Prophets and the Fall of Nomadic Life
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2005
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283
354
Trip End
Ongoing
Sanliurfa,
Turkey
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Aside from faith in the scriptures, they also had to have faith in the people who specifically identified the cave, as things that happened so long ago are far from clear. Others believe, for example, that Ur is in present-day Iraq. Either way, Sanliurfa attracted people to visit the cave.
Surrounding the cave were mosques, symbolical pools of fish, tombs, and a hilltop fortress. People fed the fish in the gardens, which represented the Muslim story when Abraham destroyed Nimrod's idols and was sentenced to death by fire. But God turned the fire to water and sent Abraham flying into the air. The water--along with Abraham--landed in these pools, with the carp.
Urfa was also the home to Job's cave, though a competing cave existed in Palestine
Abraham's Birth Cave
. To pilgrims, that didn't matter, as Job's energy filled the cave where he healed after his trials. Satan convinced God to test Job. Despite his faith, Job lost everything including his health during these trials, yet still he was faithful despite being tormented and questioning God's intent. He is seen as a prophet of patience and faith. In the cave, women prayed and cried, undergoing their own trials and seeing Job as a good teacher, someone with empathy.
The nearby town of Harran was also a pilgrimage site, where Abraham first lived in Caanan. Archaeological remains show the old town. In the new town were brick beehive houses, a good design for the hot summer climate. I walked around the ruins and the town for a while.
For three nights, I stayed at the Lizbon Konukevi Guest House with Aziz and Farida. Their son, Pasha, was staying here also, preparing for exams. Aziz and Farida told me much about their lives as Kurdish nomads over dinner or games of backgammon.
When they married, they both lived in the deserts and the hills. They knew the plants to keep healthy and had many animals: sheep, horses, and camels. They lived in large family units to tend all the animals and move from camp to camp. On cliffsides, they found wild honey to eat.
Aziz learned how to tend bees and they sold their animals, as agriculture began to encroach, with fewer places to graze. He told me about his bees: the workers, the soldiers, the queen
Abraham's Pilgrimage Site
. But he faced competition from shady businessmen who mixed sugar water with their honey so that they could charge lower prices. Soon, he sold the bees and began a guest house business in the city, ten years ago. "We miss the desert," Aziz said, remembering the flowers and plants and stars and landscapes. Because of old age, children used to city life, a scattered family, high prices, and a shrinking desert, moving back would be "impossible."
The desert is shrinking because of an immense dam and irrigation project, involving billions of dollars, billions of kilowatt hours, and billions of gallons of water, and over a dozen dams. Irrigated lands now provide jobs, and crops for Turkey's economy, and the dams provide clean power and a reliable water supply. The costs are a loss of nomadic culture, sunken Kurdish cities and Roman historical sites, future environmental problems, and water battles with Turkey's downstream neighbors Syria and Iraq, who claim Turkey is hogging the precious water.
Farida said that the rains hadn't come this winter, as usual, so everything was dry. Lo and behold, the rain fell the next day, and they were happy, thinking of the flowers in the desert that would bloom.
I said goodbye to Aziz, Farida, and Pasha, leaving their home and the pilgimage sites behind.
