Lebanon: trip-tics (4) Beirut Bekaa Valley

On the morning of 29. October 2021, it is a holiday in my country. When we see the influence of the colonial powers, especially France, in Biladuşşam, and remembering the invasions of Southeast Anatolia, we once again commemorate the heroes of the National Struggle, which I call Anadolu Ergenekon, and those who founded the Republic of Turkey. In other words, our holiday moment is a little sad but also proud outside the country. And our first stop is Beirut National Museum.

Seven Sages of the History of Philosophy Greet Us

At the wide entrance of the three-floor museum, the mosaic showing 9 philosophers, including 7 sages, greets us. In the Baalbek region, M.S. It belongs to the 3rd century. The first are Thales, Pittakos, Periandre, Chilon, Bias, Cleobule, Solon. Of course, there are different opinions about this number, as well as those who count Socrates and the Scythian philosopher Anakharsis. The important thing is that they say their principles of moral philosophy, namely “Know yourself, do not exaggerate anything, control your desires”. There are 4 big sarcophagi here, in one of which they committed the Trojan War so successfully that it is difficult to describe.
You reach the upper floor with a large staircase in the middle, where there are tribes living in the region before Christ and artifacts from the Arab and Ottoman period. There are mummies on the bottom floor.
Bekaa Valley, Baalbek, Ayn'ul-Car
After the museum, we set out to go to Medinetü'l-Ancere (Aynu'l-Câr), the Bekaa (Bika'a) Valley between Beirut and Damascus, where the known terrorist structure is located in Turkey.
“The chief God of the Canaanites, that is, the Phoenicians, of what is called the Ba'l of Bekā, is known. Actually, Ba'l; It means lord, owner, king. It was called Heliopolis (the city of the sun) in the Hellenistic period, because he was a sun god. In the 37th Surah of Saffat, verse 125 of the Qur'an, "Do you worship Baal, instead of Allah, the Most Creator, and the Lord of your ancestors in the past?" It is also known that he refers to Hubal, one of the Arabs of the Jahiliyyah.
Hz. It was joined to the Islamic lands by Abu Ubeyde bin Cerrah in 637 during the reign of Omar. Hz. It is said that Osman's murderers are kept in the prison here. Baalbek; Since it was one of the key points of the Silk Road, that is, the trade route between east and west, it came under the rule of Abbasids, Tolunoğulları, İhşîdîs, Hamdanîs, Qarmatians, Fatimids and Seljuks. Ba'lebek, which was briefly occupied and destroyed by Timur in 1401, passed under Ottoman rule in 1516 during the Syria campaign of Yavuz Sultan Selim. This place was the scene of great wars between the crusaders and Muslims in the 1100s. The city suffered the greatest damage when it was captured by the Crusaders.

Baalbek Walid Mosque

We performed the Friday prayer at the Velid (Umayyad) Grand Mosque in the town of Baalbek (Ba'labek), which is the second largest place of worship after the Umayyad mosque in Dimash (Damascus).
The mosque is already next to the most magnificent temple in the world. When I saw that the imam was talking to the imam after the prayer and my Ismail teacher translated it, I should go and ask, because there is a claim that the Qibla of this place does not show either Jerusalem or Mecca, but on the contrary, Petra in Jordan, I gave up. In other words, the same thing is said for the mosque close to ten, whose qibla has not changed since its establishment. Knowing that the disciplines of astronomy and mathematics are the first branches of science to develop, this question seems like a conspiracy theory, I said, take your trip, master.
We followed our very old and French-speaking guide and started to tour this most mysterious temple in history, with the translation of my teacher İsmail Taşpınar. Since he is a professor of History of Religions, he is quite tired while visiting the ancient places both here and in Sur, our teacher, I thank him very much.
The temple, which is about five thousand years old, was founded in the name of the city, Baal, Zeus and Jupiter, and bears the traces of Phoenician, Greek and Roman. Of the 84 huge columns of the Temple of Jupiter, only 6 of them have survived to the present day. These columns are still considered to be the tallest columns in the world. With the permissions given by the Ottomans to the Germans, these areas started to re-emerge. It is said that stone blocks and columns brought from Baalbek were used in the foundation of Hagia Sophia.

Medinetu'l-Ancere

From there, we pass Medinetü'l-Ancere (Aynu'l-Câr). In fact, it was a commercial center built on the road from Beirut to Damascus and the road connecting Homs to the Palestinian passage through the Bekaa Valley. The Umayyad caliph Walid b. It was nice that my historian teacher, who studied this period, talked about the city-palace built by Abdülmelik on the Roman urban plan in 714-15 and the Umayyad Great Mosque, where we prayed, with great satisfaction and as if living those moments. This was a city that belonged only to the Umayyads, now the Armenians were in the majority in the town.
Another importance of this city for me is that it is close to the place where the Mongols/Ilkhanids stopped coming to Egypt by capturing Baghdad (1258), ending the Abbasid state, and taking the Mamluk provinces one by one. In other words, Sultan Kutuz Egyptian and Syrian forces It was to put the Mongolian army, which came from the Baalbek road with its meat, to the sword in the region called Aynu'l-calut. When the Mongolian/ilkhanid unit under the command of Kitboğa did not come to help in Baalbek, Commander Baybars had defeated the Mongolian unit in Gaza and had already provided psychological readiness. On September 3, 1260, an attack began against the Mongols with the vanguard of Baybars. Mongolian Commander Kitboga also fought with all his might, but was defeated, his escape to Homs did not save him, Baibars was killed there, his head was paraded in the streets of Cairo. If it is said that the whole Islamic world is overwhelmed with joy, it is a place. Because the Mongols, who were thought to be invincible, were defeated and prevented the capture of not only the Islamic world but also Europe. After a short while, the commander Baybars became the Mamluk Sultan, he developed strategies against the Mongols in solidarity with the leader of the Golden Horde, Berke Khan, I mean, this war was also one of the most important stages of the Turkish domination in the region.
Ayn calut is also close to the butcher of Salt, where the house I lived in during my stay in Jordan (1993). At that time, we were looking to see if we could go up to Salt Hill and see Jerusalem, one day, Hz. I remember that we could see the golden yellow dome of the Ömer Mosque, or did I just dream it?
300 Years of Arab History and a Thousand Years of Turkish History in Islamic Geography
Before the pandemic, we made a visit to Jerusalem via Amman. When we said Ayn Calut, Salt, and Baalbek, the issue seems to be confused. I joked with my teacher who talked about the Umayyad period with great enthusiasm in Baalbek and Encer. It is also known that the Seljuk Sultan Tugrul Bey saved Baghdad from Arslan al-Besâsîrî in 1055 and restored his religious dignity to the caliph. For half a century, the caliphs continued their existence under the political domination of the Seljuks. When we pay attention to the activities of Mahmud of Ghazni between the years 998-1030, it is a little difficult to understand the Turks, who have dominated most of the Islamic world for a thousand years, but to describe the 300-year-old Arab History as Islamic History, or is it just me? Of course, this is not the place or time to have lengthy negotiations, but let me briefly present my opinion.
Hz. The tension that started with the death of Muhammad The new system that our Prophet brought with the counter-revolution, which reached its peak during the Osman period, his martyrdom in a bloody coup, the increase in chaos during the reign of Ali, the civil wars of Cemel, Sıffin, and Harre, the Karbala massacre, the plunder of Mecca by the mercenaries brought from Syria. finished. What I mean by this is the re-establishment of the jahiliyya system, that is, the nomadic order (patrimonial structure), which he abolished. I see the pre-revelation period of our Prophet, which I see as the period of epistemic preparation for Wahbi (revelation) knowledge, as passive opposition to the oligarchic system of the period and as the resurrection of the hanif consciousness. I see his transition to active opposition with the revelation, and his migration from Mecca to Medina as the milestone of the new system. However, I see that the breaking processes that started with his death soon resulted in the counter-revolution and that all the statelets in the Arab world today are the continuation of the tribal structure in the ignorant system. Take a look at the name Saudi, Kuwait, Kadar, Jordan, especially the United Arab Emirates.
Let me summarize, despite the risk of reoccurrence, the success of the Umayyads in the political economy is well-known, followed by the Abbasid rule. In other words, the dominance of Turks in the entire Islamic world, together with the Ghaznavids institutionally, continues until 1918.
It is natural that Turkey, which inherited this culture, is in the region, but the French leader Macron publicly expresses his discomfort, the Christian Maronite President Michel Avn, who is their projection in the country, takes the situation even further and states that the Ottoman state created a great chaos in the region and implemented state terror. In other words, the Muslim part of the region, which was under the rule of Turks for a long time, Sunni, Shia, Alevi and Druze, Christian part, Maronite, Greek Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic "People of the Book" lived together as the Ottoman Commonwealth of Nations.
In his Seyahatname, Kâtip Celebi mentions Gypsies as well as Druze, Teymani, Marwani, Arab, Frank, Christian and Greek groups. He speaks of Arabized Greeks in the city of Sur. However, you say that the Ottomans were colonialists in the region. As you know, later on, France occupied the region, supposedly 1943 became independent, but when the two leaders are hungry, the situation seems different from here.
Turkey, on the other hand, delivered food aid to the internal security forces, whose monthly income does not exceed one hundred dollars, despite the economic difficulties we experienced. It also continues to help people in what is known as en Bilad-Sham, regardless of language, religion or race. The thing that hurts me is that the difference between Islamization and Arabization in theology faculties is overlooked. Isn't it really strange that nearly three hundred years of Arab history continues to be presented as Islamic history?
If you allow me to bore you a little (otherwise you can stop reading the article), I said in the previous article that Michel Avn was a Christian Maronite but acted with Hezbollah, that Hezbollah came out of the Shiite Amal organization but also clashed with each other. I don't know if Avn is in contact with Hezbollah, in order to become an alternative state in the country, or to create resistance against Iran's creation of a maneuvering area through Israel and Lebanese Shiites, and the USA and Iraqi Shiites, the fact that I know the Ottomans said that they created terror in the region after the Turks withdrew. looking at their situation and it's funny. If we look at the history of the Shiite structure in Lebanon going back to the 16th century, it goes back to the Safavid State's official transition to Shiism and its struggle against the Ottomans. solutions to their problems remain incomplete, which adds wood to the fire of global imperialism.
Dinner was again with plenty of garnishes, but this time it was a kebab type, so I can say that I didn't have to ask for french fries. When we got back to Beirut, we looked without the tiredness of yesterday, we went to Hamra, which is called Istiklal Street, on foot. Of course, only a few cafes, markets, music halls are open, on the way back, my teacher Adnan Zeki Bıyık offered ice cream near the Pigeon Rocks and we returned to the hotel in the late hour.

(To be Continued)