Chivalry: SYRIA , A JOURNEY TO THE PAST (PART 3)

10/05/2009

After about 12 hours sleep, I felt so fresh this morning. We had a good and appetizing breakfast in the club room of the hotel (also free). Though it was an Arabic style of breakfast, I was kind of got used to them: cheese burok (very soft and half-melt cheese inside a pastry), fresh cooked button mushrooms, fresh fruits (kiwi, strawberry, orange) and many types of breads. The breads are eaten with many types of side dish: humus (chickpea), yoghurt, nuts, tahini and sliced cheese. What made it so delicious coz they all seemed to be very fresh and natural.

At 8.30 in the morning, we took a cab to go to Jami’ Umawi (Umayyad Mosque). We were told that it was the main place of attraction in the city and other main places were just nearby. It is known as the sacred heart of Damascus and became the preferred residential areas of Muslims.

We took a cab, however the taxi driver could not speak in English, therefore I tried to recall and speak in Arabic language, which I already left for about 7 years ago (can u imagine how awkward I sound). Alhamdulillah, I still can understand some of the things that the driver try to convey, he was a friendly guy. The funny part was, he asked us whether we’ve been to the Jabal Qosioun (which was initially not understood by me). Then my mother thought that he want to brought us to the castle, which is one of the place that we wanna go. So he brought us to the mountain, and that became our first place of visit in the city of Damascus.

Mount Qasioun (Arabic: جبل قاسيون‎, transliterated as Jabal Qasioun) is a mountain that overlooking the Damascus city, where a beautiful view of the whole city could be seen from its top with range of restaurants, especially at night. It’s also known to be the place of murder between Qabil and Habil (sons of Prophet Adam a.s.). According to Sunni Muslims, it is the site of the mihrabs of 40 saints, who are said to pray the night vigil prayers every night.

Then we went to The Great Umayyad Mosque. This mosque has a unique structure building as it contains 3 main religion influences: Paganism, Christians and Islam. In the 1^st millennium BC, several temples had been built on this site, which later turned into a church when Christianity proclaimed as the official religion of the region in 379 AD. When the Arab Muslim conquest reached Damascus in 635 Ad, the city was liberated from the Byzantine rule. Muslims and Christians attended their worship side by side as the Muslims only occupied the eastern half of the temple and left the church already erected in the west side for Christians. This harmony situation lasted for 70years.

In order to accommodate the increasing number of Muslims worships, the mosque was expanded and negotiations with the Christians were done in order to relinquish the built church at the half side of the temple. There are many historical remnants inside the mosque like the Mousaleum of Prophet Yahya a.s. (a.k.a. as John the Baptist by the Christians) and the Shrine of al Hussein (it is said that the head of al Hussein is buried there). There are also many pigeons could be seen in front of the Umayyad Mosque, which remind me to the Trafalgar Square in London.

Just in front of the mosque, one may unable to miss the busy part of Souq al Hamidiya. It is the most famous historical souk 600m long and 15m wide in Dimashq Qadim (old Damascus). There are many things sold in this area: foods (fresh breads, delicious pistachio ice creams), clothes (mantoue and abayas), head scarves, embroideries, tablecloths and handcrafts. The prices are negotiable and can be very cheap, if u knows how to bargain.

As we walk between the buildings, we lost our track and then we reached the Mosque of Ruqaya, granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. It was originally an 18^th century mosque and there is Mouseleum of Ruqaya inside. The construction buildings are sponsored by the Iranian government and we could see many Iranian visitors when we entered the building.

By afternoon, we arrived at the hotel with plastic bags and foods. I guess the guard and porter of the Hotel’s entrance already recognized us as the shopping-like person coz each time we came back, our hands will be occupied with shopping plastic bags, hehe. In the evening, we went for a walk at the nearby garden as the weather was just nice, not too windy and cool. There were many flowers could be seen and the people love to sit and relax at the park, especially with their family members. They like to sit on the grass with their children and wives, sometimes smoking shisha. As for dinner, we bought only one meal of chicken and mushroom with some side-dishes of small pizzas. But my goodness, it was a huge meal for the two of us and the price was also cheap (about RM12) though we bought at an exclusive restaurant nearby the hotel (Bait as Sham).