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Egypt or Syria?

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Egypt or Syria?
pseudonymous
04/09/02 at 18:16:28
[slm]
If you had the choice of moving to Egypt or Syria, which one would you choose and why? Please be specific. It would help if you base your choice on experiences or facts. Jazakum Allah khair.
Re: Egypt or Syria?
pseudonymous
04/12/02 at 20:48:35
I was hoping for some replies.  :'(
Re: Egypt or Syria?
jannah
04/13/02 at 00:47:00
ok i'll take the bait :)  depends on what you plan to do while you are there. are you planning to go to school there.. what do you want to learn? do you want to live there temporarily forever what? do you have a family, married, male female?? what... every person's situation is different and that makes the answer different.

now if i were to answer the question personally i'd say neither ;)
Re: Egypt or Syria?
Abu_Hamza
04/13/02 at 01:40:25
[slm]
[quote]
now if i were to answer the question personally i'd say neither ;)
[/quote]
Wow!  :o

Why?  I thought you really liked Syria (?)
Re: Egypt or Syria?
jannah
04/13/02 at 01:50:30
Of course I liked syria, who doesn't... but i wouldn't live there permanently even if you were allowed to which you aren't btw.
Re: Egypt or Syria?
bhaloo
04/13/02 at 11:01:53
[slm]

Jannah, where would you live if you had a choice of living anyplace in the world?
Re: Egypt or Syria?
jannah
04/13/02 at 14:04:42
ahhhhhhhhhhhh one of those crazy questions hmm
i'd like to live wherever my family is cause that's what makes a place home :)

as for cities on their merit alone i'd say montreal was pretty beautiful, along with miami and some cities in n. california, the bay area i heard was as well :)

as for cities on the merit of the muslim community, i'd go with London and then DC/VA

for islamic knowledge: damascus hands down

hmm so
Bhaloo, if you were stuck on an island what three things would you keep with you? ;D
Re: Egypt or Syria?
Tasneem
04/13/02 at 17:23:20
[slm]

I have never been to Egypt but a close friend of mine has traveled and lived and studied extensively in both Egypt and Syria and she prefers Egypt because she thinks the people are "nicer" there.  I can't comment on that because my husband is from Syria and I may be biased overall -- I LOVE Syria-- :) but some things to consider:

1)  There are more opportunites in Syria for serious one-on-one (ie not university-style) studying with real scholars, not just "professors".  There are a number of ways to do it, either via the various schools that operate there or through one-on-one connections.  There are also a number of women teachers who will teach other women.

2)  There are a more opportunities in Syria to go study (again especially for women) and have families host you and pay for all of your expenses while you are studying.  

3)  Damascus is MUCH nicer than Cairo.  Damascus is a smaller city with FAR less crowding and environmental issues than Cairo.  The population of Damascus is 17 million whereas the population of Cairo is 70 million.  I love Damascus personally because it really doesn't feel like such a big city.  In Cairo you always hear about building collapses because the crowding is so bad people build on top of roofs of buildings.  Recently there was a really sad one in which a building housing a beauty salon collapsed and 14 women died, 5 or so who were getting their hair done for their weddings and their relatives were the ones killed.   :(  Damascus doesn't have that problem, I'd say the highest residential building outside of the immediate downtown (where there are some modern high-rises) is about 5 stories.  You can be standing anywhere in Damascus and practically see from one end to the other, using the mountain in the North as your visual anchor, but I have had multiple experiences where two people from Cairo will meet each other, ask each other what district of Cairo they are from and both will say "I never heard of that place before".

5)  There is a more dynamic community of traditional scholarship going on in Damascus than practically anywhere in the world. Damascus arguably is home to some of, if not THE most knowledgable scholars alive today.  

6)  Syria is not a tourist destination like Egypt is for Westerners, except for the hordes of Iranian Shia tourists who come to visit the various graves of relatives of the Prophet  [saw].  

7)  The Syrian government is not really in the business of persecuting practicing Muslims as the Egyptian government is.   The massacre in Hama many years ago aside (directed against insurgents related to Muslim Brotherhood) you will not get harassed or arrested in Syria simply for having a beard.  This is not true in Egypt though, according to my Egyptian friends.  The scholars that are there don't get pushed around much.  Before Hafez Al-Assad died anyway they had to make a weekly statement about the "great leader" in their khutbahs and they were generally left alone, so with Bashar being more liberal, I imagine it's the same or better now.

8)  It is more difficult, further, and time-consuming to go from Egypt to another country, but going for visits between Syria and Lebanon and Jordan is very easy and adds to your options for study, travel, tourism, and book shopping-- the latter especially in Lebanon.  From Amman to Damascus is only a 2 hour drive.

There is TONS of stuff to do in Syria when you're not studying.  Damascus is a gold mine of masjids, graves of famous people, (because so many scholars were located there-- you can visit the graves of people from Ibn Arabi to Ibn Taymiyyah in Damascus)  the famous Dhahiriyyah library, touristy stuff too like the souqs, Umayyad mosque, Sitt Zaynab mosque, etc.,  a GREAT multi-level public transportation system, the view from Mt. Qasiun which can't be missed both in the day and the night, etc., etc., etc.  Outside of Damascus there is fun stuff to do not far away in the suburbs and further out in some of the resort areas like Zabadani, and even further to places like Maalula (where they still speak Aramaic and built their houses into the caves the earliest Christians lived in) and Hama where they have these MASSIVE wooden water wheels that are still in use, there is the best-preserved Roman theater in Bosra Sham, just on the border with Jordan.  And of course there is Tadmur (Palmyra) which is an entire city of Roman ruins.  

Just don't EVER make any political comments related to the Syrian government and you'll be just fine.

Like Jannah said, they won't let you stay for a very long time unless you're like me and you are a woman married to a Syrian citizen.  {waves and dances and sings nah nah nah nah nah}  ;D

Oh, there is also no direct airline from the US to Syria-- it is illegal to sell tickets on Syrian Arab Airlines in the US, so you have to take a flight with connections in Europe or another Middle Eastern country.

I don't know about the exchange rate with Egyptian currency, but the exchange rate of US$ to Syrian Pounds is $1 = SP50.  Life in Syria is VERY VERY cheap.  A Pakistani brother we know who was studying there got a job tutoring somebody in English 4 X / week for $10/ hour (rich people can pay this) and that was enough for all of his living expenses.  It takes about $1000/ year to completely support my Mother-in-Law.

Of course, Syria is also far more likely to be attacked by Israel than Egypt is.   The US government did issue a travel warning for Syria recently and told all of the dependents of US Embassy employees to get out which can't be a good sign  :(  Make du9aa' for us because we are leaving for Syria in exactly one month.  

Here is a link to the Syrian Studies Association website-- it's for non-Muslims, but it has an especially good overview of the opportunities for studying Arabic in Syria.  It's maintained by one of my husband's colleagues here at the University of Oklahoma who has lived in Damascus.  It also has basic information about living there.  

http://www.ou.edu/ssa/

And this is an excellent and comprehensive article from the Zaytuna website about studying in Damascus:

http://www.zaytuna.org/specials/syria.html


Tasneem
Re: Egypt or Syria?
ahmer
04/13/02 at 18:32:06
[quote]
The population of Damascus is 17 million whereas the population of Cairo is 70 million
[/quote]

take a  []
:)

Cairo's population 70 mln...???????!!!!  ??? ??? ???
The largest city in the world Tokyo, Japan has a population of 28 million!!..
In fact Egypt's total population is 70 million and Syria's is 17 million.
and finally.. Damascus has 3.5 million inhabitants while Cairo has 7 million!!

 ;D ;D
ma'salam
ahmer
Re: Egypt or Syria?
Kashif
04/13/02 at 18:51:27
assalaamu alaikum

Man.. i'm packing my bags for Syria.. after reading Sr. Tasneem's post it sounds like an excellent place to spend a few years of one's life.. that and the Xingjiang region of China. *smile*

Mind you, thanks for pointing that out Ahmer.. how can Cairo have 70 million people? Great Britain in its entirety only has about 62 million.

Kashif
Wa Salaam
NS
Re: Egypt or Syria?
Tasneem
04/14/02 at 11:45:22
Kashif wrote:

<<Cairo's population 70 mln...?!!!!    
The largest city in the world Tokyo, Japan has a population of 28 million!!..
In fact Egypt's total population is 70 million and Syria's is 17 million.
and finally.. Damascus has 3.5 million inhabitants while Cairo has 7 million!! >>

Okay, weird.  I got the figures from the Lonely Planet website, and yes, they were supposed to be for the cities, not the countries themselves.  I thought they sounded weird but I had a fussy baby in my lap and couldn't really pay attention, much less check.  Those numbers sound more reasonable, jazaaka l-laahu khayran!
Re: Egypt or Syria?
bhaloo
04/14/02 at 14:44:39
[slm]

[quote author=jannah link=board=bebzi;num=1018390589;start=0#6 date=04/13/02 at 14:04:42]hmm so
Bhaloo, if you were stuck on an island what three things would you keep with you? ;D[/quote]

I'd just need one thing.  A solar powered notebook computer with internet connectivity.   :P


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