icons on the iconostasis wall are very old. Although it is forbidden to go beyond this point, we managed to peer through at the collection of icons behind, which seemed to vary in age and artistic merit.
The priest led us straight away to his visitors’ book where we were asked to sign and put the date. For some reason which I was unable to fathom, he also wanted us to put the make and registration number of the car! As I couldn’t remember what they were, he rushed out himself to verify this vital piece of information which he hastened to record in the tome sitting on a table beside plans of the church drawn up by an architect/archeologist. When Robert gave him a contribution for the upkeep of the church, he was most disappointed that the cash was in Syrian pounds and not US dollars which, he said, were much better.
As the priest could only speak Arabic, this was an ideal opportunity for me to practise my six words, so I asked him about the community and his own studies. I managed to glean that the community in Izra’a is divided half and half between Christians and Moslems. There are about 1,700 Christians who, in turn, are divided between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic denominations. He studied for the priesthood at the college in Suweida, the provincial capital which we visited a few weeks ago.
Having taken a few photos of the church from the outside (we thought we had better not ask to take any inside) to record the metal covered dome and the horrendous modern concrete bell-tower which now disfigures the ancient building, we then walked up the road about 200 metres to the Church of St. Elias which is the domain of the Greek Catholics. This church, which was built in 542 A.D., was another martyrium, but this one was built on the cross-shaped plan which was to gain increasing popularity as a religious architectural form. However, the building has been extensively rebuilt and, as it was closed, we could not get a view of the interior. Outside the main door there is a walled yard with a metal gate which was padlocked. The original wooden dome has also been replaced by a modern one and the fashion for concrete bell-towers makes itself apparent here too. Why is it that bad taste is virtually universal?
Both churches are surrounded by the homes of the Christian community which are mostly old Roman houses made of basalt stone now being adapted - in the most vandalistic fashion - to the requirements of modern living, cement blocks and satellite dishes included. The crystalline voice of a young girl singing floated on the air. This was quite striking in a country where singing is almost never heard.
On the return journey, we opted not to take the main road but to follow some of the byways through the countryside of the Hauran which, despite the harshness of the climate, is remarkably beautiful. As we rounded a bend, we came upon a long, low building with at least a hundred women standing or sitting outside. As this is Druze country, they were all wearing long black dresses and white veils, although they do not cover their faces, only their heads. I got out of the car to ask what the gathering was about but I did not understand the reply, “ajaar”. A little further down the road, there was a great confusion of cars, mini-buses, buses and tractors full of Druze men who were coming out of an even larger round, roofless enclosure. The black oriental trousers and black jackets worn by the Druze men with their-well fashioned moustaches and white fez-like hats with a red top make a great spectacle, because they create a very elegant and venerable impression and the Druze, both men and women, are always impeccably groomed. We later discovered that “ajaar” means a funeral and Esma’a, one of the secretaries at the office who is herself a Druze, explained that, as the houses are usually too small for large gatherings such as weddings and funerals, two places are taken for such events, one for the women and another for the men so that the community can communicate their condolences to the bereaved family.
The next encounter was with a tortoise which was crossing the road. As it would not have stood a chance against the minibuses hurtling along after the funeral, we stopped the car and lifted her (Was it a her?) across to the other side of the road where she was headed. As he lifted her, Robert saw that the poor thing was covered with ticks on her feet and legs and neck (This is the tick season). Although she drew herself into her shell, he did his best to rid her of the all the ticks he could get a hold of before freeing her once again. Amazingly, there were even ticks on the underside of her shell and, when they were removed, blood came out through the shell!
May 29th 1998
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