The Old City of Damascus

The old city of Damascus is a great place to people watch, shop in the souq, get a dose of history, say your prayers and eat till you drop. 

Our first stop on Friday is the Umayyad Mosque.  Friday of course is the holy day in the Middle East and the day when all the shops are shut and people take time out to visit the mosque to pray. 

The mosque has not yet opened for visitors when we get there and there are masses of people standing around.  Many of them are Muslim pilgrims from neighbouring countries, while others are locals from the neighbourhood. 

Friday is also the day when women visit the mosque to pray so there are people of both sexes waiting to get in.  It is a good time to people watch…

Yvonne and I are distracted by what appears to be a story teller.  

A crowd of male pilgrims are listening to him intently as he passionately narrates a story from the Quran.  The women are seated on the outskirts and seem to be listening as well.  Later we learn they are Iranian pilgrims.  At one point, the story gets so intense, the men are in tears and keep dabbing at their eyes.  I have never seen anything like this and am amazed at their passion and the intensity of their beliefs. 

Cafes where men would gather to socialise, discuss politics, drink and exchange ideas or wait out a stressful event (read birth of a child) while listening to a story teller are also very much part of the old culture of this city so it is interesting to see this in practice by pilgrims at the mosque. 

The mosque opens and we buy our tickets and hire a local guide who gives us a fascinating insight into the culture and history of this mosque.  Us women are given long, brown, unflattering abayas to wear before we are allowed to go inside.  This spot has been a place of worship for thousands of years.  It has been converted from a Temple of Jupiter (Roman times) to a Byzantine cathedral to the mosque it is today.

We find it quite interesting that the elements found in a mosque are very similar to that found in a church.  From the pulpit for special sermons on Fridays, to the stained glass windows, minarets, people kneeling in worship and the high ceilings, it is very much like a cathedral with one difference.  The intensity of the beliefs of these people and their dedication to their religion is something I have not felt or witnessed in any church I’ve been to.  Some of the elements such as the baptism basins which have no similar use in Islam are used for cleansing themselves as they enter the mosque.  The Muslims believe that the minaret of Jesus found at this mosque is where Christ will appear on earth on Judgement Day!

We discuss the devotion of Muslims to their religion with our guide.  He thinks it might be the fact that all children are taught the doctrine at an early age and grow up in a close knit religious society that creates a sense of belonging where their religious beliefs play a big role in how their lives are lived.  While many Christians might go to church on a Sunday, not many of them are prepared to live the kind of simple life Christ talked about. 

While I knew there were a lot of similarities between Christianity and Islam, I never expected to stumble across the shrine of John the Baptist inside!  It is supposed to hold the head of this great prophet (known as Yehia to Muslims) and a giant candle encased in gold is placed outside the golden cage which houses it.   

It has been an amazing morning of wandering through the mosque and absorbing the intensity of feeling amongst the worshipers here.  This is one of the greatest religious centres to Muslims around the world and it was special to be there on their holy day.  We could feel the spirituality of the place but we come down to earth when our stomachs start to rumble and go for a wander in the Christian quarter, in search of food.

“She measures time, not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise and prosper and crumble to ruin.  She is a type of immortality.”  Mark Twain