“We cannot fathom the mysteries of cities without their women\u2014their female inhabitants and daughters, who remain steadfast, enduring remnants of ancient cultures that collapsed before the encroaching might of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Despite the deep religiosity that characterizes the people of Hama, its women\u2014perhaps unwittingly\u2014remain secretly loyal to their primordial ancestress: the Syrian goddess Anat. They do not kill the snakes that dwell within their homes, and on the first of July, they abstain from eating ground flour. Every woman is a seed of the immortal Anat.”<\/p>\n
With fluid, literary prose and a keen, documentary sensibility\u2014bolstered by a vivid memory, rich in eloquence and imbued with a distinctly feminine poeticism\u2014novelist Lina Al-Huwaiyan Al-Hassan chronicles a journey back to the landscapes of her childhood in northeastern Syria. This is a land tormented by successive occupations, where invaders from every corner, origin, and background have descended, and where the specter of death has come to haunt the homes of its people. It is a voyage into a realm of profound innocence and natural beauty\u2014a journey through the myths, ancient monuments, and histories of a place whose richness transcends the ages. A journey across various locales, delving into the worlds of Syrian women\u2014from the encampments of the Bedouins to the legends they share about the potent presence of magic in these lands of the Levant, where Aramean, Greek, Roman, and Arab influences have intertwined over the ages. “He who adorns his woman with cowrie shells finds himself on land ruled by the daughter of Shamhurush; yet, just a kilometer to the north, no one dares even touch a cowrie shell, for they belong to the realm of Hind bint al-Malik al-Ahmar\u2014a soothsayer among the jinn\u2014who permits no one to trifle with them. Folklore holds that by surrounding mirrors with cowrie shells, we strip them of their memory; for mirrors witness our secrets and deeds, hear our words, and perceive our very selves\u2014and to keep these secrets safe, they must be imprisoned within the shells. These small, humble objects serve as silent guardians of secrets.”
\nThis account chronicles a journey through the Badia (desert) of Hama\u2014situated at the very heart of the Syrian landscape\u2014exploring the spirit of the place and its rich cultural tapestry. For this work, the author was deservedly awarded the Ibn Battuta Prize for Travel Literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A literary voyage through the towns and villages of the Syrian Badia, this work explores their history, archaeological remains, folk legends, and the stories of their women. It weaves together childhood memories, the reality of the landscape, and its cultural heritage, offering a narrative that documents facets of Syrian life and history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[901,899,839,881],"product_tag":[1148,1072,2728,1276],"class_list":["post-33315","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-travel-literature","product_cat-prose-literature","product_cat-history-and-geography","product_cat-tourism-and-trips","product_tag-culture","product_tag-history","product_tag-literature","product_tag-myths","pa_book-author-lina-hawyan-al-hassan","first","onbackorder","sale","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/33315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=33315"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=33315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}