Editorial - Martin Luther King’s Anti-War Stand
In 1967, the United States was embroiled in the war in Vietnam. On 4 April 1967, Martin Luther King delivered an anti-war address at Riverside Church, Upper Manhattan, New York. It was titled 'Beyond Vietnam'. Exactly one year later, he was assassinated.
The address was controversial. There was great pressure on Martin Luther King...
Published by Beloved Syria with the permission of the author.
'A Child in Damascus' was first published in SYRIA through writers' eyes, Edited by Marius Kociejowski (Eland Publishing Ltd, 2010)
A Child in Damascus
by Josceline Dimbleby
...years later I understood the saying that once you have lived in Damascus, it lives in you
In the early summer of 1950, aged seven, I arrived...
'A Foolish Man', the story below, is from Kan Ya Ma Kan: Folktales and Recipes of Syria and its Ethnic Groups by the late Muna Imady. It is published here by 'Beloved Syria' with the permission of the author's mother, Elaine Imady.
This story comes from Sweida.
As explained in the introduction to 'A Foolish Man', Sweida is the southernmost of Syria’s...
Written by Alex Ray and first published in Middle East Eye, 26 May 2019
The capital's green spaces symbolise how many are trying to revitalise the environment amid the blood of war.
By Alex Ray in Damascus
26 May 2019
Fareed Notafji sips the sweet, strong labourer’s tea as we sit in front of the guard shed at the SEA Environmental Garden in Damascus.
When...
Written by Jack Bettar
Spread across fertile mountains, between olive and pistachio groves, and across windswept limestone hills, sits an assortment of ancient ruins, some mysterious, but all precious not just to Syria’s history but to the history of humankind in general.
In the Aleppo and Idlib governorates (provinces), there can be found unique and rare insights into life more than...
Published by Beloved Syria with the permission of the author.
Lady Damascus was first published in SYRIA through writers’ eyes, edited by Marius Kociejowski (Eland Publishing Ltd, 2010).
Brigid Keenan is a journalist and author. Her book Damascus: Hidden Treasures of the Old City (Thames & Hudson, 2000) and the photographer Tim Beddow who helped her produce it are mentioned in Lady Damascus. See this...
… any attempt to force cultures and peoples into separate and distinct breeds or essences exposes not only the misrepresentations and falsifications that ensue, but also the way in which understanding is complicit with the power to produce such things as the “Orient” or the “West”.’
- Edward W. Said (Orientalism, p. 348, 1995 Penguin edition)
The following article appeared in...
In September 2019 on a visit to Damascus, I interviewed Athar, a Syrian woman who has been in her church scout group since she was 15 years old. We chatted in Beit Jabri, a popular restaurant in old Damascus.
Athar explained that her scout group meets once a week for band practice and for activities for the children.
Also, at their...
Beit Jabri is one of many remarkable family homes in the lanes of old Damascus that have opened their doors to the public: they may have become boutique hotels or more humble abodes for international students or backpackers. Others, like Beit Jabri, have become cafe-restaurants that offer the delights of the Damascene cuisine.
Sitting at one of the tables in...
Once upon a time,
There was a paradise.
It was on earth.
It was in Syria.
It was a haven for great civilisations.
It was a haven for Mother Nature.
It was a generous land with generous people.
It was an incubator of remarkable inventions.
It was the land where life was lived richly.
It was the theatre where love danced joyfully.
It was the place where million-year-old souls...
