A small Damascene bazaar in a serene courtyard of the 16th-century building complex of Takiyya Al Sulaymaniyah – named after the Ottoman leader Suleyman – is bustling.
The mosque and its two slim minarets – built in 1554 by Ottoman architect Sinan – is a must-see attraction in Syria's capital, and the marketplace in front of them remains one of the city's hidden gems.
A plethora of antique souvenir shops, old carpentry stores and copper plate makers hide the biggest jewel of all: one of the last remaining brocade sellers in the country.
There aren’t 100 metres of hand-made brocade left in the country
Maher Derki,
brocade trader
Maher Derki, 17, sits in front of a shop that has been in his family for more than half a century, showing off different brocade fabrics and rugs.
His family has been in the brocade trade for almost 100 years, beginning with his grandfather, Mohammed Saleem Derki (Abu Diab).
For a teenager, Maher is well-versed in the intricacies of brocade, a mix of natural silk, silver and gold woven fabric that has attracted the most regal of customers, including Marie Antoinette and Queen Elizabeth II.
In fact, Queen Elizabeth's famed wedding dress, featuring a drawing of two love birds kissing, was made using brocade fabric imported from Damascus.
“A real metre of brocade depends on whether the silk is natural or not and whether it’s done by hand or machine,” he says with authority.
“The handmade original, if you can even find some in all of Syria, is scarce; there aren’t 100 metres of handmade brocade left in the country. And even then, that’s almost invaluable.”
Brocade is strongly associated with Damascus, yet it is an Italian name derived from the word “pocatello”, which denotes a silk cloth embellished with silver or gold threads.
While Syrians have been manufacturing this highly detailed and colourful thread since the 11th century with Chinese imported silk, the town of Dreikish in Tartus is famous for raising silkworms.
But a lack of tourism and decreased demand for brocade after the outbreak of war in the country has ripped the industry to shreds.
“Most of what is present today is the brocade made by machines,” Maher says. “The handmade types are almost entirely extinct, they don’t make them any more. It’s not impossible to revive it, but it needs a significant effort.”
Before the crisis, we used to go to all the expos and Paris, London, we were everywhere
Samer Derki,
brocade trader
As we talk, Maher’s father, Samer, whose name graces the shop entrance, calls.
“I don’t go to the store any more,” he says with a heavy voice. “I have three factories and have to keep up making materials, but anyone who is looking into brocade, we are supportive of and will help those wanting to revive this tradition.”
When asked whether he thinks the business is dead, he says: “Brocade needs an incubator, brocade is the idea of a machine and this machine is easy, we can create 200-odd machines and get people to start doing it over again. It needs a generation.
“There is brocade in Pakistan and Turkey, but it’s not the same as here.
“If you want to go back to handmade times, it needs marketing because you and I are unable to restore this at the time.”
It’s difficult to fathom that such a central part of Syrian history needs marketing.
“Before the crisis, we used to go to all the expos and Paris, London, we were everywhere,” Samer says. “Even in the Gulf, we would spend months in expos, whereas now, we don’t have that type of exposure any more. It’s all gone.”
Samer’s father helped make the fabric for Queen Elizabeth's wedding dress in 1947 under a special request from the Syrian embassy in London. Shukri Al Quwatli, the president at the time, obtained 200 metres of brocade with 10-karat gold threads.
“My father was an innovator in this field. Even the wedding dress worn by Elizabeth, several people worked on it to get that end product fabric. My father was in this project from A to Z; he worked with Al Naasan, where the dress fabric came from.”
The war signalled the beginning of the end for the brocade trade, as the focus shifted away from heritage and crafts.
However, the preservation and revival of such important elements of Syria’s history can only pave a path towards a more certain future.
'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
Brief scores:
Manchester United 4
Young 13', Mata 28', Lukaku 42', Rashford 82'
Fulham 1
Kamara 67' (pen),
Red card: Anguissa (68')
Man of the match: Juan Mata (Man Utd)
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Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
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Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
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Power: 480hp at 7,250rpm
Torque: 566Nm at 4,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
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Director: Ayan Mukerji
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
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Chelsea 0
Liverpool 2 (Mane 50', 54')
Red card: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)
Man of the match: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
box
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
WHY%20AAYAN%20IS%20'PERFECT%20EXAMPLE'
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Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
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- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
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UAE Division 1
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 12-24 Abu Dhabi Saracens
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HOW TO WATCH
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Friday Sassuolo v Benevento (Kick-off 11.45pm)
Saturday Crotone v Spezia (6pm), Torino v Udinese (9pm), Lazio v Verona (11.45pm)
Sunday Cagliari v Inter Milan (3.30pm), Atalanta v Fiorentina (6pm), Napoli v Sampdoria (6pm), Bologna v Roma (6pm), Genoa v Juventus (9pm), AC Milan v Parma (11.45pm)
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Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
UK's plans to cut net migration
Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.
Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Power: 254hp
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Women & Power: A Manifesto
Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Community Shield info
Where, when and at what time Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday at 5pm (UAE time)
Arsenal line up (3-4-2-1) Petr Cech; Rob Holding, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal; Hector Bellerin, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck; Alexandre Lacazette
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger
Chelsea line up (3-4-2-1) Thibaut Courtois; Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Gary Cahill; Victor Moses, Cesc Fabregas, N'Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso; Willian, Pedro; Michy Batshuayi
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte
Referee Bobby Madley
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Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
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Price: On request
'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window'
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Stars:Kristen Bell
Rating: 1/5
