Description of Damascus the Quick Tour
These are Shazi’s pictures that she meant to put in an album. I just stole em for y’all 
Category Archives: road to damascus series
Road to Damascus 14 – Damascus the Quick Tour
Posted by jannah on December 25, 2006
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Road to Damascus 13 – Damascus the Old City
Posted by jannah on December 24, 2006
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Description of Damascus the Old City
Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Originally Damascus was surrounded by strong citadel walls. Within these walls is the ‘Old City’. The whole area around the ‘Old City’ was at one time farms, groves, orchards and olive vineyards.
There is a legend that when the prophet (s) came to Syria he stood on top of Jabl Qasyoun — the mountain overlooking this area. Looking down upon Damascus’s gardens and beauty, he said he did not wish to enter Jannah (heaven) in this life, so he and his companions turned back. As Damascus grew, some of the wealthier citizens started building homes along the slopes of the mountain. Then immigrants settled along it’s slopes including Kurds who are still there today in good numbers.
The Old City is just SubhanAllah like walking through time. There is SO much history there. There are old madrasas and schools, beautiful Damascene houses (see Azem palace pics if u haven’t), the Ummayad Mosque, old souks, hospitals. Walking down some of the narrow alleyways in the Old City you feel like you are living in 12th Century Damascus. It is almost completely unchanged. I mean Sahabah walked here! Did you know Bilal (ra) and many other Sahaba came to live in Damascus. Amazing, great scholars lived here. Famous Muslim people in history like great women scholars and Salahuddin! This is what Damascus is and why everyone who comes here falls in love with it.
So the first few pictures are from an outdoor display that was near the souk. Then there are various pictures of stores in the souk selling things, old pillars dating back to Roman times and before, various gateways, doors, churches, restaurants and alleyways. There’s one picture of hajj decorations for sale. A beautiful tradition they have is of decorating the home of a person who has returned back from Hajj. So you’ll see all these beautiful little banners saying ‘hajj mabrur’ and little kabas and the house will be lit up with lights. From far away like on the mountain looking down you see all these homes lit up of people who have come back from Hajj. It’s like they brought the noor with them subhanAllah.
There’s a picture of Abu Darda (ra)’s grave that’s in the souk. And the pictures of a big building with domes is actually an old caravanserai (traveller’s inn) within the souk. Isn’t that little door so cute! They were having some kind of French art display there at the time too.
Road to Damascus 12 – Buhaira’s Monastery
Posted by jannah on December 23, 2006
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Description of Buhaira’s Monastery
THE most famous place in Bosra for Muslims is Buhaira’s Monastery.
The story from Seerah is that when the prophet (saw) was 12 he came here to Bosra with his uncle on a trading mission by caravan. Buhaira was a monk here who had knowledge of the old books. (Baa-hira in English.) He noticed some signs that this caravan was special. He saw the stones and trees prostrating and a cloud that continuously gave them shade. So then the monks invited the caravan to dinner here at the monastery. But when everyone was there, Buhaira knew someone was missing. “Is there someone else with you?”, he asked. And Abu Talib said, “No there is only a boy.” Buhaira said, “Tell him to come.” Then Buhaira asked who his father was and Abu Talib said he was his father. Then Buhaira said, “That cannot be.” And Abu Talib, though surprised, admitted that he was his uncle, and the boy was an orphan.
After that Buhaira looked for the ‘seal of prophethood’ birthmark and knew that the boy was the one foretold in the old books and prophecies. So he told Abu Talib, “This is the master of all humans. Allah will send him with a Message which will be a mercy to all beings.” Then he told Abu Talib to take Muhammad back because he feared for his safety. Abu Talib then sent him back with some servants.
Ahhh to be in that place, in the monastery!! It was such a cool feeling. When you go to Makkah and Madinah even you have to try to imagine, but here are remnants of what was. And you can imagine the monks hosting a dinner here and rasulullah coming as a small boy summoned and answering the monks questions. SubhanAllah.
Also here are some pictures of our guide showing us ‘the place where rasulullah’s camel kneeled’. The guys in our group definitely gave the guide a hard time over it. ie “How can it still be there 1400 years later, etc”. There are definitely marks there though and they claim it is a mu’jiza so Allahu Alam.
The video gives you a nice 360 view of the Monastery.
Road to Damascus 11 – Bosra Roman Amphitheater
Posted by jannah on December 22, 2006
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Description of Bosra Roman Amphitheater
The most famous thing in Bosra for tourists is the Bosra citadel complex. Basically it is an old Roman amphitheater which was fortified by the Muslims into a citadel. It was quite big and the time we went quite filled with school children on holiday. It totally reminded us of all the scenes in Gladiator!!
Our Ustadh (group leader) gave us a nice history which is on the video and we all walked around and took pictures in various places. Down in the center of the theater some of the students were performing the Dabka — a traditional Arab dance for weddings and special occassions.
The funniest thing happenned when we came out of the amphitheater. All of a sudden all these big black SUV jeeps rolled up with tinted windows and parked at crazy diagonal angles in front of the citadel. Soldiers got out and blocked off the entrance areas. Then the word was whispered and got louder… “Raees…. Raees!!” “The president, the president of Syria!!” More people came, gathered and stood around excited. Then after a little while two or three more fancy SUV’s show up and guys with rifles get out and stand guard… and then someone comes out. We were like that’s not the president?! Who is that… some famous actor, superstar? Then he comes closer and we realize they are dressed all Iranian. Then someone recognizes him: Khatami!! It was the former Iranian president. He waved and smiled and left with his entourage to enter the Roman theater. What a let down. Oh well at least he waved and smiled at us 
Road to Damascus 10 – Bosra Lake Resort
Posted by jannah on December 21, 2006
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Description of Bosra Lake Resort
I forget the real name of this place but it was something interesting. I’ll check my journal and add it later. It’s basically one of those small lakes that Syrians jump upon and create a tourist mecca out of. Places like these are very rare in Syria so they build these whole little resorts around them with fancy restaurants, boat rides, horse rides and things. And the nice thing is that they’re very family oriented. My brother in law enjoyed getting back to his Texan roots by horse-riding. We had lunch here with our whole class. Don’t ask why but for some reason we ordered fish and then proceeded to take numerous pictures with said fish and said fish heads. We also went row-boating in groups. Sorry there’s not much here after I took out the personal pictures.
Road to Damascus 9 – Bosra City and Ruins
Posted by jannah on December 20, 2006
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Description of Bosra City and Ruins
Bosra is a city south of Damascus. Pronounced Boo-saara, not like BA-sra, Iraq or as they say on the news BAAZRA, EYERACK. 
This was an official school trip of brothers and sisters. It was April but already the temperature was climbing. We walked through tons of ruins for hours and I almost passed out (according to Shaz did sorta pass out at the Ibn Kathir Madrassa, you’ll see that later!)
The ruins were interesting and some date to Roman times, but as one British sister said in her cockney accent ‘U seen 1 ruinz u right seenz all of ‘im!’. It’s definitely a touristy place but they were selling some unique items, like the beautiful blue plates with calligraphy. The tall pillar shaped minaret is part of an old mosque called the Mosque of Fatima.
Lastly there are some pictures of some architecturally amazing looking houses that we passed from the bus. Oh and some bedouin tents too!
Road to Damascus 8 – Beit Jinn
Posted by jannah on December 19, 2006
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Description of Beit Jinn
Beit Jinn is… well I have no idea where it is. I think south/north? of Damascus. Beit Jinn just means the House of Jinn. No one is sure why it’s named that but people say because it’s so far out into nowhere that there must be Jinn out here! My South African friend laughed in the video when I said that.
We came here with a big group from our class including Anisa (my teacher)’s two kids. There’s a beautiful lake and we went for a boat ride, and the kids went on the horses. The views of the countryside as we went and came back from there were just so idyllic as postcards.
We stopped at one point and I saw this really beautiful garden of someone’s and while I was there the mother came out and I started chatting with her and asked if I could take a picture with Shaz there. Then the rest of the class came, and we discovered the turtles and it went about chaotic from that point on. An interesting thing that I remember here is how two stranger syrians interact with each other. When my annisa came over, she said Assalaam alaikum and was so kind and polite, and the other woman was so kind and polite and they kept saying duas for each other. It’s part of the culture in Syria. Like when someone calls anyone they spend the first 15 minutes and last 15 minutes just saying phrases like May Allah bless you, May Allah bless your hands, Allahumma salli…salat on the nabiy etc. Same thing in the stores. It’s really a beautiful akhlaq.
The last few pictures are us at the border. The border of Syria and Israel. There were alot of soldiers here and we were only allowed a few minutes to stop and take a picture of the waterfall here and move on. Behind this waterfall is the Golan Heights and if Israel were to invade or attack Syria this is where it would be from so you can see why they were twitchy.
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