Calls Of Peddlers

Between alleys and markets, vegetables vendors used to come loading their mules with fruits and vegetables riding to the city from their farms. Every few moments they would cry out, monotonously naming their wares, they used to have special calls and songs on fruits and vegetables calling each by a special phrase, nowadays a lot of these calls have vanished, some are rarely still used although most of these traditions are totally forgotten, but you might hear some of it here and there in some old parts of Damascus…

- For example They used to cry out about selling cucumbers, “Isabe3 el Bubu ya khyar” which means it is very small like the baby’s fingers!
- Watermelon: “3al miksar ya battekh”, or “3al sikkeen”, here it means that the vendor is very much sure of the quality of the watermelon he sells, so you can cut it with a knife and see how juicy red flesh it is.
- Banana: “Abu n2ta ya moze” which was a famous kind of banana that has small black dots on its skin.
- grapes: “ Zaini ya 3enib” or “Derani ya 3enib” which are the palaces where they come from.
- Quince: “ Lil ma3oud ya sfargel” means quince for jam.
- Tarragon: “khayen” means traitor, they called it traitor because it is known that they planet it in a place while it grows in another place.
- beetroot: “ 3asal 3asal” it means honey, in other ward, it tastes sweet like honey.
- eggplant: “ Aswad metel el leil ya baitenjan” it means that these eggplants are black like the night which is a good sign!

Best Regards...

I send my best regards
to a house that taught us love and mercy.
To your white flowers,
the best in the neighborhood.
To my bed, to my books,
to all of the kids in the alley.
To all of these walls we covered
with noise from our writings.
To the lazy cat sleeping on the balcony.
To the lilac climbing bush the neighbor's window.

Taken from “Five Letters to my Mother” by Nizar Qabbani

Bosom Of Nature

Fresh breeze, swimming pool, dining room, patchy island and a family congress, all mixed together to form a joyful view in the Bosom of nature!

Forgotten City Of Brad

It is located on Leloon mountain on the north west of Aleppo, it goes back to the 2nd BC – 7th AD centuries, and it is considered second largest ancient city in the north of Syria, going there was just like going back into time, the forgotten land this is the first thing occurred to my mind when I was there, a backward neglected ancient city that is still inhibited by people, in between the ruins their simple stone made houses stand there as parts of the ruins itself.

Children there gathered around us as if they have never seen other people before, I approached a child and tried to talk to him, but he turned out that he doesn’t understand Arabic, so he called another one and in a minute I was surrounded by a bunch of children, I asked them if there is a school right there, they answered yes, in the school they learn Arabic, while they speak Kurdish or Turkish at home. "What do u know about this place", I asked. "It is old", a child replied. "Yeah I know, but how old is it?" I asked again. Another child answered, "it is very, very old"!!

In the city you can find St. Maron Tomb/ 410 AD the Father of Maronite sect who believed to be buried there, Julianos Cathedral/ 399 – 402 AD which is one of the three largest cathedrals in Syria, it seems that it was built over an old temple, some other chapels, cemeteries, monastery, monk cemeteries, pilgrimages hostel, pillar of stylite, and oil press as it was one of its basic industry.

When I returned home, I tried to search for some information about this city, but unfortunately I didn’t find anything useful about it, as if it never exists at all!