Damascus

She is Baghdad’s rival sister, Beirut’s bait, Cairo’s envy, Amman’s dream, Mecca’s conscience, Cordoba’s jealousy, Jerusalem’s eyes, the coquetry of cities, and a crutch for every aged caliph throughout history.

She is Damascus, a woman with seven wonders, five names, and ten titles; she is an abode for a thousand saints, a school for twenty prophets, and an inspiration for fifteen gods. 

She is Damascus, the more ancient and the more orphaned, the beginning of dreams and their ends, the starting point for conquests and their convoys, the moseying of poems, and every poet’s trap. 

This is Damascus. She has tolerated everyone—the pimps and the dreamers, the petty and the revolutionaries, passers-by and residents, those addicted to biting her, those who chewed her nails, the losers, the convicts, the innocent, and the lustful. 

Scenes from Damascus