Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present.

• Author: Lund, Jabir
• Position: Book review

Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present

By Christian C. Sahner

London: Hurst & Company, 2014, 240 pages, $27.95, ISBN: 9780199396702.

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It would be understandable, after four years of devastating civil war, to assume the title of Christian C. Sahner's book, Among the Ruins refers solely to the forlorn, rubble-strewn landscapes that are reported daily from Syria's once bustling cities. But, the subtitle, Syria Past and Present, makes clear there are another set of ruins to consider. These may not seem as relevant to the current crisis in Syria, but as Sahner eloquently illustrates, the ruins and architectural legacy of past civilizations and cultures represent Syria's deep history, one that undoubtedly impacts the present. It is in visiting these monuments and ruins throughout Syria, accompanied by Sahner's erudite historical narrative and first-hand observations and encounters, that the reader is given an uncommon picture of the formation of modern Syria.

Sahner first arrived in the country in 2008, a student of early Islamic and Byzantine history, driven by the realization that the Arabic language was an essential tool for his academic career. The sites he visited on his time off from study, and which he describes throughout the book's five chapters, are invariably linked to one of the various religious sects of the region; their relevance in terms of the present is to add depth to the debate over 'sectarianism.' This is not a debate Sahner enters lightly. He seems keenly aware of the error in much of the discourse surrounding the concept, stating that his interest in sectarianism's "pre-modern roots should not be interpreted to mean that religious conflicts (whether between Christians and Muslims, or between Sunnis and Shia) are somehow 'unchanging' or 'primordial.'"

Woven into the history are Sahner's first hand observations and sketches of the real-life Syrians he meets. Such a perspective is rewarding indeed, both in questioning and shaking many of the narratives supplied to us by sensationalist media reports, and in providing a deeper understanding of the origins of the current conflict.

Chapter one recounts the coming of Islam to the lands of Syria, and their emergence from what had once been the cross-roads of empires to the seat of a dynamic and expansive state itself. For all the talk of the so-called 'Islamic State' representing an anachronistic return to medieval barbarity, the Muslim Umayyid caliphate that...