Bananas Don't Travel Well

butcher in Aleppo soukBack in the U.S., when we told people we were going to Syria, the response we got was usually an uncomfortable pause, followed eventually by, “Oh right, you're Canadian.” (This I chose to interpret as, “oh right, you must be allowed to go—or feel comfortable going—there because you are Canadian”, rather than “oh right, of course you're crazy, you are Canadian.”) Most people seemed pretty hesitant to endorse this adventure, thinking that it must be very dangerous, and we got lots of exhortations to be careful. Some even thought it was somehow illegal or impossible for Americans to go to Syria, when in fact the two countries have full diplomatic relations and there are no travel restrictions whatsoever.

Given the negative portrayal of the Middle East in the Western media, and particularly Bush's branding of Syria as part of the Axis of Evil, it's perhaps not surprising that people took it this way. Even among those who see through the more obvious rhetoric, the information that filters through does lead to the impression that Syrians (and Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians, etc.) are all cave-dwelling religious fanatics harbouring murderous intentions toward all Westerners. While we were pretty certain this wasn't the truth, we still weren't quite sure what to expect.

Having spent three weeks in Syria, we thought it would be appropriate to comment on what we saw there. The image that I described above could not be further from the truth. Let's set the record straight: Syrians are proud, educated, tolerant, and hospitable people, with strong family ties, who are entirely welcoming toward outsiders. In this posting, I will describe our experiences in the ancient cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and talk more generally about Syrian (and Middle Eastern) society.

The port cities and their souks

spice and soap shopBoth Damascus and Aleppo lay claim to being among the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. Situated in oases on the eastern edge of the coastal mountains, on the western edge of the Syrian desert, they are, in a sense, desert “ports.” For the Silk Road caravans coming out of the East, these cities would have represented the beginning of the end of the journey, the arrival in civilized territory. Like most ports, they have benefited from contact with foreigners (as well as countless invasions), and have always been centers of diversity and tolerance.

The markets, or souks, of Damascus and Aleppo are similarly ancient. What makes them special today is that, more than most cities in the Near and Middle East, they are still as vibrant as they ever were. Shopping malls and supermarkets have simply not caught on in Syria, and people still go to the souks to do their shopping. Apart from a few handicraft shops with somewhat agressive touts, they are also not touristy. While donkeys have largely been replaced with motorbikes and Chinese pickup trucks, and many of the goods sold are modern, the souks still seem essentıally untouched by the 20th (or 21st) century.

fountain in the Khan As'Ad PashaAlthough the location and spirit of the souks date back to Roman times (or earlier), the actual construction of the covered markets is somewhat newer: 19th century in Damascus and 16th century in Aleppo. But they are still very atmospheric: in Damascus, the Ottoman-era roof is punctuated with bullet holes from various wars that let little dots of light in lıke stars; Aleppo's souk is covered with vaulted stone roofs with vents at the peaks letting in more deliberate shafts of light. The smells are amazing: the midsummer stench of the butcher shops is compensated for by the wonderful spice shops and (in Aleppo) the merchants selling the local olive oil and laurel soap. In addition to shops, the souqs host mosques and madrassas, large and small, whose calls to prayer add to the atmosphere, and numerous khans, ancient warehouses or caravanserais, as well as grand old houses that date to Ottoman times. Some of these houses have been renovated and made into excellent restaurants (and a few boutique hotels as well). For around $15 two people can eat a fantastic middle eastern meal in a beautiful inlaid-stone courtyard with fountains (that is without alcohol, which is not commonly served). The really nice part is that these places are not put on for the tourists (at least not the ones in Damascus) and there are plenty of locals eating out there too.

Welcome and honesty

bus to Al Ma'araWe found Syrians (and Middle Easterners in general) to be incredibly friendly and welcoming. Hospitality towards guests is a matter of honour and pride, and as mass tourism has yet to reach Syria foreigners are still viewed as guests. People would often stop us on the street to ask us where we are from, and we were often plied with endless cups of tea (getting to sleep at night has become a challenge!).

On one occasion, we took a local bus from Aleppo to a town called Al Ma'ara. The town has a small museum with what turned out to be a fantastic collection of Roman mosaics from the dead cities, but this was really just an excuse for us to make an excursion into the countryside. The bus was full of bedouin on the way to their villages and farms and we were the subject of much excitement and attention. The bus “attendant” had a small gas burner on which he made tea for the passengers. Being strangers (everyone else on the bus knew each other), we were forced to drink several cups in succession. When the pot was finally empty we drew a false sigh of relief, as he was quick to draw out a thermos of thick, strong coffee. The bus driver was a real character, chain smoking and gulping coffee, several inches of chest hair exposed, and his bus decorated with a photoshopped picture of his daughter riding a bike with President Al-Assad alongside a Hezbollah sticker. He was clearly well known by everyone along the route, as we stopped several times for him to throw packages out the window and chat with people along the way.

While we did ocassionally get overcharged, for the most part Syrians seem very honest. We have two examples to demonstrate this. The first was in Damascus. We had been toying with the idea of buying a micro laptop, and found a used candidate in a small computer shop. The guys who ran the shop were up-front about it having some issues and told us we could bring it back within a few days if we didn't like it. We hesitated, but decided to trust them, and paid for it in US cash. When we discovered the issues were indeed serious, they took it back and refunded all our money (still sitting in their cash drawer), no questions asked.

The second episode was in Aleppo, when we took Chris' passport to a photo shop to have it scanned (necessary for our Turkmen and Uzbek visas, and somehow couldn't find the file we'd prepared before leaving home). We were pretty tired that day, and somehow left the shop without the passport. Two hours later we realized our mistake and ran back, only to find it had closed for the night. The next day was a Sunday, and it was just our luck that the place was run by Christians and was closed (Muslims close shop on Friday), so we waited a whole anxious day. But on Monday morning the woman recognized us immediately and handed it right back—an honest mistake on both our parts.

Islam and a culture of tolerance

interior of Umayyad mosqueWe also found Syria to be a very tolerant society. Although the majority of Syrians are Muslim Arabs, there are a number of minorities, including Coptic Christians (descendants of the original Christians), Kurds, and Armenians, to name a few. We met several Armenians whose parents and grandparents had migrated to Syria from Turkey during the genocide of 1915. It was they who articulated to us the tolerance inherent to Syrian society that enables them to live and worship in peace.

Even within Islam, there is a wide range in people's degree of observance. After Egypt, where people seemed quite religious, we were surprised by how few in Syria answered the call to prayer. The most obvious indication of piousness is demonstrated through womens' attire. This ranges from complete head-to-toe coverage in black (we have not been able to figure out how one deals with the issue of identification in this case—what kind of passport photo does a woman in purdah use?); to modest but regular clothing with a headscarf tied to cover the hair and sometimes the neck; to short skirts, strappy tops and the latest hairstyles. As might be expected, people are more conservative in the country than the city, so the mix varies, but regardless people seem to accept other peoples' choices in this matter: you often see women friends walking down the street holding hands, one in purdah and the other in jeans and a t-shirt.

We have visited several mosques (albeit not on Fridays) and have found that, so long as you make an effort to follow their customs (i.e., women must cover up) people are very welcoming of “infidels.” Mosques are nothing like churches. They are open community spaces with carpets (no benches) in which people go to hang out as often as pray. The ones we have visited have been filled with families picnicking, people sleeping, kids running around playing, and the odd person praying or reading the Koran. The Umayyad mosque in Damascus, one of the oldest in the world (although it has been renovated it dates to the early days of Islam and was converted from a Byzantine cathedral which in turn replaced a Roman temple) was a wonderfully atmospheric place to spend some time away from the heat and chaos of the souq.

An Axis of Evil?

evil?Though, like most of the developing world, concepts such as “litter”, “noise” and “safety” haven't exactly caught on, Syria certainly appeared to be on the developed side of “developing.” Syria's west is very fertile and the country is a net exporter of food. It has modest oil and gas reserves which combined with pipeline revenues provide a reasonable amount of foreign currency. Although there are certainly poor people, we never saw anyone living in squalor. Our impression was of a country whose economy was doing very well and whose people were quite healthy. This combined with the impressions above leads us to ask: just why has Syrıa been so villified by the U.S.? The official line is that the government supports Hezbollah and therefore is an enemy in the “war on terror.” We are by no means experts on Middle Eastern politics or policies, but we increasingly feel that it is more than that. Perhaps the mere notion of a nation that has it together without relyıng on the U.S. is threatening.

For me, visiting Syria has put a face on the war in Iraq. Before the first Gulf War, Iraq and Syria would have been quite similar—both were Arab nations with relatively educated populations and developed economies. It is not a stretch to imagine that the people experiencing the nightmares of the invasion and ensuing civil war are just like the proud people we have met in the last few weeks.