Word: damascus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...region have allowed me to start a decent little collection of Oriental rugs and, in the process, get better at the art of buying them. I bought my first one--a prayer rug, to celebrate my safe return from Iraq--at a suq in the Old City of Damascus. Carpet seekers flock to similarly byzantine markets in Morocco and Turkey, among other countries. But Syria is a particularly good place to pick up rugs and has been ever since Silk Road travelers from the great weaving cultures of Central Asia passed through this final arc of the Fertile Crescent...
Among the foreign and Arab dignitaries attending Suleiman's election in the Lebanese parliament was Walid Muallem, Syria's foreign minister. It was the first official visit to Beirut by a senior Syrian official since 2005, signaling the possibility of a rapprochement between Damascus and the new government in Beirut...
...months been secretly negotiating with Syria has sent a frisson of excitement through the Middle East - overshadowing, at least momentarily, the new political deal in Beirut. The standoff between Syria and Israel has historically been much more intractable than that between Lebanon's warring factions, so any exchange between Damascus and Jerusalem that doesn't involve invective or military ordnance deserves to hog the headlines...
...made no secret of the fact that he regards Assad as a running dog for Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and just weeks ago, the Administration was trying to persuade the world that Syria was trying to acquire nuclear technology. Unless Washington signs off on it, no accord between Damascus and Jerusalem is worth the paper on which it is written...
...wars and upheavals of the 20th century have largely destroyed the nomadic herding cultures that created these wonderful rugs. And although the Antiques Roadshow hasn't shown up in Damascus yet, the heavy hand of globalization has almost finished scouring the souks of Syria for all that is old and good, and shipped it off for sale in antiseptic showrooms in London, New York, and Dubai. The rugs offered to you in the souks of the Middle East are almost certainly the best you will ever see, artifacts from a time when humans made things of meaning and value...