From the Holy Mountain: a Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium by William Dalrymple
London: Flamingo, 1998 (First published 1997 by HarperCollins) ISBN 0006547745
This book is a diary of a journey undertaken by William Dalrymple in 1994, from Mount Athos to the Great Oasis in Egypt, visiting Christian communities, churches and monasteries on the way. He uses as his "guidebook" The Spiritual Meadow, a book written in about 610AD by John Moschus, a monk and ascetic who travelled throughout the Levant and Middle East. Dalrymple, as did Moschus, travels with a view to discerning the current state of Christianity in its early heartland. Moschus travelled at a time when the hold of Christianity over much of this region was great, but beginning to show cracks: Dalrymple travels at the end of days for many of the communities and establishments that he visits, and ventures over the intervening millennium-and-a-half of history to show why the time of Christianity in the Middle East is over.
He began his trip with the idea in his head that the upswell of fundamentalist Islam was the main reason that Christianity was losing its foothold in its birthplace, but his journey uncovers a much more complex, multi-layered, and nuanced story. In Turkey, the Christians are the forgotten people - not seen as Turks or Kurds, the don't fit into any national story that either of those ethnicities want to tell. The Turks want to deny any Christian history of their country, both to hide the realities of the massacre of the Armenians and to engender a patriotism based around Islam and Turkishness. The Kurds, in their struggle for an independence denied to them by history, created a war zone in the remaining Christian areas, which destroyed Christian as well as Kurd villages, and meant that the government was suspicious of any Christians as possible fellow-travellers with the Kurds.
The story in Syria at the time of writing was a better one for the Christian community. Assad needed the Christians to bolster his Alawite government against the more mainstream Muslims who didn't like his rule, and so they had less issues with repression than Dalrymple expected (the situation is different now of course - many of the cities he visited, such as Aleppo and Homs have been destroyed in the civil war). In Lebanon, the Christians were their own worst enemy, precipitating the civil war there, which did not turn out well. Israeli Christians are seen as Arab, and potential enemies - their land is sequestered, their ancient sites neglected, and their ability to worship curtailed. In many ways being a Christian in Israel is harder than in Muslim majority countries, where there is (was) at least some respect for Christianity as a religion. Only in Egypt can Dalrymple find true evidence of Islamic fundamentalism threatening the ongoing status of Christianity. Of course, much has changed in all these countries since 1994, and many of the issues that dogged Christian communities in these areas have become much worse since then.
What Dalrymple constantly notes in this book, and has happened at an increased rate since, is the emigration of members of Christian communities to the West (USA, Canada and Australia in particular). So while stories of churches being destroyed and people being killed make the headlines, the facts are that Christians are leaving for many different reasons, with persecution being only one. This mass migration not only impoverishes the religious life of the countries they leave, but also is economically damaging, as many of the Christians were dis-proportionally represented in the ranks of professionals and business.
The broader social and political story is only one aspect of Dalrymple's book. It is a book of a journey, and he writes of the people he meets along the way: those that have suffered dislocation and war, those that still cling to what little hope there is ("we trust in God"), and those with a religious vocation who follow it whatever the cost. Some monasteries in 1994 are hanging on by the skin of their teeth, with only two monks left, surrounded by ruined Christian churches (in Tur Abdin), while St. Anthony's in Egypt is still thriving despite harassment by local Islamists and the Government. Dalrymple walks through Byzantine towns in Syria that are almost completely preserved, tries to find churches in Turkey that have been converted into mosques, and ruins in Alexandria that are almost hidden by later building. He walks through parks in Israel that elide the Christian history of the ruins they are "preserving", and talks to many Christians who are too fearful to speak out against their persecution in case they bring more upon themselves.
One perhaps surprising thing revealed in From the Holy Mountain is the intermingling of Christian and Muslim beliefs, especially around holy places and shrines. On more than one occasion Dalrymple finds himself at a monastery or tomb and sees Muslims worshipping alongside Christians. This is perhaps not as surprising as it might first seem. As Dalrymple points out, at the time of Moschus, Islam was seen by some as a Christian sect rather than a separate religion, and many of the beliefs of the Christians in the Middle East transferred across into Muslim practice. In fact, as Dalrymple points out, the bowing and prostration that forms part of Muslim prayer has its origins in early Christian practice, practice that Dalrymple witnesses himself in the Syriac monasteries.
Along the road, we see the journey through John Moschus' eyes as well. Dalrymple, a Roman Catholic, is the product of the Twentieth Century, unable to see events through a lens anything other than rational and modern. Many of the monks Dalrymple meets on his journey would understand Moschus better, with their belief in visions of Saints and fighting off demons. Moschus was quick to point out immorality amongst the faithful, as well as collecting stories of those holy men who left a mark by their sayings or activities. While the towns and cities Moschus visited have either changed completely or disappeared, many of the monasteries and some of the churches were not only still standing, but are still operational.
However, they were becoming fewer and fewer, and in the twenty-five years since Dalrymple undertook his journey they have become even fewer. From the Holy Mountain is a fascinating journey through space, time and religions, and a wonderful historical document in itself. It is well written, learned and urbane.
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