6 days until Syria

Contemplating my new home until next summer…

Damascus is believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. It was an important commercial center under the Romans and Byzantines, and as capital of the Umayyad dynasty, A.D. 661-750, Damascus ruled over an empire stretching across the Middle East and North Africa all the way to present-day Spain. Over the centuries Damascus developed as an important stopping point for travelers making the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.

It’s long been known as a city of beauty, and remains today associated with an urbane, cultivated lifestyle — as the classical Arabic word mudamashaq, from Dimashq (Damascus), suggests. The city remains highly diverse — religiously, ethnically, and regionally.

Like many cities in the developing world, contemporary Damascus has experienced a steady and significant population increase, and consequently has had to face the problems and issues that typically accompany such urban growth — for example, the emergence of new social distinctions linked to place of residence. In Damascus today, where one lives is the number one marker of social status. 

I paraphrased these passages from Christa Salamandra’s anthropological study, A New Old Damascus: Authenticity and Distinction in Urban Syria (2004).