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Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present 1st Edition

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Christian Sahner (Author)
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5.0 out of 5 stars 13 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0199396702
ISBN-10: 0199396701
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0199396701
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199396702
  • Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 1 x 5.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 starslike all the countries in the region
By Taylor McNeil on April 4, 2015
Format: Hardcover
As the conflagration that is Syria—or was Syria—seems to grow, extend itself, and throw flames in a wider arc through the Middle East, Christian Sahner’s short book Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present is a necessary corrective to the horrors of the immediate moment. Working on a doctorate in history, Sahner lived in Syria off and on in 2008 and 2009 and neighboring Beirut in the several years following; his book is part travelogue, part history and part meditation on the inevitable nature of change. In Syria, he says, “the deep past exerts a powerful influence on the present”—true in most places, but even more so in such a crossroads of history.

Syria is in some respects a modern invention. As the Ottoman Empire lay dying in the early 1900s, the French and British split the region into “mandates”—neocolonial arrangements, with Iraq sheaved off for the British oil interests, and Syria and the newly created Lebanon for the French. What is now Lebanon was long part of Greater Syria; the French created the Lebanese state in part for their clients, the Christian Maronites living there. Syria itself was an amalgam, like all the countries in the region, dominated by Sunni Arabs, but with significant minority populations—various Shia and Christian sects—and Sahner spells out the historical relations between the many and various groups.

Is the war in Syria today only about sectarianism? No, certainly not. But Sahner details the roots of the power relations between the groups over many centuries, with telling details from his travels around the country, back when that was possible. Visiting the historic Ummayad mosque in Damascus, he is surprised by the tomb of St. John the Baptist inside the mosque—it had been a church before conversion in the 700s.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsMany Layered History and Personal Story
By MSW New Jersey on January 18, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This 2014 book from Oxford University Press should have received far more attention than it did. Christian Sahner was in the Middle East working on his Ph.D. thesis on the role of non-Muslims in Islamic societies when the Arab Spring and the present civil war in Syria broke out. He is an historian, not a journalist, but his deep knowledge of the history, art, and architecture of the region along with his personal experiences living in Syria and Lebanon, make him a wonderful guide to these places and these events.

This is the book I had been waiting for as a way to address my ignorance: what is the difference between the Sunnis and the Shias? What is an 'Alawite (the Muslim sect of the Assad family, recent dictators of Syria)? What is a Druze? Why were the Maronite Christians the ruling elite of Lebanon for so long (they were closely associated with colonial France and involved in Lebanon's separation from Syria in the mid twentieth century)? What were the issues of the Lebanese Civil War thirty years ago, and how do they reflect the issues in the present Syrian civil war?
This is a wonderful, informative yet personal introduction to the history of Greater Syria. Sahner tells how Syria was the center of the early Islamic empire, and how, while it is a Sunni nation, the head of Hussein, the prophet's grandson and hero of the Shia, is entombed in Damascus. He alternates this lively, many layered version of history with personal story that center on real people like his Arabic teacher, the pious Muhammad who is later caught up in the vicissitudes of the Syrian Civil War and ends up as a refugee.

The book makes no predictions about the political future, which truly appears grim, but offers us the history and the culture and the people-- and at least a little hope that some of this will be preserved.
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5.0 out of 5 starsEssential to Understanding Current Syria Situation
By J. Saloom on February 12, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Good overview of the complexities of the Syria situation and its links to Lebanon and the surrounding countries. Essential background to following the currnet situation.
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5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars
By Irene G on May 23, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Very succinct history of this region. Well-written.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAmong the Ruins is a tour of the history of ...
By Jacobin Girondin on March 27, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Among the Ruins is a tour of the history of Syria often told with reference to modern anecdotal experiences by a serious western scholar who lived there and who writes with scrupulous care and candid balance about its highly complex religious diversity and how that came about. Few in the west are aware that Syria was the original headquarters of the Christian religion, that Syria was almost entirely Christian for about 500 years until the Moslem conquest, and that Islam consists nearly completely of borrowings from Judaism and Christianity, but this book makes all that clear as well as also probing the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Syrian population.
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5.0 out of 5 starsI would recommend it for anyone interested in Syria
By Augustine Lovejoy on April 9, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This is a very engaging and informative book. I would recommend it for anyone interested in Syria.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA Balanced, Informative, and Accurate Introduction to Syria's Past and Present
By Dr. J. Paul Tanner on March 7, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I give a full five stars to Christian Sahner's book, Among the Ruins: Syria's Past and Present. Personally, I have been working in the Middle East as a professor for almost twenty years, five of which my wife and I spent living in Jordan. Since 2005, I have made many trips in and through Syria, and have traveled to almost all of the western half of Syria. My experience mirrors that of Christian Sahner to the tee. In other words, I can vouch for the observations and statements that he makes in this book. I like the way he combines historical information, current events, and personal experiences in a way that makes for a stimulating reading pleasure. On top of that, the author's style of writing is excellent and holds your attention very well. I never felt bored for a moment. I highly commend this book to anyone who wishes to have a good introduction to Syria's history, current struggles, and understanding of the various religious and political sects that underlie her present situation. Like the author, I can only hope and pray that the horrible war raging in her ancient towns will somehow be brought to an end.
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