THE TOMB OF ABEL AND THE ZABADANI VALLEY

 

The Nabi Habeel Mosque overlooking the Zabadani Valley,
illegally built on top of Abel's Tomb, banned to indigenous Syrians

On a hill in Syria near the Lebanese border, located in the mountains near the settlement of al-Husseineyah west of Damascus and overlooking the Zabadani Valley and the villages of the Wadi Barada, is a religious shrine, the Nabi Habeel Mosque. It was built in 1599 by the Wali Ahmad Pasha, a Bosnian subject of the Ottoman Empire, supposedly over the burial site of Abel, of Cain and Abel fame. As a Bosnian, Ahmad Pasha had friendly relations with the local Jewish and Christian communities, especially the indigenous Syrians, followers of the Aramaic-speaking Syriac Orthodox church. Had it been left to him, everyone would have been invited to pray at the mosque. But as the Arabs were the majority in the area and throughout the Middle East, and they were not necessarily tolerant of the indigenous peoples, in time, Nabi Habeel became a jealously guarded Arab Muslim shrine where no Jew, and certainly not an indigenous Syrian, would dare approach. 

According to legend, not mentioned in the Bible, after Cain murdered Abel, it was here, that he brought his body for burial. Putting aside the fact that Abel’s nationality bore no resemblance to any of the nationalities that were formed since, the fact still remains, he was buried in what later became “Aram Dimashq” – a non-Arab, non-Muslim country, inhabited by Aramean tribes, the descendants of whom, are the Syriac Orthodox, today, under Arab occupation. And the Nabi Habeel Mosque is just one symbol, of many, of that occupation, as well as that of Arab colonialism, and supremacism.  

But fortunately, the area isn’t totally empty of the indigenous inhabitants or other Christians. In the town of Zabadani, approximately 10 miles north of the mosque, Muslims and Greeks have lived together for centuries. The Greeks here, as with the rest of the Middle East, are the descendants (most of them) of Greek settlers who came when the area was under the Greek Hellenistic empire founded by Alexander the Great. (Arab settlers came 1000 years later.) For at least 1500 years, this community has followed mainly the Greek Orthodox church and today, those of Zabadani center around the local Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. For the Melkite, or Greek Catholic church, it would be the nearby Church of Our Lady. To be sure, there are many other churches in the area, mainly to the north of the mosque, near the settlements of al Jourjaniyah and Bloudan, and they are also, in the main, Greek Orthodox or Melkite. The nearest non-Greek and indigenous churches could be found only in Damascus, the Arab-occupied capital of Syria, about 25 miles to the west, most notably the Armenian Catholic al Mazzeh Church, and St. George’s Church for the indigenous Syriac Orthodox.

As with the rest of Arab-occupied Syria, this area suffered during the local Arab civil war with crippling years-long sieges. The Four Towns Agreement reached between the armed factions and Iran in 2017, with Qatari mediation, provided for the evacuation of Zabadani and nearby Madaya, as well as Shiite-majority Foua and Kafarya in northwest Syria. For the residents who remained in Zabadani and Madaya, they had to contend with poor security, drug smuggling – facilitated by Hezbollah and the 4th Armored Division – and property seizures. (Local sources confirmed that the Arab Occupation Authorities arbitrarily seize private property.) But since the establishment of, what passes for, peace, a sense of normality has returned somewhat, and Zabadani and Madaya have even witnessed a revival of Christian orthodoxy.