Exploring the Christian quarter of Damascus (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
The Bab Touma gate (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
Today in Damascus, a mortar slammed into a predominantly Christian neighborhood, killing two people and wounding seven others. The neighborhood where the attack occurred is located next to the “Bab Touma” gate. “Bab Touma” translated into English means the “Gate of Thomas.”
When I was in Damascus visiting Sufi sheikhs and shrines, exploring the churches of this historic neighborhood was one of the highlights of my trip. On the day that I visited this district, there was so much sunshine that I couldn’t even look directly into the lens of the camera–I was almost literally blinded by the light, while on the road in Damascus.
Surveying Syrian churches in Damascus (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
The street called straight is straighter than the corkscrew, but not as straight as a rainbow. St Luke is careful not to commit himself; he does not say it is the street which is straight, but `the street which is called straight.’ It is the only facetious remark in the Bible, I believe.
— Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1869
The “Street called Straight” in this neighborhood is indeed not straight at all–and I had some trouble of finding the house and chapel of Ananias behind the Bab Touma gate. According to the Bible (Acts 9), after the apostle Paul (then Saul) was struck blind on the road to Damascus, God instructed him to travel to “the Street Called Straight”–where Ananias eventually restored his sight.
Stepping down into the empty and quiet underground Chapel of Ananias was an experience I will never forget. Having studied the history of Christianity in Syria at Brown with Professor Susan Ashbrook Harvey, I was thrilled to finally be walking through history that I’d only seen before in slides and books.
Today, it’s heartbreaking to think that this historic neighborhood in the heart of Damascus is suffering from such terrible acts of violence–car bombs, mortar attacks, and gunfire. When I was last there (before the war), my only concern was being blinded by the light of the sun while taking a photo above–but now this historic neighborhood has become a war zone…with no end to the Syrian violence in sight…
