January 29, 2017 23 Heritage

Aleppo’s landmark mosque bears scars of ’s war

Bassem Mroue

Aleppo

he Great Mosque of Alep- po, a centuries-old treas- ure at the heart of one of the world’s oldest cities, is today a grim testament Tto the ravages of Syria’s war. The doors have been blasted away, the walls have been shred- ded by gunfire and shrapnel and the minaret where the Muslim call to prayer sounded for 900 years has been toppled and shattered. The wooden pulpit, along with ancient manuscripts from a nearby library, has been carted off by looters. Syrians are only now able to sur- vey the damage wrought by more than four years of war. Rebels from the countryside poured into Aleppo in the summer of 2012, capturing eastern districts and transforming the Old City into the front lines of a war of attrition with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Great Mosque of Aleppo is today a grim testament to the ravages of Syria’s war.

The rebels surrendered in De- cember after a massive government offensive and were evacuated to other areas, allowing Assad to re- gain control of the country’s largest People visit the courtyard of the heavily damaged Great Mosque of Aleppo, overshadowed by a 13th-century citadel, in the Old City of city. Aleppo, on January 19th. (AP) The red carpets inside the mosque are covered in debris and damaged copper chandeliers hang sprawling bazaar and several other Sheikh Abdul-Qader Shehabi, seums and antiquities in Aleppo, will confront a massive reconstruc- from the ceiling. An extensive net- monuments, nearly all of which a senior Muslim cleric who spent downplayed the extent of the de- tion challenge, not only in Aleppo work of sandbags placed by the have been damaged or destroyed. years studying and working in the struction, saying the mosque could but in other cities and towns. rebels snakes throughout the com- Before the rebels stormed the Umayyad mosque, said 70,000 be repaired within a year and the “This mosque used to be a jewel,” pound. city, the state built a cement wall books were stolen from a nearby minaret could be rebuilt in three. said Fateh Abdullah Nahhal, a gro- Also known as the Umayyad inside the mosque to secure a tomb library. Among those works was a “The damage is simple and we can cer who recently took his children mosque, the site was reopened believed to hold the remains of the copy of the Quran transcribed in return the Umayyad mosque to to the site for the first time in five in 2006 after a 20-year renova- Prophet Zakariya, but an ornate the Middle Ages, which he says was how it was,” he said. years. “All we can say is for God to tion project. Aleppo’s Old City, a wooden pulpit modelled on the one smuggled out and sold in Turkey But the war is raging elsewhere help us punish those who did this.” UNESCO World Heritage Site, also in Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque was for $250,000. in the country and even if the cash- boasts a 13th-century citadel, a pillaged. Khaled al-Masri, director of mu- strapped government prevails, it (The Associated Press) ISIS continues destruction of Syria’s historic monuments

Sarah el-Deeb fell again to the group Abdulkarim said militants de- also shows damage to the theatre public killings and posted chilling only nine months after a Russian- stroyed the façade of the second- façade. videos of the slayings. backed Syrian government offen- century theatre along with the ASOR said the damage was likely The militants also blew up the Beirut sive was hailed as a significant vic- Roman-era Tetrapylon — a set of caused by intentional destruction Arch of Triumph, built 193-211AD. tory for Damascus. four monuments with four col- from ISIS but the organisation was Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for slamic State (ISIS) militants Maamoun Abdulkarim, director- umns each standing at the centre unable to verify the exact cause. the Russian government, said Syr- have destroyed parts of the general of Syria’s antiquities de- of the colonnaded road leading to ISIS extremists have destroyed ian troops were continuing their second-century Roman am- partment, said reports of the recent the theatre. ancient sites across their self-styled efforts to take back Palmyra. He phitheatre and an iconic destruction trickled out of the ISIS- Satellite imagery obtained by the Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq, called the new destruction “bar- monument known as the held town in late December. Satel- Boston-based American Schools of perceiving them as monuments to baric”, saying that it is a “real trag- ITetrapylon in Syria’s historic town lite images of the damage became Oriental Research (ASOR) shows idolatry. edy for the historic heritage”. of Palmyra, the government and available January 19th, confirming extensive damage to the Tetrapy- UNESCO Director-General Irina Syria’s state news agency re- experts said. the destruction. lon. DigitalGlobe satellite imagery Bokova said the recent destruc- ported that government forces and It was the extremist group’s lat- tion in Palmyra amounted to a war allied troops recently clashed with est attack on world heritage, an act crime. ISIS militants south of Palmyra, that the UN cultural agency called “The Tetrapylon was an architec- part of a new offensive to reclaim a “war crime”. A Syrian govern- tural symbol of the spirit of the en- the city. ment official said he feared for the counter and openness of Palmyra remaining antiquities in Palmyra, and this is also one of the reasons Palmyra fell again to which ISIS recaptured in Decem- why it has been destroyed,” she ISIS only nine ber. said in a statement. months after a After suffering several setbacks Abdulkarim said only two of the Russian-backed in Syria, ISIS has gone on the offen- 16 columns of the Tetrapylon re- Syrian government sive, reclaiming ancient Palmyra main standing. offensive. and attacking a government-held The Palmyra Tetrapylon, charac- city and military air base in Deir ez- terised by its four plinths that are Zor in eastern Syria. not connected overhead, had only Abdulkarim said he fears for However, ISIS remains under one original ancient column, said what remains of the city’s ancient pressure in northern Syria from Abdulkarim. The 15 other columns relics. Turkey and US-backed Kurdish were modelled after the ancient “When Palmyra fell for the sec- forces, as well as in neighbouring one and installed by Palmyra’s ond time, we shed tears because Iraq where Iraqi troops backed by 81-year-old distinguished antiqui- we expected this terror,” he said. the US-led coalition are fighting to ties scholar Khaled al-Asaad, who “Now we are destined to see more retake the city of Mosul from the was killed by ISIS militants when terror if (ISIS control of Palmyra) militants. they were controlling the town the continues.” Palmyra, a UNESCO world her- last time. The militants hung his Most Palmyra residents did not itage site that once linked Persia, body from a Roman column. return after it was retaken by the India and China with the Roman It was not clear if the original government. Activists estimate the empire and the Mediterranean column survived the destruction, city is now home to a few hundred area, has already seen destruction Abdulkarim said. families. Many residents tried to at the hands of ISIS militants. The During its first occupation of Pal- flee as ISIS recaptured the city in ancient town first fell to ISIS in May myra, ISIS destroyed ancient tem- December. 2015 and the terror group held it for ples, including the Temple of Bel, Reports emerged January 19th ten months. During that time, ISIS which dated 32AD, and the Temple that ISIS killed 12 captives in Pal- damaged a number of Palmyra’s of Baalshamin, a structure of stone myra, some of them beheaded in relics and emptied it of most of its blocks several storeys high and the Roman theatre. residents, causing an international An April 2016 file picture shows the Palmyra citadel in the fronted by six towering columns. outcry. background as Syrian families load their belongings onto a bus. (AP) The group also used the theatre for (The Associated Press)