Damascus has fallen. Once more. One of the oldest cities in the world has fallen. To rise again from the rubble and usher in a new order. In its rise and fall, Damascus has lessons for all civilizations, all rebels and all regimes.
In July 2012, rebels entered Damascus, which until now was considered inviolable. Both the regime and the rebels understood its importance – militarily and symbolically. The rebels advanced on Syria's heavily militarized capital but made no real gains. A year later, in August 2013, the Syrian regime launched Operation Capital Shield. The capital had to be protected and any amount of force was acceptable to thwart any rebel attack. The city was protected by the use of excessive force against rebels operating from the Damascus area. So only temporarily. Eleven years later the regime fell. For the sixth time, at least, since the 1st century AD, the Romans conquered the Seleucid Empire of Damascus.
The cycle of power
Damascus has experienced not only violent regime changes, but also ethnic and religious clashes, including the Crusades. But in almost every major clash – civil or political – one thing has remained common: regaining lost ground. The cyclical nature of power. The age-old, unabated struggle in the socio-political terrain of Damascus has shaped its character. Current developments in Syria must therefore be examined through a broader perspective of history and culture.
That of Peter Frankopan The Silk Roads underlines the importance of Damascus as an empire bordering one of the world's most flourishing trade routes. Despite not having easy access to the Mediterranean Sea, it was in the league of major cosmopolitan cities such as Byzantine Constantinople (Istanbul), Greco-Roman Antioch and the ancient Chinese capital of Chang'an. The early embrace of agricultural practices thanks to the Barada River's natural inland water systems and investments in irrigation infrastructure made Damascus a land of plenty.
Even at the height of religious clashes between Christians and Muslims around the 10th century AD, traders had a light-hearted time in Damascus. For example, Muslim traders from Spain were protected by the Christians of Damascus. For one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, with no religious foundation from any religious text, trade was of vital importance. Traders, the outsiders, were therefore immune to local political and religious conflicts. Damascene society depended on the 'outsiders' to maintain its regional power as the seat of socio-cultural dominance. Damascus, as it is experienced today, is essentially the result of four centuries of Ottoman rule, which ended with the First World War. The city was the seat of Turkish Wali.
Countries of 'outsiders'
Curiously, Damascus has not been ruled by a local dynasty since the overthrow of the kingdom of Aram-Damascus in the eighth century BC. This feature makes Damascus closer to Delhi than its Phoenician, Judean and Arab neighbors. The 'outsiders' quickly became the insiders and the city evolved. Delhi has this in common with Damascus and the lessons from the latter are therefore relevant to us.
The rise and fall of the Assad regime alerts us to the limitations of liberalism if it remains within the confines of the elite. It is always prone to crumbling under the weight of popular mobilization. The mainstay of Syria's multicultural character has been the consociative contacts between different ethno-religious groups at different times in history. The Assad regime's politicization of the multiculturalism of Syrian society was self-serving. Ironically, after the 1970 military coup that appointed Hafez al-Assad as totalitarian ruler, all forms of dissent began to be crushed by the ruling Ba'ath Party, the regional champion of dissent in the Arab world.
When liberalism is weaponized in this way, it spells doom not only for conservatives, but also for core liberal values. Bashar al-Assad continued this legacy of his father with more zeal and ruthlessness. The uprising against him must therefore be seen not only as political but also as socio-religious. Syria's Sunni Muslims, the majority group, were clearly fed up with the marginalization imposed on them by the Alawite (Shia) Assad family and their followers.
Liberalism and liberals
This should seem familiar to us. The undermining of liberal values by the liberals themselves, the rise of conservative forces, the politics of exclusion and the many conflagrations of violent ethno-religious clashes, we have seen it all. A politics of exclusion, even if the most inclusive players indulge in it, never ends well. The civil war in Syria should be seen as a new element in the continuum with the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979, Erdogan's reactionary overthrow of the Kemalist order in Turkey and the fall of the sheikh. Hasina in Dhaka as milestone events.
Immediately after the fall of Damascus, scenes of festivities (and looting) began flooding the news and social media. Insensitive to them, Israel decided to plant its flag outside the previous buffer zone. And this is the lesson that the Delhi regime and rebels must heed.
(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
