The Umayyad Ruins of Anjar
What kind of town was Anjar ? Why was it built? Who lived in it?
Think first of the Umayyads themselves.
They were the first of the two great dynasties of the Arab Moslem empire. They ruled from Damascus, and ruled in the first century after the Prophet Mohammed, from 660 until 750 A.D. They were warlike and excellent in administration and planning, and the greatest Arab conquests occured when they were in control. Their defeat by the Abbasid dynasty was due partly to increased decadence among the rulers and partly to clashes between the Umayyads themselves and between them and other political and sectarian groups who were after a takeover of the empire.
Think next of Anjar itself.
It was built, it is thought, by Caliph Walid Ben Abdulmalel. Why was it built as it was ?
Why, for instance, did it have over 600 shops? Was that because it was a trading post upon which merchants from all over the empire converged to buy and sell ?
And why the obvious luxury of the palaces in such an out-of-the-way spot ? Was Anjar meant to cater to the princes who wanted to steep themselves in forbidden pleasures away from the watching eyes of the more conservative Moslems ? Or was it meant as an oasis of plesure to which ambitious amirs were sent to get their minds off dreams of power ?
And why the open spaces so far revealed, in which livestock was obviously kept ? Was Anjar an agricultural community, planted in the Bekaa to exploit its fertility ? Or was it a caravan station, where travelers stopped to rest on their journeys ?
The answer could be yes to any of these questions, or to all of them. The fact is that Anjar still has many secrets hidden under the havoc wreaked upon it by the Umayyads' successors (the Abbasids, the Mamelukes and, finally, before the French arrived, the Ottomans). The secrets will become known gradually, as more of the town's archeological treasures break surface in the coming few years.
