Damascus-SANA
Wheat has a sacred symbolism due to its food security, economic stability, beloved social customs, unique religious rituals and immortal legends. The Syrians dealt with the grain of wheat in their own way, according to their regions, local environments and popular cultures, to turn it into a symbol of unlimited intellectual and material giving. The Syrian wheat grain, with its universal spirit, was a symbol of Syria’s pavilion in Dubai Expo 2020.
The beginning of the story.. The story began when man discovered wild wheat in Syria, and the relative stability began near his fields, feeding on each other and storing some of them. The book (The Mystery of Ishtar) by the great Syrian thinker Firas al-Sawah mentions that the cycle of nature has become of greater importance for human life after his discovery of wheat, so bread entered in his diet and other social habits.
The book confirms that the life of the Syrian man and his economic systems centered around the succession of seasons and the annual agricultural cycle. At the threshold of this stage, mythical ideas gathered about the absence of the Great Mother, the Lady of Nature (Ishtar) in the fall and her return with the greenness of spring in the image of a coherent legend around which the religious life of the group centered, as well as its social life. about bread production.
Therefore, the Syrian dealt with bread in his own way. The old and the young are quick to pick it up from the ground and banish it from the road. Some of them accept it and place it on their head. There is a common sense among every Syrian that bread is a sacred thing and treats it in a manner befitting this sanctity.
The Syrian planted the first grain of wheat.. Going back to the documents, we find that in the eighth millennium BC, agriculture was discovered, and archaeological missions found that agriculture appeared for the first time in the plains and inland valleys irrigated by rain in inner Syria, which is what the book (The Rise of Civilization from the Early Farmers to Urban Society mentioned) In the Ancient Near East) by Charles Redman.
In 1965, a French archaeological mission, which included a group of archaeologists, carried out emergency excavations at the site (Tel Al-Maribit), about 100 km west of Raqqa, which was threatened by flooding with the waters of the Euphrates Dam. This was a decisive stage in the history of humanity.
Ugarit, the port of food for the peoples of the world.. Among the ancient Syrian cities, Ugarit played a very influential role in the cultivation, storage and distribution of wheat in the region, as confirmed by the translated written documents. About this, the Syrian researcher specializing in the Ugaritic civilization, Dr. Ghassan Al-Qayyim, said in an interview with SANA: “This drew my attention to this. Documents: The great role played by this city in supplying Anatolia with foodstuffs, especially (wheat and barley), especially in the eras that witnessed a deterioration in the international situation as a result of wars and invasions.
In a letter sent by the Hittite king to the king of Ugarit, according to the values, he requested attention to a convoy of grain sent from the country (Mukesh) in northwestern Syria to (Khati) in Cilicia, because the subject is life or death, according to his expression.
Ugarit was also a major center for the shipment of foodstuffs, and this was confirmed by a text sent to the king of Ugarit by one of the notables of the Hittite state, and throughout its long history it remained an open state providing aid and assistance to all its neighbors and the countries with which it had political and commercial relations.
The first information revolution that Ugarit knew, as confirmed by the values, shows that it was not a precedent in inventing the alphabet, but was also a source of the first agricultural wealth through what was discovered from archaeological excavations and stratigraphic probes under the city, where a group of grains appeared in the lower layer and its chronological age is estimated in the middle of the eighth century BC .
Archaeological excavations in the ancient city discovered a group of grains (wheat, lentils, chickpeas, beans and barley), which indicates that the Ugarit man, through his first residence, possessed the ingredients of civilization and transformed from a negative exploiter of nature into a positive product, so he harvested plants, animal hybrids, built rectangular and tall dwellings and had a food stock Self-sufficiency in food, animals and plants.
Between yesterday and today.. In the same context, historical studies mention that the Roman Empire was supplied with wheat and agricultural products from the fertile plains of the Levant, which were known as the Hauran plains, until they were described as (Rome’s barns) i.e. (food warehouses) because of its dependence on its agricultural products, especially wheat Eager to exploit the lands, the Romans took an interest in developing irrigation systems. They dug canals and wells under the supervision of specialized engineers.
In a comparison between the past and the present, specifically during the unjust terrorist war that affected the Syrian people and their source of livelihood in the past ten years, the targeting of Syrian wheat, which threatens national food security, was not purely a coincidence, but rather it was systematic. A report by the FAO in Syria stated that wheat production in Syria before 2011 It reached nearly 4 million tons, and the surplus was exported to neighboring countries and Europe due to its high quality.
The decline in wheat production during the years of war was due to many reasons, including drought, in which the Turkish regime played a major role in it, specifically in the Jazira region, by cutting off water from it, which according to international laws are considered genocide, crimes against humanity and fires committed by terrorist organizations at every harvest and theft of wheat from Before the American occupation and its conspirators, the bread of the Syrian people would be a source of pressure on the Syrian government, which constituted a new stage in the economic war against this peaceful people.
Syrian wheat is the soul of the Syrian land..Despite all that this important strategic crop has been exposed to, the Syrian man’s view of wheat is the same since he planted his first ear to our day because he believed in it and loved it and fed on its seed, preserving his rituals with wheat. He has a soul that dies every year to give us life. .
Societal customs and the grain of wheat.. The Syrian preserved the form of his relationship with wheat between the past and the present. Among these customs and rituals is the Barbara Festival, which falls on December 4, and is celebrated by Christian denominations in honor of giving land, and the most important of its rituals is that families make sweets and cook (harissa and wheat).
And to commemorate the grains of wheat, according to the valuable researcher, the celebrants light a pile of firewood in front of every house, especially in the Syrian countryside, and they go around it, and among the examples that are said on the Barbara Festival (in Al-Barbara, the love returned to Kawara) is a metaphor for the end of the process of cultivating the land and the necessity of returning the grains that were not planted to their hideouts. .
One of the popular social traditions carried out by the Syrian families is the making of silica when the teeth of the infant emerge and its texture is cooked wheat grains. The wheat grains are boiled after preparing (firewood) to light the stoves. The women wash the wheat grains before placing them in large pots and filling them with water to boil them while children and relatives gather. The neighbors are waiting for the wheat grains to ripen to have a plate full of saliqa sprinkled with sugar to make it delicious.
The process of Al-Saliqa is preceded by cleaning the surface of the house to spread wheat on it for two or three days, then it is collected and re-purified more precisely. This is another social ritual in which Syrian environments are distinguished, where neighborhood girls gather to help purify, beautiful conversations filled with memories take place, and the place is filled with laughter.
Wheat and culture.. The wheat spike and its spirit were a source of inspiration for Syrian plastic artists who depicted nature with their paintings through different art schools by drawing the harvest season either directly in expressive or symbolic paintings. The photographers’ lenses transmitted chapters of this unique Syrian season and also appeared in children’s stories as well. The wheat grain appeared in theatrical performances that took place in the Syrian woods, the latest of which was the show that was presented at the opening of the “Wounded Homeland” sports tournament, signed by the great director Najda Anzour.
The grain of wheat, with its generous spirit, tops the pavilion of the Syrian Arab Republic in the United Arab Emirates through the Expo 2020 Dubai, with a message to the whole world that Syria, which was the reservoir of the old world with its wheat and its goodness, is today the spirit of the new world with its people who cultivate creativity and beauty in their homeland and spread knowledge and action throughout the earth.
Rasha Mahfoud