All posts tagged Syria

AN APPOINTMENT WITH AGATHA

By | October 28, 2012 | History, Travel + Leisure, Travel Chronicles | 1 Comment

By Islam El Shazly

Throughout the ages, Egypt has seen her fair share of foreign celebrities, philosophers, Scientists, and state men and women; from Herodotus to Caesar, from Napoleon to Churchill, and from Homer to Agatha Christie and beyond.

The Queen of suspense gets her fair share of the pie though; her visits to Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia spawned some of the best, most memorable tales of crime and suspense, with a backdrop of archaeology and history of days gone by and history in the making.

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SYRIA: BILAD AL-SHAM

By | August 24, 2011 | Politics | 1 Comment

By Islam El Shazly

In 1260 CE the Mongol horde under Hulagu ravaged Syria, The Great Mosque and the Citadel of Aleppo were razed and most of the inhabitants were killed or sold into slavery.

In 1400 CE Timur, also known as Tamerlane or Timūr-e Lang, the Turco-Mongol conqueror, invaded Syria, sacked Aleppo then besieged and captured Damascus. The Umayyad Mosque was razed and most of the inhabitants were massacred, the rest were sold into slavery. The lucky ones were the artisans; they were spared and sent to Samarqand, the capital of the Timurid Empire. The unlucky ones had their heads piled up in a field outside the north-east corner of the walls, where a city square still bears the name burj al-ru’us, literally “the tower of heads”. Read more…