Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bosra is said to have played an important part in the early life of the Prophet Muhammed.
The story differs in detail, depending on the source, but the story goes that when
Muhammad was about twelve years old, he met Bahira, a holy man, in the town of Bosra
whilst accompanying his uncle, Abu Talib, in a Meccan caravan. When the caravan was
passing by Bahira's cell, the monk invited the merchants to a feast. They accepted and left
the boy to guard the camels. Bahira, however, insisted that everyone in the caravan should
come.
Then a miraculous occurrence indicated to the monk that Muhammad was to become a
prophet. According to one version, it was the stigmata that Bahira found on the young
Muhammad; variants of the story say that it was a miraculous movement of a cloud or the
unusual behavior of a branch that kept shadowing Muhammad regardless of the time of the
day. The monk revealed his visions of Muhammad's future to the boy's uncle, warning him
to preserve the child from the Jews (in one version) or from the Byzantines (in another ver-
sion).
Bahira claimed to have found the announcement of the coming of Muhammad in the ori-
ginal, unadulterated gospels, which he was said to have possessed. This view fits in with
the standard Islamic view that Christians corrupted the gospels, in part by erasing any ref-
erences to Muhammad.
When driving out of Bosra we encountered a Syrian Wedding - a stream of horn blowing
cars, buses, trucks every one full and overflowing with humanity. Small motor bikes were
weaving in and out of the parade, accompanied by yelling and cheering as they careered
down the road. Everybody was invited family, friends and neighbours.
We passed several so -called Druze villages. The Druze represent about 90 per cent of the
population in the mountainous southwest of Syria and there are over 120 villages populated
solely by Druze.
They are a religious community whose traditional religion is said to have begun as an off-
shoot of the Ismaili sect.
The Druze are split into two groups. The religious 20 percent of Druze (men and women)
are called "the Knowledgeable Initiates". They have a special mode of dress designed to
comply with Quranic traditions. The women wear a coverage on their head to cover their
hair and wrap it around their mouth and sometimes over their nose as well. They wear
black shirts and long skirts covering their legs to their ankles. The males of this group grow
moustaches, and wear dark clothing with white turbans. This type of dress was a common
sight in the passing villages.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search