Maʿlūlā in the 1930s

Maʿlūlā is a small town located 56 kilometers northeast of Damascus. As is the case with almost every human settlement in the Qalamūn region, two factors determined the choice of its position: a geographical one (presence of fresh water) and a historical one (a search for security).

Christianity remained the dominant faith of Qalamūn until the 18th century, while 80% of the neighboring populations had by that time converted to Islam: Ḥimṣ to the north, Baʿalbak to the west, and Damascus to the south. In fact, important Christian communities were to remain in the Qalamūn area right until the 20th century, as is the case in Yabrūd, Ṣaydnāyā, Maʿlūlā, and a few others. There also exists another peculiarity that few places have maintained: Maʿlūlā in particular has kept a Syriac dialect, while the overwhelming majority of Syria has converted to Arabic. The inhabitants of Ṣaydnāyā still pronounce Arabic with a Syriac accent.

Both Ṣaydnāyā and Maʿlūlā have the aspect of a citadel-village. In the case of the former, the lofty Our Lady of Ṣaydnāyā Monastery dominates its surroundings from a height of 60 meters. For its part, Maʿlūlā occupies a strategic place on the slopes of the Third Qalamoun Mountain Chain so as to make it possible for a handful of defenders to repulse the attacks of hundreds of armed men, which was amply demonstrated in the events of 1925-1926.

Maʿlūlā counted about 1500 inhabitants in the early 1930s, all Christians with the exception of a few Muslim families. The town is quite old; its earliest dwellings were built at the very crest of the mountain chain. Under the Romans, its residents dug caves into the rock to create rooms and storage places. Those caves often communicated and were sometimes superimposed one on top of the other so as to create multi-level homes. The settlement gradually extended down the slope of the mountain to accommodate its increasing population and get closer to the irrigated land. The constructions had to follow the rugged landscape and make use of every single space amenable to human use. The outcome was a labyrinth of dwellings and alleys, and the only street worthy of the name was (2) an automobile road leading to Mār Taqlā Monastery, developed in 1928.

For foreign visitors, Maʿlūlā represents a maze of narrow alleys and dead-ends. For its residents, getting from one path to another is effortless, as they enter the court of a house to climb the stairs of another, then emerge onto the terrace of a third to finally land at their destination. Women are seen twice daily descending or climbing steep declivities, carrying their jars on their shoulders, heading to the spring to fetch fresh water for domestic use.

Maʿlūlā was an isolated and withdrawn town at the time, trying as best it could to secure its needs. The animals necessary for the daily milk supply were kept near the inhabitants despite the limited space. The sheep were even lodged on the balconies along with their fodder.

(1) The author here makes a not-so-subtle reference to the Great Syrian Revolution, implying that Muslims attacked or at least contemplated attacking France's Christian protégés.
(2) About 1930. 

Richard Lodoïs Thoumin. Géographie humaine de la Syrie centrale. Librairie Ernest Leroux, Paris 1936.