We, travellers, each have our cities of the heart, where the spirit feels most attracted and nourished. Depending on how far we explore, how deep we dive. You can see it as a string of precious stones, with some special jewels in it. When you move too fast you miss it all.
People will gather in cities. You cannot always live in a hamlet or a village. Nor can you prosper as a hermit in some no-man’s land. To meet with the great painters, philosophers, musicians, to find the oldest and most astounding temples, churches, and mosques, you will go to the age-old cities.
If I had to, I would name eight. Jerusalem / Al Quds. Algiers / Al Jazair El Beida. Nablus / Neapolis / Shechem. Thessaloniki. Firenze / Florence. Sarajevo. New York. Paris.
As of May 1, 2025, I will tell you about this jewel, Nablus, one of the oldest cities in the world – you can go back to before the Bronze Age, seven to nine thousand years ago. It was then the historical domain of Canaanites, known by the Greeks as Phoenicians, set between two mounts, Ebal and Gerizim. Then came the Hebrews, who made Shechem, East of present-day Nablus, the first capital of the kingdom of Israel, during the Iron Age.
After the Hebrews came the Greeks and the Romans, with the Samaritans who chose Mount Gerizim as their fortress. In the first century of the Christian Era, a Roman emperor, who founded the Flavian dynasty, gave the city the name of Flavia Neapolis. The New City of emperor Flavius. In 72 C.E.
The Roman Eastern empire, known as the Byzantine empire, lasted from the fourth century until the fifteenth century – the end of the medieval ages in the West. Neapolis was settled with Roman veterans from victorious legions. A major seven-thousand people theater was built under emperor Hadrian, in the second century. Neapolis was still pagan at the time. Greek gods were celebrated, Zeus, Artemis, Asklepios… Another emperor, known as Philip the Arab, renamed the town Julia Neapolis in the third century. Then came Christians. Lots of conflicts and strifes between them all. Lots of bad blood between Samaritans, Christians, Romans. You would not want to wade into it.
Suffice to say that the Samaritans rebelled against Christians and Romans, going as far as to murder the Neapolis bishop, hack Christian priests to pieces and burn their corpses (529), upon which emperor Justinian sent troops to massacre all the Samaritans they could find. To this day there are less than a thousand of them, but mount Gerizim remains their main harbour of the soul.
Forward to the future : a Muslim army conquered Neapolis in 636, four years after the Prophet’s death, and then named the city Nablus, giving it the nickname of Little Damascus. Then came the First Crusade, which started in 1095, led by French, German, Dutch, Italian warlords and knights, followed by up to a hundred thousand men, with Jerusalem as its objective.
In early 1099 they conquered Nablus, a mere thirty miles North of Jerusalem, renamed it… Naples, Napoli.
After seizing Jerusalem, the Franks defeated the Egyptians at Askalan, present-day Ashkelon, twenty kilometers from Gaza (August 1099), and this was the end of the First Crusade, with the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem which lasted two centuries, until the fall of Acre (Akko) in 1291, most of the crusaders returning to their respective lands in the twelfth century.
It was during this Christian period that a Byzantine church was built by the Templars in Nablus, with a red dome, in the early twelfth century, where a mosque had been erected by Amir Ibn Al in 638, two years after Neapolis had been conquered by the Muslims. The mosque-church became a mosque again around 1187, after Saladin crushed the Crusaders at the Battle of Tiberias. It was named An-Nasr after one of the last and shortest suras of the Coran.
Nasr: help, rescue, relief. “When comes the Help of God, and Victory / And you can see the people enter God’s religion in crowds / Celebrate His praises, and pray for His forgiveness, For He is oft-returning.”
In the night of the second Ramadan Friday this year, a little before dawn, a rogue squad of soldiers entered An-Nasr Mosque, stacked all its prayer books on the carpets and set fire to it. The holiest mosque of Nablus started burning, hence the scaffolding since, to repair it.
Their intention must have been to provoke the believers, into some riots on the holy esplanade in Jerusalem, which would have been quelled in blood. Still, no such thing happened. The tens of thousands of people gathered at the Noble Sanctuary maintained perfect peace, against all odds. Nor did the media mention the An-Nasr arson – Reuters alone and the Turkish agency Anadolu covered the March 7 profanation and attack.
May 4. In age-old cities, the point is you meet people. Far more interesting people, to strike a conversation with. Here is a sample of the encounters there have been, in that precious city of Nablus.
The first one was with Adib, a reputed teacher at the famed An-Najah University.
Adib was struck with sadness the last time I met him. As I mentioned the horrendous death of Mahmoud Sanakra, riddled with bullets, defenceless, in his bedroom one morning at the end of February, by another rogue squad of soldiers (the same who later set fire to An-Nasr?), in a poor, historical quarter of Nablus, Adib said with a sigh : “This is our life… to lose the first son, then the second one, and the third one…”.
Before Mahmoud, his elder brothers had already been killed by the army. Ibrahim, at the age of fifteen. Ahmed, at the age of eighteen. Had they thrown stones ? What was the instant death penalty for ?
My wish, at the end of February, in Mahmoud’s home, clearly has been for him to be the last victim of these murderous frenzies.
We then discussed the matter of violence among young men in cities, with Adib, the Wise One.
“They like guns…” Adib said, with some resignation in his voice.
It then came to attention that guns are non-muslim actually. It is an American thing, isn’t it ?
We all have heard of American shootouts. “How many US mass shootings have there been in 2024?”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-4148808 [BBC, December 17, 2024]
You check with the list of countries with the highest gun ownership, and sure enough, who’s on top ?
The US, with 120 guns for 100 people.
Israel ranks 100, next to Iran 98. With around 7 guns for 100 people.
Algeria ranks 160, with 2 guns only for 100 people, like Cuba.
Palestine is behind, 180, with 1 gun only for 100 people.
At the end of the line, you find Japan (208 : 0.3/100). Last, 216 and 217 : Indonesia and Taiwan : 0 gun for 100 people. No need for guns there.
You want to know the cause to effect relation – check on criminality worldwide, the number of people who die from guns in a year, and the highest number of prisoners, and you will get a more precise understanding of what the culture of guns produces.
The child of ten, who volunteered to help clean the burned, desecrated An-Nasr mosque, has a toy gun in his left hand, a broom in his right one. Who will tell him that the number one country worldwide for gun ownership is the United States, where some 50,000 people die from gun-related wounds each year, with 500 to 600 yearly shootouts, and 1.8 million men behind bars because of guns and violence ?
Who will tell him that out of 47,000 Americans killed by guns, 26,000 were from suicide and 21,000 from homicide ? Who will tell him that the gun also kills the gun-owner ?
About the author