Ṣaydnāyā

Ṣaydnāyā is a small town located in the Qalamūn on the edge of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, 27 kilometers north of Damascus. The trip is well worth the trouble.

Situated at an altitude of 1415 meters above sea level with its monastery towering over the town from a height of 60 meters, Ṣaydnāyā deservedly earns the appellation of "citadel-village," coined in the 1930s by the French geographer Richard Thoumin.

The site, according to René Dussaud, is an ancient one. Its fame, however, dates from medieval times, when it emerged as an important center of Christianity well before it became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The main attraction is the Greek Orthodox monastery of Our Lady of Ṣaydnāyā, purportedly founded by Justinian in the sixth century CE. Pilgrims flocked to the convent, attracted by the miracles associated with the image of the Virgin believed by the faithful to be painted by Saint Luke. The shrine boasts other relics said to date from the 5th to the 7th centuries. 

Virtually all Christians and quite a few Muslims revere the venerable monastery that has attracted the pious and the profane from time immemorial. Even at the height of the Crusades and despite intermittent warfare opposing Frank and Muslim, pilgrims were able to reach Ṣaydnāyā and pay their respects.

René Dussaud. Topographie historique de la Syrie antique et médiévale. Paris, Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1927.
Richard Thoumin. Géographie humaine de la Syrie Centrale. Tours, Arnault et Cie Maîtres Imprimeurs 1936.
Ross Burns. Monuments of Syria, an Historical Guide. New York University Press 1992.
Ivan Mannheim & Dave Winter. Jordan, Syria, & Lebanon Handbook. Footprint Handbooks 1998.

Photo credit : Šāhīnīān, collection of H̱ālid Muʿāḏ.