Brian Stoddart - A House in Damascus - Before the Fall

A House in Damascus

Before the Fall

by

Brian Stoddart

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ISBN: 978-1-61417-356-4

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Copyright 2012, 2013 by Brian Stoddart. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

Also, the right of Brian Stoddart to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

BISAC: BIO019000 Biography & Autobiography/Educators, TRV015000 Travel/Middle East/General

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Thank You.

For My Friends In DamascusMay You Prevail

Table of Contents

Preface

While there were some issues along the way and later, I am extremely grateful to the companies that commissioned me to work in Damascus and Syria, and so finally gave me the excuse to be somewhere I had always wanted to be. The European Union's aid and development arm provided the funding for the project that, sadly, was suspended at the onset of the 2011 troubles. Those organisations, then, very kindly made it possible for me to live in Damascus which, as always, is significantly different from visiting.

My project colleagues, local and international, may or may not recognise some of this. I learned much from them directly and indirectly and, unknowingly, they were wonderful sounding boards as I went about Damascus in search of understanding, ideas, inspiration and insight. Given what has transpired in the past year or so I am not naming them here, most especially not those Syrian colleagues who were all fabulous to work for, and whose loyalty to Syria deserves far more than they have received recently. They will all know who they are, and I hope they will know also just how much I am in their debt.

I am very grateful, too, to Joshua Landis and Matthew Gray, wonderful Syrian specialists who supported and indulged the enthusiasm of a curious newcomer to their field. Joshua generously posted to his excellent Syria Comment website anything I wrote on Syria through my blogsite, or through other website outlets like The Conversation. It has been enriching to exchange thoughts and ideas with people like Joshua and Matthew. Their on-going work reaffirms just how important it is that we continue to support and fund adequately all those universities around the world whose staff, at crucial moments, provide us with the deeper insight we so desperately need.

This venture into the new world of e-publishing has been facilitated by Nina Paules and her great team at ebookprep.com. Their production and design skills have turned an idea into an attractive reality for which I am extremely grateful. Numerous friends and acquaintances helped keep me going when it all seemed too hard, so thanks to them as well. Lynne McDonald, a friend from schooldays, kindly proofread an earlier version, as did an again unnamed friend in Damascusany mistakes that remain are mine alone.

As always I owe the greatest thanks to my family who forever put up with me going off to do exotic things, and who have to rely on a usually unreliable Skype connection, text or email to keep up with what I am doing. Sandi was able to spend time with me in the House in Damascus, and came very quickly to love the place and the city as much as I did and still do. For the most part, though, she held everything together back home while I lived this latest dream. I can never thank her enough for allowing me all my adventures while she sacrifices many of her own interests. Our daughters Kirsten and Laura, film producer/writer and international relations specialist respectively, themselves global citizens and travellers, were also great supporters of what became one of the best experiences I have had anywhere in the world.

For that very reason and memory, it has been both difficult and sad to complete this book against the backdrop of the unfolding Syrian horrors of 2011 into 2012. Those events themselves have been bad enough, but made all the worse because of the personal connections I have back in Damascus and Syria. My colleagues, friends and acquaintances have gone through hell, and it has been hard to sit by and just watch, think and write. May they all survive, and know that at least one foreigner come to Damascus had them in his thoughts throughout.

Brian Stoddart

Prelude

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Even before the present troubles began in Syria early in 2011, Damascus was regarded generally as a fabled city now tainted by allegations of links to terrorism. Despite that, it remained and still remains one of the world's great destinations. Perhaps the longest inhabited capital anywhere, and still strategically significant if now for political as opposed to the commercial reasons of earlier times, "Old Damascus" still retains a romantic ring. Following Edward Said's most famous work, some might say much of the attraction for outsiders is "Orientalist" in sway and, therefore, irrelevant. There might be something to that, but it would be wrong to accept such a reading as the whole version. Damascus has welcomed and accepted people now for two millennia and, during that time, some have come to conquer and be tolerated rather than welcomed.

In the modern world Damascus maintains an allure, especially for those in the West. By definition, much of that comes from its place in the Christian history that preceded its significance as a major intellectual influence on the Muslim world. After all, it was on the way here that Saul is said to have had his personal epiphany to become Paul and eventually St Paul. Once in the city, he had to escape pursuers wanting to rid themselves of a Christian nuisance, and there is still a symbolic basket at Bab Kissan where he was allegedly lowered over the wall. Almost two thousand years later, a generation in the British world saw either themselves or their family or friends in and around Damascus and Arabia as soldiers in two world wars, first against the Turks then, later, against the Germans but with the complication of the Vichy French. In between those odd polarities the world interacted with Damascus, Syria and its region in trade, diplomacy, politics and religious war.