Erasing Syria’s history

Attempt to destroy Zainab’s shrine is a calculated attempt

Will Syria’s heritage fall to the civil war? After fire was set to the historical Aleppo market spaces – an overtly secular part of Syria’s medieval heritage – it was only a matter of time till the Al Qaeda infiltrated Syrian rebels turned on the religious heritage of the region. After two tombs belonging to companions of the Prophet (PBUH) were destroyed, Friday saw an attack on the shrine of Sayyida Zainab – the site where Shia believed that the granddaughter of the Prophet (PBUH) was buried. The shrine itself became a prominent destination on the Shia religious pilgrimage route in the 1980s and 1990s as the Alawi-led Assad regime sought to build symbolic legitimacy. The site was where the Assad regime built its strategic relationship with Iran, and Arab Shia groups, including Hezbollah.

The site, as noted journalist Roberk Fisk points out, was part of the Syrian regimes effort to “claim the history” of the region. He notes that “by flaunting its total control over Damascus, it may spare the Syrian capital of the cultural destruction visited upon much of the rest of Syria.” Destroyed sites include Crusader castles bombed by Syrian troops after rebels took refuge and Roman mosaics in Apamea looted during the conflict. While it is true that Salafists have no love lost for history, as they have shown well during their rule in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Fisk says “the problem for all autocracies in the Middle East is that they must sew their own presence into their country’s history.” Thus it is the attempt of the Assad regime to mark Syria’s historical sites with its insignia that has scarred them in the eyes of the rebels.

Each regime inevitably attempts to create its own history – and washing away the history of earlier regimes is integral to the project. So when a rocket struck the shrine of the Sayyida Zainab shrine on Friday and killed its custodian, it marked the rebels attempting to dent the legitimacy of the regime. It also signaled the inevitable turning point for the 28 month civil war to now be seen in a sectarian light. As protests began across the subcontinent, reports suggested that hundreds of fighters from Iraq and the Hezbollah had arrived to “guard the shrine.” There is genuine fear that a sectarian conflict could spill into Iraq, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, with reports already that the Pakistani Taliban have also sent fighters into Syria. The current conflict in Syria is a calculated attempt to wipe out its past. The Salafist extremists in the frontline and their American backers have earlier destroyed the heritage of both Iraq and Afghanistan. The question is: if indeed Syria is overrun by the Salafist rebels will there remain any history to be protected – or will it become another Saudi Arabia?