Azem Palace

One of the other 'must see' touristy things in Damascus is Azem Palace. It was built in 1750 for the Ottoman ruler of Damascus called Asad Pasha al Azem.

The house now houses a small museum of art and traditional crafts. Out of all the museums we've seen in Damascus, it's probably the best in terms of cost and things to see.



Here's what Wikipedia says about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azem_palace

The architecture is an excellent example of Damascene traditional houses. The structure itself consists of several buildings and two wings: the harem and the salamlik. The harem is the family wing, which was a private space for the residents (originally, the Azm family). This wing includes the kitchen, servant quarters, and the baths, which are a replica of the public baths in the city but on a smaller scale. The salamlik is the guest wing, and it comprises the formal halls, reception areas and large courtyards with traditional cascading fountains.

Used in the building of this palace were several types of stones including limestone, sandstone, basalt, and marble, chosen to provide a natural decoration for the structure. The ceilings have painted wooden panels that display natural scenes. In fact, Dr.Andrew Petersen, Director of Research in Islamic Archaeology at the University of Wales Lampeter states that the use of Ablaq (alternating courses of white limestone and black basalt) in this building is “A characteristic of the monumental masonry of Damascus.”^[1]

In 1925, the Azm palace was heavily damaged by French artillery during the Syrian revolution. It has since been restored and became a museum of arts and folk traditions. It received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983.

One thing to watch out for is the dodgy guards... They will often keep the inner doors closed and then open them up 'especially' for you in return for a tip. Very annoying!

The best room is the one with the religious items and the 'going for pilgrimage' display. There's an egg with a whole chapter of the Quran written on it! On my last visit, my friend managed to keep a look out while I snapped a quick pic on my phone!

Surah Waqia written on an egg!

Pic from school...

The weather is still freezing here! It's so cold that even the marble floors that they love using in their houses are like ice! So much so that when we remove our shoes to enter the prayer room at school, it's very tempting to take off our shoes at the door, so our poor socked feet don't have to touch the ground, rather than put them on the shoe rack and having to walk across the frozen corridor.

That was until this pic went up at the end of the week...




And here's a close up of the sign they wrote up....



It translates:

"Dear Sister,

From the will of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s) to his son Hassan:
Allah, Allah, organisation in your affairs

Dear sister, do you love order and organisation??? How are you in your houses? Perhaps this is how you put your shoes?

Which picture surprises you? We want your comments."

Okay so the whole sign and picture thing was totally OTT. Although the message still stands... we are sooooo okay with throwing litter in public places, putting our shoed feet up on the seats in public transport and leaving the toilet messy and unflushed after using it. But we wouldn't dream of doing these things at home!

Back in London at our local Islamic centre, it was so common to see people going home without cleaning up after themselves and their children. Truly, it doesn't take more than 2 mins to leave your spot clean (i.e how you found it!) and save a poor volunteer having to stay back and clean up afterwards!

Message of the day - the world would be a much nicer place if we all pitched in a little!

Botanical Gardens

I know, I know it's been ages since I last blogged. After a last-min unexpected trip to London, I came back to Syria and had a month of back-to-back family and friends come to stay. It was great fun, but that, along with the 6 hour daily power cuts are not helping the blogging cause!

Anyway.... here are some pics of one of my fav spots in the Old City of Damascus. It's the Botanical Gardens. Yes, you read that correctly - Syria does actually have a botanical garden! Not much of a site in the winter.... but spring/summer this place is an explosion of colours and fragrances!










There's also a little cafe that probably has the best desserts I've had in Syria so far! Crepes with fruit and even Nutella shawermas!

The new shia mosq in Sayyidda Zaynab!

I'm back to Syria and back to blogging! Yes, thank you all for reminding me that I haven't blogged for a while!

Here's a new pic from Sayyidda Zaynab - its of the shia mosque that's being built on 'the other side of the roundabout'! It's not quite finished yet, but already open for business!

It's called 'Imam Khumayni Mosque'. No prizes for guessing where its funding is coming from. LOL

Here's to my friend...

I cried most of my flight today. You see one of my closest friends passed away yesterday. She was the friend that made all life's problems disappear with her smile and a extra large box of Millies Cookies.

Life wasn't kind to my friend, even before I knew her. But yet she was the one who always said life is our test, and she always accepted what life threw at her. With a smile and matching accessories! And I knew that as long as she was there, everything would turn out ok.

I first met S when I was six. She was a bit older than me and her mum was organising a fashion show. Somehow I'd been roped into modelling a sari (which was thankfully changed to a peach dress later). I remember seeing S and thinking how glamourous she was!

Fast forward a few years, and we soon became good friends!

The day I realised what my friend was made of was the day I covered her year 4 boys class at Saturday Workshop. After half an hour of shouting at the boys to behave and sit still, and only managing to cover 3 mins of teaching material, I just knew S was angel sent from above! Every time I see her students, who incidentally are now themselves volunteers in our centre, I know its because S taught them with her tremendous patience and calm.

Always one to shy away from the limelight, S was one of the most hard working people I knew. And unlike me, she didn't want any recognition. She even got angry when people asked for prayers for her on facebook. Id love to see her expression if she knew how many facebook status' were dedicated to her right now!

And then the adventures and the memories. That's a good few blog posts! The shopping and chocolates private jokes, the trekking to Manchester (including the toilet stops on the way!), the Hours we spent making nasheed playlists for her walima, only for someone on the day to request that the first 30 secs from track one to be repeated over and over again! Then there was all the freebie toothpastes and toothbrushes and dental floss ( if you are S's employer, I'm sure she paid for them!) and her bright idea of scrubbing my bridal mehendi with a toothbrush (my skin has never quite recovered!). And the jeans theory... Which I never did get to clarify!

S's passing away still feels like a bad dream. In the back of my mind, I'm still working out her next chemotherapy date and planning how I'm going to skip a couple of hours of work to sit with her (if you are my employer and reading this, I promise, I was delivering notes and plans!). Even with her being so sick, she'd always turn up for hospital appointments with a huge rucksack full of snacks, even sandwiches she'd made especially for me! S is the ONLY sick person I know who's made food for other people!

My life has definitely been richer with S in it and I pray I can uphold her legacy with her patience when facing trials whilst looking like a glam hijabi babe!

Miss you.

School Books

School is in full swing... I have classes from 8am to 1pm 5 days a week, with Thursdays and Fridays off.

My school bag is heavy! These are my books:


From Top left:
The brown book is 'Duroos fi Uloomul Qur'an' or Lessons in Quranic Sciences. 355 pages. We've been told that memorising the summaries at the end of each chapter is enough to pass the exam.

The blue book next to it is Jafer Subhani's 'Seeratul Muhamadiya' or the Life story of the Holy Prophet. 287 pages, but written really easily in story format

The blue and white book is 'Aadaabal Islam vol 1' or Islamic Manners/behaviour. 325 pages. The teacher summarises the chapters into bullet points which she makes us number in the book. She also expects us to regurgitate the lesson on the spot! scary stuff. Especially when you are one of the few non-Arabs in the class!

The little book on the bottom left is the last chapter of the Holy Quran (Juz Amma). It contains the last 37 chapters of the Holy Quran and we are expected to memorise it by the end of the term.

The light blue book next to it is 'Aqeedatul Islamiya' or Islamic Principles of Faith. 458 pages, badly photocopied and bound together. Actually its not the whole book, its just the half we are studying this term!

The green book with the pic of Imam Khumayni is our Tajweed book - or how to recite the Quran with the correct pronunciation. We haven't started this class yet as the teacher hasn't returned back from the summer holiday (she's not the only one - 6 members of the class are still in their home countries!)

The blue and brown book is our Sarf book or morphology. Its the Arabic grammar book we're studying this year. Our teacher is Egyptian, but you would never guess from the way she speaks Arabic. She's convinced I don't know grammar very well, so she's always asking me questions.

The books arrived late - we were well into our first week before the deliveries starting trickling in. The theory is that the books are printed in Iran and then shipped over.

We're still waiting for our Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and Hifdhul Mawdhooi (Memorisation of the Quran by subject) books, but nevertheless, the teachers are ploughing on with the lessons.

The books have cost a grand total of 260 liras, which is just under 4 pounds - a hell of a lot cheaper than university textbooks back home!

With so much studying this term, I guess I can kiss my social life goodbye!

Musalla of Sayyida Zainab

There's one thing that REALLY annoys me when I got to the Musalla of Sayyida Zainab (The bit where they have the congregational prayers).

It's not the fact that you have to go early to get a spot near the fan in the summer, nor the fact that you have to hang around at the end to avoid the rush. Nor, as the guidebook says, is it the overpowering stench of feet (I guess 2 years in Iran made me immune to that!). And I can even deal with people not praying in sync - not everyone is lucky enough to have areligious education.

The thing that really annoys me is this... there is a certain group of people (whom I won't name, otherwise I'll get tonnes of hate mail) who think its ok to come into the prayer room lastminute.com and assume that a spot will mgically open up for them. Just so you know woman - the space doesn't open up, but rather you squash the rest of us who actually turned up on time. And, to make matters worse, they often bring in these huge shopping bags with them. It's kinda ironic that in the shrines in their own country, they are not even allowed to take food and water bottles, let alone shopping, but in Syria they think nothing of huge 'take up a whole person's space' shopping bags.

A friend of mine last summer used to refuse to let them squeeze in at the last minute and actualy lecture them about turning up on time, rather than taking the scenic route via the souk. I tried it once, but turns out the woman had just arrived to Syria and she'd literally freshened up and ran out the door in order to get to the prayer room on time. She did promise me, however, she wasn't going to do any shoppping :-)

Pic taken last night of a lastminute.com lady who squeezed in next to us and her shopping bags