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0 - Issue 40
Souq Saruja: Named after a Syrian ''weli''
Coffee shops for tourists in one very old Damascene neighborhoodby Anwar Umran, Photography by Carole al-Farah
Popular lore traces the name of Souq Saruja to a Damascene woman whose husband went on a distant and dangerous journey, centuries ago, to conduct the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. While preparing a hot meal she fondly remembered her far-away husband, shedding a tear for his absence. A servant came up to her and asked to take a portion to her husband in the Arabian Dessert. She complied, thinking that he was hungry and wanted a meal for himself. He showed up later that evening and said, “Mission accomplished, madam!” Months later, the husband returned from Mecca and thanked his wife for her thoughtfulness, saying that the hot meal reached him in Mecca. The servant, apparently, was a saint (weli) and miracle-doer, who “sar wa ija” (went and returned) to Mecca, explaining the name, Saruja, which is a combination of both root words in Arabic. Historians, however, tell a very different tale, attributing the name to Sarim al-Din Saruja, a medieval Arab warrior who died in 1342.
Many of the neighborhood’s characteristics took present form when the Ottomans came to present day Syria in 1516, where it achieved city-wide acclaim for its large homes, vast markets, spacious public Turkish baths, and prestigious mosques. That explains why Ottoman officials and aristocrats chose it as a residence and why it was coined, “Little Istanbul” by the Damascenes. Among its notable landmarks is the old neighborhood school, the Minister’s Mosque (Masjid al-Wazir), and the Flower Bath (Hamam al-Warda). Nowadays, after decades of continuous neglect, Saruja is returning to the spotlight, where coffee-shops have mushroomed all around the quarter, frequented by tourists and young intellectuals who come to Saruja to compete with Arabic poetry and debate ideas related to literature and theatre.
