Whiling away the time in Budapest Airport in transit to Damascus I overheard a young American male pontificating to his friend about the restrictions on females in Muslim societies. Opposite us sits a Muslim woman her head covered in the hijab, breast feeding her baby daughter while unselfconsciously exposing her ample breast in the process. She is accompanied by her husband and their small son both completely comfortableI smile inwardly at the American youth’s cultural bias and wonder does he not realize that the only circumstances in which it has become permissible for western women to expose their breasts is in the service of the market, promoting the sale of everything from glossy magazines to flashy cars. God forbid that they be put openly to the use for which they were intended and disturb some “liberated” man’s sensibility.
I arrived in Damascus at 3.30 in the morning and took a taxi to my hotel feeling safer than I would have felt arriving in most European cities at a similar hour. Following a sleep, a shower and a light breakfast I was ready to immerse myself in all that Damascus has to offer. I walked the short distance to the old souk through which one must pass to reach the Umayyad Mosque which is renowned for its architectural and decorative splendor. The history of the site on which it stands goes back to the Aramaeans who inhabited Damascus in the 10th century BCE, and built a temple to Hadad their god of fertility and storms. A black basalt sculpture recovered from this period is on display in the National Museum. The invading Romans built a temple to Jupiter on the site and with the coming of Christianity the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius erected a basilica in 379 CE in the name of St. John the Baptist. Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece exquisitely portrays the Biblical drama that revolved around his beheading at the request of Salome when she demanded his head on a silver platter in exchange for performing the dance of the seven veils for Herod Antipas. The play caused outrage on its planned debut performance in London in 1892 with Sarah Bernhard in the lead role.
Islam arrived in Damascus in 636 CE and the eastern part of the basilica was converted into a mosque allowing the Christians to continue worshiping in the western part for the succeeding seventy years. Under Umayyad rule Damascus became capital of the Islamic world and in 708 CE Caliph al-Walid ibn Abdal Malik known as “Prince of Believers” ordered the building of a mosque “the equal of which was never designed”
The first mihrab, the niche that indicates the direction of prayer, is found here and named as- Sahaba for the companions of the prophet Muhammad. It is said that for seven years the budget of the kingdom was channelled to finance the building and that al-Walid burned the bills without looking at them as it was all for the glory of Allah. Every wall surface was covered with rich mosaics which made the building one of the wonders of the world of its day. Precious stones were set into the prayer niches which were later ravaged by invading Mongols. The ornately painted wooden ceilings, from which it is said 600 golden lamps hung, were inlaid with gold. Much of the mosque was destroyed in the great fire of 1893 but it was renovated unstintingly over the following nine years by the artisans of Damascus.
The central courtyard is dominated by three minarets all of which date from the original construction although renovated and restored by the Ayyubids, Mamluks and the Ottomans. One is known as the Jesus minaret, its name derived from a religious belief that Christ will descend to it on the Day of Judgement. Another named the arouz or bride’s minaret is considered to be the oldest and prettiest. The silver used in its construction was donated by a merchant’s daughter who was given in marriage to the king. The prayer hall at the southern side of the courtyard houses the shrine of the aforementioned John the Baptist, known as the Prophet Yehia to Muslims. It is one of several claimed resting places of the head of this saint. The eastern side of the courtyard contains the shrine of Hussein, son of Ali founder of Shia Islam. Hussein, who was grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was killed by the Umayyads at Kerbela in Iraq which remains a profoundly holy place to Shia Muslims.
Before entering the mosque I paid the fee of 300 Syrian pounds, the equivalent of $6, and donned the proffered brown abaya. Unlike the traditional solemnity found in Christian Churches my experience of the mosque has been one of a more socially interactive space where outpouring of emotion is not only acceptable but encouraged. At the shrine of John the Baptist worshippers raised their voices in wonderful Koranic chant as the small crowd pressed closer to touch the shrine of the prophet, and tears flowed freely as if for the loss of a dearly loved son. The atmosphere, with the heat, the closeness of the pulsating crowd, and the uplifting chanting of the Imam, was truly hypnotic.
Outside in the beautiful spacious courtyard with its white marble floor and colonnaded arcades are the structures known as the Dome of the Treasury and the the Dome of the Clocks. The Dome of the treasury consists of an octagonal room made of stone and brick which is surmounted by a lead dome. Its outer walls were covered in mosaics in keeping with those of the mosque façade. The room, which is reputed to have had a small iron door, is supported on eight granite columns with Corinthian capitals. The original columns were of marble according to the traveler Ibn Jubayr and it is said to have stored the treasury consisting of generous donations to the mosque. The Dome of the Clocks was constructed during the time of the Abassids and is similar in style to the Dome of the Treasury but on a smaller scale. It became a storehouse for the clocks of the mosque in early Ottoman times.
The mosaics that covered the outer walls of the buildings were considered to have been the masterpiece of their day. Gardens, trees, rivers, houses and towns were depicted in tesserae of gold, muted greens and limes, representing the cities and landscapes over which the Caliph ruled or for some the promised paradise. Traces of the original mosaic that remain along with what has been restored give us a tantalizing taste of its earlier splendor. Evelyn Waugh in his travel book “Labels” states that “there is no single aspect of Mohammedan Art, History, Scholarship, Social, Political, Religious, or Political Organization to which we, as Christians cannot look with unshaken pride of race”. This must surely go down in history as one of the greatest expression of cultural arrogance and blindness. Sadly this monument, which is a tribute to all the craftsmen involved in its building, rebuilding and renovations throughout the centuries, has suffered damage in the war that is currently waging in a country whose people along with their culture, art and architecture deserve to be cherished and not torn apart by senseless destruction.
To be continued…….
