The
Umayyads
haunt
us
still.
They
can never be completely ig
nored.
They
can never be, for long, for
gotten.
And
the Roman prints are still
all
too
visible
in
our genes,
in
our desert,
if
nowhere else.
(So
are the sha t ter
ings of the Seleucid dream).
A
would-be Assassin still
l u
r k s
b
e
h
i
n
d
every
corner.
And
crowds of new Qarmatians are
eagerly
searching
for
some
hapless
cause
to
emb
r
a
c
e.
Yet
another Dirt-Mover is out
to m
o
v
e
MOUNTAINS,
on
his
own,
through
simple acts of
faith
and
d e
f i a n c e.
And
yet another Sufi adept is
hoping
to
r
e
v i
v e,
somehow,
the
“sciences” of dead and
d
y ing
reli
g
ions.
Sinbad
is still trying to lord over
the
WaVeS
of
angst.
His.
Ours.
And
Aladin continues to peddle
his
magic
rings
and
lamps.
There
are still people around who are quite
willing
to
open
up
the
bellies
of
pregnant women to separate
their
sinful bodies
from
the
innocence
with
in.
(A
rather crude and futile attempt
at
self-assertion).
While
the Jinn,
oh,
those nasty Jinn,
still
frolic and
r o
a m
freely
on
Earth,
and
in
Heaven.
(Occasionally
causing the Earth to
s
h i
f t
and
T
o
T
t
E
r
on
the
horns
of
the
Heavenly
Bull –
the
one Gilgamesh and Enkidu did not quite
manage
to
kill).
All,
as
Holy Fish,
caught
right
from
the waters of the
River
of Milk and Honey
are
getting
casually
cru ci
fied
over
old
and
rusty
g r
i l
l s.
Shehrazad
is currently s
p
i
n
n
i
n
g
her trillion
and second
tale
(to
an audience
too
captive
to
listen).
Can
anything ever change in Damascus?
May 1999
Notes
The Umayyads: the
first Arab Muslim dynasty in history. Established in 661 AD, it lasted until
the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty in 750 AD, with its power base always
located in Natural Syria (Modern Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and
parts of southern Turkey).
The Seleucids: the
Greek dynasty that ruled over Syria after Alexander’s conquest in 333 BC and
right up to the Roman conquest in 64 BC.
The Assassins and the
Qarmatians: two Muslim sects that were active in Syria, and elsewhere
during medieval times. They occupy a special place in the topsy-turvy history
of Islamic civilization due to the many myths woven around them, by Muslim,
Arab and Western scholars.
The Kharijites:
arguably the first sect to be established in Islamic history. Its followers
were such fierce warriors and so fanatically committed to their cause, that
they were often accused by their antagonists of committing such heinous crimes
as opening up of the bellies of pregnant women and killing the babies inside.
Admittedly, however, these stories seem to reflect the prejudices of the
Kharijites’ ideological enemies. The Kharjites did not leave any credible
account of their early history. The only surviving Kharijites live in Oman,
where the make up the majority, and parts of Algeria.
The Dirt-Mover: an enigmatic figure that appeared in Damascus
between the years 976 and 983 AD, and made himself the veritable ruler of the
City at a time of great turmoil both inside and outside. He is said never to
have forgotten his lowly origins, which made quite popular among the poorer
classes.
“The Revival of the Religious
Sciences”: a book by the famous medieval scholar Al-Ghazali (d. 1111
AD), in which he tried to harmonize between the esoteric teachings of Sufism
and those of traditional Sunni Islam.
The Heavenly Bull: in
the legend of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, it is the Bull raised by the gods and
unleashed against our heroes in response to the urgings of Ishtar, whose
advances towards Gilgamesh were flatly rejected. The heroes end up killing the
Heavenly Bull, angering the gods even more.