Book Review [28] : From the Holy Mountain

 From the Holy Mountain written by William Dalrymple is an elaborately written classic on the rise and fall of Christianity and Christian monastic order in the Byzantine, Ottoman and modern world. He follows the trail of famous monk John Moschos who wrote about the status of Christianity in the 6th century Byzantine world. 

Christianity as we all know was founded in the desert of Palestine in the early years of 1st millennium AD. It suffered a lot of persecution by "Pagan Rome" as well by Persian Empire. After being declared a sort of state religion by the Roman Emperor Constantine in early 4th century, this religion never looked back. The western Roman empire (with seat of power at Rome) was decimated by Germans in 476 AD. The eastern Roman Empire (also known as Byzantine empire, with its capital at Constantinople/Istanbul) carried on till 1453 when it was conquered by Ottoman Turks. Christianity in middle east flourished in the Byzantine empire period at the expense of Pagan beliefs and temples. A large number of monasteries were established with a great army of monks and saints. Alexandria, Edessa, Urfa, Constantinople, Asyut etc became great centers of learning. With the arrival of Islam situation changed gradually. 

Earlier Christians considered Islam as a heretic Christian sect but with the coming of Crusades in 11-12 centuries situation turned violent and clashed started to erupt between these two great religions. Ottoman Turks gave a lot of stability to the region but Christianity lost the status of state religion.The situation took dangerous turn when almost 1.5 million Armenian Christians were massacred by the "guiltless" Turks in 1915. The transfer of Greeks and Turks after 1923 declined the population of Christians in Anatolia to less than 1%. Anatolia (Asian part of Turkey) was the heartland of Christianity before the rise of Turks now Christianity in Turkey is as insignificant as a fly in a gallon of water and worse they are caught in the war between Turks and Kurds. The Turks are systematically destroying the ancient churches and monasteries in now an overwhelmingly Muslim land. 

After visiting Turkey, William travels to Syria and here he finds that Syrian Christians are living in quite comfortable situation in the reign of President Asad. The Syrian Orthodox Church is one the oldest Churches of Christianity and this church has no relation with  he Roman Catholic Church, same is true for Greek Orthodox Church. Lebanon is the next place to visit for William. The civil war has just finished and the war has destroyed the power of once powerful Maronites Christians. This war has witnessed one of the most gory display of brutalities and genocides. Still the thirst for blood is far from over. In the course of war about 30% of Maronites Christians emigrated abroad. The situation of Christians in Israel is only minutely better from their Muslims counterparts. The Jews settlers are systematically destroying the ancient churches and monasteries and building buildings for the settles by illegally occupying the land of Christians, by exercising their Biblical right of the promised land. Palestinians after living for roughly 2000 years were being made refugees in their own land. Egypt is the final destination for William. He starts with Alexandria. Gamal Abdel Nasser converted cosmopolitan city of Alexandria (founded by Alexander of Macedon in 4th century BC) from a Mediterranean looking city to an inward desert looking city by expelling its soul from the body. The city once dominated by Greeks now can count them using few sticks. Egypt is witnessing the rise of fundamentalism and once again Christianity is paying price.Their churches are getting attacked at a regular pace by the extremists without any help coming from the state.

The only country that looks promising to Christians is Syria but its only the matter of time for fundamentalism to take roots in this Levantine country. Time is not  too far when this great religion will be devoid from the status of a living religion in the middle east. Overall this book is a class work and should be read to salute the tolerant society of the past and to create one in  present and future. 
Recommended (7/10)