Rihla (The Journey) – was the
short title of a 14th Century (1355 CE) book written in Fez by the Islamic
legal scholar Ibn Jazayy al-Kalbi of Granada who recorded and then transcribed
the dictated travelogue of the Tangerian, Ibn Battuta. The book’s full title
was A Gift to Those who Contemplate the
Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling and somehow the title of
Ibn Jazayy's book captures the ethos of many of the city and country journeys I
have been lucky to take in past years.
This is a Rihla about the small breakaway Canton of
Afrin, one of the three cantons of Rojava (Rojavaye or Western Kurdistan) in
the north of Syria, home to many of the deserted Ancient Villages (a.k.a.
Dead Cities) of Northern Syria.
On the 11th
October 2010 I travelled northwards from Aleppo to visit the monastery complex
of St Simeon at Deir Sam’an in Afrin district. It was a time of rising tensions
in Syria but travelling then was both safe and possible.
By January 2014 however Afrin
(‘Ifrin) District, one of the 11 districts that previously constituted the
Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, declared itself part of a Democratic
Confederalism and one of the three Cantons that would constitute the autonomous
territory of Rojavayê Kurdistanê (Western Kurdistan) or Rojava. The other two
cantons from west to east are Kobani and Jazira and in the past two years Rojava
has spent much of its energy and focus on confronting ISIS (Islamic State in
Iraq and Syria), Rebel and Government forces to establish the territorial remit
of the Confederation.
Within its borders the new
Afrin Canton contains, scattered on the hills and mountains (Kurd Dag, Jebel
Sem’an, Hariqa & Barisha) of the exposed Limestone Massif (Massif Calcaire)
that stretches 30-40 km east-to-west and 120 km north-to-south (with Jebel Al
Al’a, Jebel Doueili, Jebel Wastani & Jebel Zawiye to south west of Afrin
territory) in northern Syria, some of the most important of the 700 plus UNESCO
inscribed Roman-Byzantine sites (towns, villages & monastic settlements)
known as the Ancient Villages of Syria. Collectively these sites, concentrated
in eight demarcated zones, were inscribed a year after my visit, as a Cultural
Landscape on the World Heritage List of Outstanding Universal Value.
One of the most important
of these sites is the monastery and church of St Simeon the Stylite at Deir
Sem’an, about 20 km south of Afrin on the north-western edge of the Jebel
Sem’an outcrop of the Massif.
The Afrin Valley and Kurd Dagh Mountains to the North East
St Simeon was born in Sis,
the capital of the Armenian Kingdom of Cicilia, north of present-day Adana
around 390 CE. At a very early stage, and as an extension to hermetic example
of the early Christian Desert Fathers such as St Anthony, he adopted very
extreme and fanatical hermetic practices, which even alienated the monastic
community at Eusebona that he had joined at the age of 16.
Expelled from the
monastery he made his way to an almost deserted hermitage run by Bassus at
Telneshae (Telanissos). Here he shut himself away and fasted for a year-and-a-half
in a hut before finding a narrow rocky ledge to perch on. He remained in this
small open cell for about 10 years until about 422 when a vision induced him to
thereafter conduct his devotions and fasting atop a stone pillar. His style of
asceticism irritated the authorities because they thought it was similar to the
pre-Christian local Ashera Pole form of pagan worship to the Canaanite mother-goddess
of fertility Asherah (Astarte or Attart).
Soon the pilgrims and
‘sightseers’ that sought him out forced him to put an increasing vertical
distance between his piety and their pursuit. Gradually a taller and taller
pillar was erected for him to live on, the last being over 50 feet in height. A
small balcony balustrade was erected around the pillar platform to prevent him
falling to the ground if he collapsed during his fasting and devotions. In
total he lived 37 years on top of the pillar, dying in September 459 CE. It is
recorded that in all his years on top of the pillar Simeon Stylites never spoke
to a woman, paradoxically in a village called Telneshae, the mountain of the
women. This may have been a consequence of the earlier accusation of him
venerating Asherah.
Remains of St Simeon's Pillar
Following St Simeon’s death
his body was taken down and paraded throughout the area of the Massif before
being taken to the cathedral of Constantine in Antioch. Shortly afterwards, and
particularly during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno, a vast devotional
monastery complex developed consisting of a central octagon–shaped building
surrounding St Simeon’s pillar and attached to four basilicas at the cardinal
points, including one modelled on the cathedral of Constantine. This basilica
was specifically built to house Simeon’s remains following their transfer from
Antioch.
Simeon’s name derives from
the Hebrew shama, meaning to hear and interestingly the sama (in Turkish and
Arabic) in Mevlevi Sufi ceremonies also means listening. It was also a feature of his very specific
devotional practice.
The site of the monastery
complex surrounding Simeon’s pillar is now known as Qalat Sem’an or the
Fortress of Sem’an. The complex was complete by 525 CE and thrived from 500 – c700
CE after which it and many of the other Christian settlements on the Massif came
under pressure following the capture of Antioch in October 637 by the Rashudin
Muslim army under Khalid ibn Walid and Abu Ubaidah. Although the early Muslim
armies were not that interested in the barren highlands apart from ensuring
that there were no risks of being attacked from the flanks their dominance of
the valleys signalled the start of an evacuation from the hills, at least from
the smaller settlements. The Emperor
Heraclius (575-641) probably accelerated this migration from the region when he
said, ‘Farewell Syria, my fair province. Thou art an infidel’s now. Peace be
with you, O Syria – what a beautiful land you will be for the enemy hands.’
The St Simeon complex was
damaged by earthquakes in 526 and 528 CE, yet survived and indeed was further fortified
following the Byzantine re-capture of Antioch from the Muslim Arabs in 969. The
stability was not to last however and the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in 1128
was to precipitate a final abandonment of the monastery. By the early years of
the 12th century most of the Ancient Villages of the Massif were
abandoned and most remained ignored as possible agricultural re-settlement
areas for 800 years. The reasonable state of preservation of the various sites lies
not only in that avoidance but also by
virtue of the fact that most of the buildings, secular and religious, given the
lack of forestry in the area, were constructed of the Massif limestone rather
than wood.
The monastery complex of
St Simeon is one of the best preserved of them all. In 2013 there were reports
of looting at the complex but on the 28th May 2015 the
pre-dominantly Kurdish YPG/YPJ (The People’s Protection and Women’s Protection
Units) of Afrin Canton, Rojava captured the site of St Simeon’s monastery from
ISIS and have established a permanent security presence there. Unlike Palmyra
little or no damage had been caused to the site.
Even amongst the Cantons
of the evolving “grand experiment in statehood” of autonomous Rojava Afrin
Canton appears to be adopting a very different “road-map” to the future. Similar in size (approx. 1,800 km2)
and population (1.2 million including refugees) to the Swiss Canton of Zurich from
an ethnic perspective its make-up includes a majority of Kurds (74%) but also
Arabs (24%), Turkmen, Armenians and Syriac Christians.
The religious affiliation
of the Kurdish population in Afrin Canton also differs significantly from the
other cantons. 89% of the Kurds in Afrin are Sunni Islam but in contrast to the
vast majority of Sunni Kurds in the other cantons of Rojava, who are mainly of
Shafi’I school of Islamic jurisprudence, they are of the Hanafi tradition,
reflecting a long association with Ottoman Turkey. The history of Kurds
rather than Arabs or Turks inhabiting this part of Syria is reflected in the
name of the mountain range, Kurd Dagh to the north of the Afrin Valley. It is
possible that this mountain range, an extension of the Massif, was colonised
around 1150 by Kurdish soldiers and their families who had once been in the
service of the Zenegid rulers of Aleppo and who later underwent induced conversion
to the Sunni Hanafi version of Islam of Ottoman Turkey.
Under the early Ottoman Land Codes the
soil-poor highlands could either have been granted to the Kurd settlers under Mulk conditions
which is tithe-paying land distributed at time of conquest amongst the victors
or more likely the Kurds, under Mevat conditions appropriated the land. The Ottoman Land Code of 7th Ramadan 1274 AH (21st
April 1858) defined Mevat or "Dead" Land as land occupied by no one and which lies at
such a distance from a village or town ‘that a human voice cannot make itself
heard at the nearest point where there are inhabited places.’
Alevi-Kurds represent
about 4% of the Afrin population. Alevis are a sect, whose origins are quite
similar to the hated and ruling Alawites of Syria, both of which evolved as a
consequence of Qizilbash missionary activity by the Safaviyya Shia of Shah
Ismail I around about 1500 CE (See Rihla 31 On Chaldiran, Iran), who are
descendants of the small numbers of Alevi who survived the Shakulu genocide of
1511 orchestrated by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I.
Hevi Ibrahim -Prime Minister of Afrin Canton
The Prime Minister of
Afrin Canton is Hevi Ibrahim, a Kurdish-Alevi. She is at pains at present to
play down the Canton’s desire for Statehood fearing that the establishment of
any kind of a perceived Kurdish State will alienate Turkey in particular, who
will then strive to strangulate the process before it gets a chance to
establish. She has said somewhat disingenuously, “We don’t want enemies and we
are doing our best to prevent Syria falling apart.” Her cabinet contains Arab
and Yezidi ministers .
Yezidis are of Kurdish
extraction but they and the United Nations consider themselves as a distinct
ethnic group. They constitute about 1% of the Afrin Canton population. The
Rojava constitution specifically singles out Yezidis for protection but already
the Yezidis of Afrin Canton appear to be in conflict with Yezidis in the other
cantons because of their particular over-reliance on Zoroastrian elements in
the practice over their faith. There are about 13 Yezidi villages in the Jebel
Sam’an and two more on the southern edge of the Kurd Dagh (Ciyaye Kurmenc) mountains
and they have been living in the Jebel Sam’an area for hundreds of years. At
one point (and may still do for all that is known of the very secret sect) the
Afrin valley comprised the second most important “See” of the Yezidis faith.
Suleiman Jafer is a Yezidi and the Minister for International Relations in
Afrin Canton.
In 1671 the French Consul
in Aleppo Joseph Dupont reported that the spiritual leaders of the Yezidis had
assembled at the ruined monastery of St Simeon to meet with Capuchin and Jesuit
missionaries. Sir Paul Rycaut in his memories of the Ottoman Empire published
in 1686 reports a Yezidis monastery in the Jeumee (the Kurdish name for the
Afrin valley) area and also seems to imply that the Yesidis at that stage had
two superior religious leaders (rather than the one at present who is Khurto
Hajji Ismail in Iraq) and who would meet at fixed times to ‘consult for the
good’ of all of the Yezedis. One of these leaders was based in Afrin and the
other in Lalish north of Mosul.
Afrin Canton is determined
to go its own way even if Rojava fails. It has decided, like Ataturk’s
prescription for Turkish statehood in the past, to replace the Arabic script
and introduce the Latin script in schools, street signs and in official usage.
Unlike the other Cantons of Rojava and the rest of Syria it has adopted European
daylight-saving time-setting and for the present many of the textile businesses
of Aleppo have relocated to Afrin and the economy is booming. Afrin Canton
however despite its protestations about separate Statehood away from Syria and
even Rojava is entrenching itself.
The Jebel Sam’an of St
Simeon is now guarded by new ‘pillars’ with armed ‘stylites’ on the platforms.
The guard-towers are linked by reinforced tunnels and elsewhere a 50 km
‘border’ trench is also being dug and fortified. In a time when Europe is
seeing hundreds-of-thousands of Syrians fleeing the country, those in Afrin are
determined to stay, to evolve, to exist.
Afrin Canton, whose
Kurdish identity was forged by appropriating Mevat land on the Kurd Dagh
mountains beyond the limits of human hearing, is an ‘Listening’ or ‘Sema’ State
in waiting. Quietist almost! Those Mevat or Dead Lands, like the abandoned
Ancient Villages, are about to rise again. And then we can only listen to the
noise.
Reference:
ICOMOS Report on Evaluations of Nominations of
Cultural and Mixed Properties to the World Heritage List. June 2011 Pages
111-125. Document WHC-11/35.COM/INF.8B1
http://deworde.blogspot.ie/2012/10/rihla-journey-31-chaldiran-nw-iran.html
