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Syria Guide:
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Syria, using the term in its old, geographical sense,
occupies a unique place in the annals of the world. Especially because of the inclusion of
Palestine and Phoenicia within its ancient boundaries, it has made a more significant
contribution to the moral and spiritual progress of mankind than any other comparable
land. Small as it appears on a map or a globe, its historical importance is boundless, its
influence universal.
As the cradle of Judaism and the birthplace of Christianity
it originated two of the great monotheistic religions and prompted the rise and
development of the third and last - Islam. The soul of the Christian, Moslem and the Jew -
wherever he may be - turns to some sacred spot in Syria for religious inspiration. Every
thoughtful Western man can trace his most fundamental values and beliefs to this ancient
land.
 Closely
associated with its religious contribution was the ethical message of southern Syria -
Palestine - conveyed. Its people were the first to insist that man is created in the image
of God and that each is the brother of every other man under God's fatherhood. This
doctrine supplied the basis of the democratic way of life. They were the first to
emphasize the supremacy of spiritual values and to believe in the ultimate triumph of the
forces of righteousness, and thereby they became the moral teachers of mankind.
Not only did the early Syrians furnish the ancient world with
its finest and highest thought but they implemented it with the provision of those
simple-looking magic-working signs, called alphabet, through which most of the literatures
of the world are preserved. No invention compares in importance with that of the alphabet,
developed and disseminated by the merchants and scribes of ancient Lebanon. It was from
these Phoenicians, who called themselves Caananites, that the Greeks derived their
letters,
in turn passing them on to the Romans and the Slavs, and hence to all the peoples of
Europe. The Aramaeans in turn likewise borrowed these symbols and passed them on to the
Arabians, who transmitted them to the Persians and Indians and other peoples of Asia, as
well as to the inhabitants of Africa. Had the people of Syria rendered no other service,
this would have been enough to mark them out among the greatest benefactors of humanity.
Their contribution, however, did not stop there. In their
narrow land more historical and cultural events, colorful and dynamic, occurred than
perhaps in any area of comparable size - events that made the history of Syria a replica
in miniature of the history of most of the civilized world. In the Hellenic era and Roman
periods some of the leading thinkers of the classical age were sons of this land,
including teachers, historians, and Stoic and Neo-Platonic philosophers. One of the
greatest schools of Roman law flourished in Beirut, capital of modern Lebanon, and certain
of it professors had their legal opinions embedded in the Code of Justinian, rightly
considered the greatest gift of Rome to later generations.
Shortly after the spread of Islam, the Syrian capital
Damascus became the seat of the illustrious Umayyad empire, whose conquests extended
westward into Spain and France and eastward into India and Central Asia - an empire
greater then that of Rome at its zenith. During the Abbasid caliphate at Baghdad, which
ensued, the Arab world entered into upon a period of intellectual activity, involving
translation from Greek, that had hardly a parallel in history. Greek philosophy and
thought was the most important legacy that the classical  world
had bequeathed to the medieval. In this process of transmitting Greek science and
philosophy, the Christian Syrians took a leading part; their language Syriac served as a
stepping-stone by which Greek learning found its way into the Arabic tongue.
In the Middle Ages, Syria was the scene of one of the most
sensational dramas in the annals of contact between the Moslem East and the Christian
West. From France and Flanders, Germany and Italy, Crusading hoards poured into the
maritime plain of Syria and the highlands of Palestine, seeking to recover the Holy Land
from its Moslem conquerors. Thus began a movement of far-reaching consequences in both
Europe and Asia. The Crusades, however, were an episode in the long and checkered military
history of this land which, because of its position at the gateway of Asia on the
crossroads of the nations, has alternately an international battlefield and a busy
thoroughfare of trade. Its unrivaled roster of invaders begins with Sargon and Thutmose,
includes among others Alexander and Julius Caesar, and continues through Khalid
ibn-al-Walid, Saladin and Baybars down to Napoleon and lesser men of recent decades.
In recent years the people of this country, after an eclipse
of centuries under Mamluks and Turks, have provided the Arab East with its intellectual
leadership. In the nineteenth century the Syrians, those of Lebanon in particular, were
the first to establish vital contacts with the West through education, emigration and
travel and thus served as the medium through which the European and American influences
seeped into the Near East. Their modern colonies in Cairo, Paris, New York, Sao Paulo and
Sydney are living evidence of th eir
industry and adventurousness.
The historical importance of Syria doe not arise solely from
it original contributions to the higher life of man It results partly from its strategic
position in relation to the three historic continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, and its
functioning as a bridge for transmitting cultural influences from its neighboring
civilizations, together with commercial wares. At the core of the Near East, which itself
lay at the center of the ancient world, Syria early became the principal transmitter of
culture. On the other side stretched the valley of two rivers, on the other hand the
valley of the one river. No other region can vie in antiquity, activity and continuity
with these three, in which we can observe more or less the same peoples for fifty
centuries of uninterrupted history. Their civilization has been a going concern since the
fourth millennium before Christ. The early culture of Europe was but a pale reflection of
this civilization of the eastern Mediterranean.
Even in pre-history Syria looms high in significance, as
recent archaeological investigation indicates that is was the probable scene of the first
domestication of wheat and the discovery of copper, which combined with the local
invention of pottery to effect a change from a nomadic hunting way of life to a sedentary
agricultural pattern. This region, therefore, may possibly have experienced settled life
in villages and towns before any other place. Earlier still, as we shall see in our third
chapter, it may have served as the nursery of one our direct ancestors, the emerging
modern type of man (Homo Sapiens). But before we consider the prehistoric period, let us
inspect the land which was to be the stage for great events.
Place in History (from "Syria: A Short
History", by Dr. Philip Hitti)
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in turn passing them on to the Romans and the Slavs, and hence to all the peoples of
Europe. The Aramaeans in turn likewise borrowed these symbols and passed them on to the
Arabians, who transmitted them to the Persians and Indians and other peoples of Asia, as
well as to the inhabitants of Africa. Had the people of Syria rendered no other service,
this would have been enough to mark them out among the greatest benefactors of humanity.