THE WONDER OF DEMASCUS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 18, 23 January 1919, Page 7

THE WONDER OF DEMASCUS

THE: VERY '-NEW ■ MEETS ;THE VERY •IOED' AND THE WEB OF HIS- ' TORY >IS vWOVEN." .:*

' Whenj - last . week, > General- Allenby entered Damascus his troops occupied' one ‘of the very oldest cities in, the world. The 'Australian column, 'leading, , were the first to enter the city. Few incidents in all the. extraordinary history of British fortunes in the East have been more stirring and’; picturesque. Damascus was already immemorially old .when Abraham was young. Amidst the groves and gardens of the oasis still watered by “Abana and! Pharpar, lucid streams,” it was for centuries the Paris of the East, Jerusalem is of yesterday compared to her. and she saw more centuries before Romo was than have gone by from the legendary - foundation of the Eternal City.to this our day.

GLORIES OF THE PAST. ‘‘The wonder of Damascus,” says the writer of an extremely interesting article in The Times, “is that through all these thousands' ofyears , she has remained a great and flourishing city. Empires and world-religions have come and- gone—she was herself for a season the, seat and centre of one of the mightiest of all; ’ civilisations of immemorial antiquity have developed, _ ripened, and decayed; countless dynasties have held sway and perished from the very memories of men; great races have vanished from the earth—through a.l chartges she has been .still ‘the eye of all the East.’ She has suffered many scars arid sieges; she has lain at the foo: of many conquerors : she has undergone the oppression and the extortion of many foreign masters. She has endured and survived ' all. Even 'four centuries of Turkish rule have not paralysed her. HER FLOURISHING TRADE.

“Damascus is still ■ the centre of a wide and flourishing trade. Her natural wealth, her beauty, and, above all, • her position are the secret of her prosperity and her length of days. Fromimmemorial time tRe caravans from Egypt, from Arabia, from Mesopotamia, Southern Persia, and the Far East have passed through her gates, carrying their wares to Asia Minor, or to the coast, and so to all the -lands of Europe. Damask, damascene, damson, dSama-sk rose, damask cheek and,' alas! damask powder are abiding, witnesses- to_ Ithe skill of her artificers, the game of her gardens, the luxury of her women, and the . activities of her merchants' in the Middle Ages. So early as the seventh, and even" as the fourth century, some oil these ‘Syrians’ traded as- far as Treves, Orleans, Paris, and Brittany. In the . palmy days of the Ottomans she was the fifth city of the Empire, ranking next after Constantinople, Brusa, Adriadople, and lOairo. '.She deserves her praises and her pride of place. •-A, >NATTJRAL RESOURCES. . a.

“Groves of almonds and, of fig trees, of peach trees and of apricot, of cherry trees, of walnut, mulberries, lemon trees, and pomegranates surround her, and their fruits, with her grapes, quinces, tustachios, her plums, her jasmines, and her rases, are famous throughout the East, Amid glittering waters, her marble domes and minarets, bathed in the da/zzling light of the Eastern sun, add canopied by the’bluc'of the Syrian heavens, rise out of the green foliage—‘a .pearl set in emeralds —against the golden, yellow sands of tho desert and the purple summits of ■ the Jgbel Hauran to the east dr the .snows of ilemon td the wefjt. Abana and Pharpar bring Her all these riches. “The 'Caliphs of Damascus bequeathed to posterity noble monuments of Saracen architecture and ornament, among which the great mosque of mascus, the ‘St.• Peter’s bf Islam, as it has been called from its . Immense proportions, "stands supreme. _ At the time of tho Araconquest it- was- tine cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and by. the terms of surrender it was equality divided between 'Christians and ■ Mohammedans. But the right of stronger soon prevailed, and Abd-nl-Melek {685-706) converted it into the renowned mosque of the Ommiades. THE ANCIENT SHRINE.

“Arab writers exhaust their rhetoric in describing its magnificence. Six hundred lamps hanging by _ gold andi silver chains illuminated its rich mosaics and. the beautiful calligraphy of the inscriptions —a number increased to 12,000 on the great nights of Ram as an. But the place is very sacred as well as beautiful. The head of St, John the Baptist is? still reverenced in its ancient shrine. The original manuscript of the Koran in the autograph of Osman, the mist collector of the isacredl (texts, (add a/ Koran in the hand of Ali, the son-m----law of the Prophet, are, o r were, among the treasures, of the mosque.. Damascus boasts many other holy places. , “There are the tombs of two of the Prophet’s wives, of 40 of his immediate disciples, of Ho'al,' his black-samr moner to prayer, of Khalid and of Ahu Obeidah. the 'joint conquerors of .the citv, the ‘sword’ ami. the ‘arm’ of Go cl. Saladiii sleeps in the (precincts of the great mospue. with the>sword .at lus side by which he did such great things for the Faith.

HER WORST ENEMY. “In 1818: Sultan Selim' I. took up hi» winter quarters there on his way to the conquest -of Egypt. ..The most bloodthirsty of all the Sultans, he inflicted upon her the most'fatal wrong of alb He. brought her under Turkish ru.e, .and under it she remained, except for the eight rears : (1832-40)1 I when Ibrahim Pasha restored her to Egypt, until the Australians rode last week through her ancient gates. So the very new meets the very old and the web of-history is woven.” ■ A NEW. BRA OPENS. , *

“Sooner or W_C%iel.'/Sir' Mark' Sykes, , tiiT ' lOh^erver, “Damascus will realise what has happened. . and when that occurs we shall eeo y the .. beginning of a > « 6W and ™ndeffiil era in .the history of the. IS.oar East., Damascus ia the t true home of Arab* geniusrand • racial 1 ,, feeling'j'TW P®®* pie'; are ' cultured, refined, afcid - intellagent. French and American schools, contact with European -thought, Leban--©so* emigration' • to United (States, end* the steady growth of;. Arab national feeling have' all tended to prepare the Damascenes ' foj{ the hour which nejs now struck. A REVIVED ARAB ■CIVILISATION* . “Surrounded by areas of enormous potential agricultural wealth, by a prolific. industrious, and; naturally intelligent peasantry, Damascus, with its mer-

chanta i and 1 educated; upper classes, lias j every, capacity 'to-, become the’’capital ..of | an enlightened State' or political, unit. : Provided - the Turk' is ■ not suffered to .return, ;■ within 20.years we. shall .see, in Damascus'a city-of perhaps double its present • population, prosperous and progressive with colleges and universities, and great, mercantile establishments ami factories. This city will be connected by rail of uniform gauge with Aleppo, { Bagdad and Cairo, and will undoubted- i ly be one of the great intellectual and • business centres of the revived Arab ! civilisation.”

THE STRICKEN CITY, ‘‘On the other hand, fit must bo remembered that lor the last three years the Turks have been engaged in murdering and exiling every leader of Arab thought they could lay their hands 0n.,, and .in destroying, the Moslem male population of , the working classes by deliberately exposing them on the front, ■while the 'Christiansi of tjhe Lefcaiaon) ‘•were being reduced in by the abominable expedient of ■ artificial famine. The Turks’ method in Syria has been to cow the population of the cities by public executions, decimate, the rural Moslems by military service', and starve the out of existence. ‘‘The Damascus of to-day is doubtless a stricken city, which may take months to revive. ' The wounds may heal more quickly than some may hope for, but undoubtedly the scars will remain for some time to come.”