AQ Australian Quarterly — October-December 2017

OCT–DEC 2017 AusTRAlIAN QuARTeRlY 31

ThE LOST CITy: hOMAGE TO ALEPPO

iMAGE: © Joshua Tabti-Flickr

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Your feet sink up to

your ankles in twisted

spikes of rusty iron,

glass, metal. The

shutters are ripped

open and riddled with

bullets. Dust and

stones. nothing more.

aUtHOr:

Caroline Graham is a former book reviewer, then columnist, for The

Australian. she has been a feature writer for Nation Review, a tutor in the

Government Department of The university of sydney, President of the

Australasian Middle east studies Association, and a lecturer in the Faculty

of Humanities, uTs. she retired as senior lecturer in International Politics

in 1998.

in twisted spikes of rusty iron, glass,
metal. The shutters are ripped open and
riddled with bullets. Dust and stones.
Nothing more.’^24
Syrian government soldiers used
Citadel Hill and its ancient fortifications
as a military base and the priceless
remains of Sayf al-Dawla’s palace are
damaged beyond repair. Aleppo’s
cafes and bathhouses are closed; the
music and song are gone. Night-time
satellite imagery shows a darkened city.
The poet Fouad Mohammed Fouad
surveyed it in despair:

‘Aleppo spread before me,

black and deserted ...

No sound but sporadic gunfire ...

No oudh plucked.

No swaying dancers.

No drinks in ‘The Nightingale.’

No drinkers. No song.

One by one they awaken the beasts

of darkness.’^25

Aleppo has survived sacking and

looting over the centuries by Mongol,

Timur (Tamberlaine) and Byzantine

Christian armies, but none of these

invaders were able to cause the degree

of destruction now witnessed.

All of the losses – the people, the

buildings, the social networks – must

cause an unfathomable level of grief

for Aleppans. How can more than

thirty thousand dead be adequately

mourned?^26 A tightly knit society was

attacked, broken and scattered – will

the survivors ever be able to mend the

web of their tolerant and gentle way

of life?

Al Ma’rii, the tenth century poet,

wrote of his suffering people:

‘Fate smashes us as though we were

made of glass

And never are our shards put

together again...’^27

AQ