There are two versions of Sayyida Zaynab, the suburb south of Damascus and home to a shrine for a revered Muslim figure.
One lies in its past life, represented in a cemetery south-east of the shrine and its gleaming golden dome. It holds hundreds of graves of Syrian men who joined the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, on promises, residents said, of far better salaries than the former Syrian army provided.
The other, newer life, is inside the shrine. In a plain, well-heated office, a new head of security, Abu Omar, sits wearing a brown leather jacket behind a desk. A copy of a famous Syrian prison memoir, The Shell, lies on a sofa beside him. “This is an excellent book,” he says. Such a sentence about a book highly critical of the former regime would have been impossible just weeks ago.
Abu Omar was part of the rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) from northern Idlib province that overthrew president Bashar Al Assad in December. His team has taken over from the Hezbollah advisers and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) teams that, until two months ago, controlled security at the shrine.
“There used to be many militias present here, like [Iraqi] militias, Iranian militias, Hezbollah militias,” said Abu Omar. “For example, the person in charge of shrine security was a Lebanese Hezbollah guy. The guy in charge of security outside the shrine was from the IRGC. So, they had a division of powers between each other,” he told The National, with a chuckle.
The shrine is widely thought to be the resting place of Zaynab, grand daughter of the prophet Mohammed, although some Muslims believe she is buried in Cairo, Egypt. She is revered for her bravery and dignity, and in the past, the shrine attracted pilgrims and visitors from across the Islamic world and beyond, mainly Shiites.
Today, the complex’s dazzling white marble floor shines in the morning sun, and intricate turquoise tiling mingles uneasily with yellow security barricades as a trickle of worshippers enter.
Some staff here, officially part of the Syrian Ministry of Endowments, have been kept on since the former regime fell. The armed guards at checkpoints surrounding the site are from “the state”, Abu Omar explained– a reference to the new General Security forces. Former shrine staff and guards who were close to the foreign factions withdrew alongside them, heading to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
“Some of [the workers] from the Assad regime days are still here, they stayed,” Abu Omar said. “Those who were just a cleaner, for example. But those who had influences on people here and dealt with Hezbollah, they left.”
The shrine’s civilian management has since liaised with the new security forces to protect the shrine from extremist groups that have called for attacks on Syria's religious minorities, including Shiites, who make up around one per cent of the country’s ethnically and religiously diverse population. Security services on Saturday arrested an alleged senior ISIS commander for planning a foiled attack on the shrine.
“There was co-ordination with the new administration in order to have a special shrine security force, to protect it from armed groups or from saboteurs and vandals, or from people who want to speak in a sectarian way, or create sectarian disorder,” said shrine director Deeb Kareem, who also worked at the site before Mr Al Assad fled.
The shrine authorities are aware of Sayyida Zaynab's political and religiously sensitivity, which became a rallying point for foreign, Iran-backed militia intervention in the Syrian conflict over a decade ago.
“This area is very sensitive, because there are religious centres, the Sayyida Zaynab shrine, peace be upon her," Abu Omar told The National. "Here this shrine is visited by the whole world."
Iraqi pilgrimage tour leader
Hezbollah widely described its 2012 intervention in Syria as a “holy defence” to protect the Sayyida Zaynab shrine, saying it was under threat from extremists and iconoclasts. Al Qaeda and ISIS fighters did destroy some shrines in Syria and Iraq.
The golden dome - belying the poverty and run-down infrastructure elsewhere in the suburb - became symbolic. Its image was embossed on the graves of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters killed in Syria and who were buried in the Garden of Sayyida Zaynab cemetery in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The dome also appears on the graves of their Syrian counterparts in Damascus, where dates on the tombs indicate the youngest was 17 when they died in battle.
Shiism has long-standing roots in Syria, and its followers live across the country in both towns and villages from northern Idlib province to Damascus. They are acutely aware of their image being swept up in Shia-majority Iran’s political and military support for the former Syrian regime.
Community leaders are now keen to ensure that influence is not a barrier to co-existence. Riyadh Nidham, a cleric, said it is wrong to group the whole community with the political aims of Syria's former president and his allies in Tehran.
“Can we say that one per cent - and not all of them were with the regime and the battle - could one per cent fight the revolution?” he told The National from a small office attached to a mosque in the Al Amin district of Damascus’ Old City.
Back at Sayyida Zaynab, Abu Omar is determined to present an image of co-existence. The new authorities will allow everyone to pray and carry out religious rituals at the shrine, he affirmed.
“What destroyed our country is sectarianism, the Syrian fabric is made up of a number of sects," he stressed. "We must harmonise these sects with the rules of the new state."
While they did not support the former regime, many of Syria’s minorities have doubts about the new authorities. However, despite such concerns, foreign pilgrims are also trickling back.
One evening last month, visitors lit candles to mark the anniversary of Sayyida Zaynab’s death. Not everyone present appeared to know what was going on. “I don’t know what they are doing, we are just guarding the place” said one member of the new general security forces, when asked about the crowds around the glowing wax tapers beside him.
Leading a group of Iraqi Shia pilgrims from Karbala in Iraq, tour guide Ahmed Al Khafaji hoped his trip would dissipate fears about the new set-up in Syria.
“We are all Muslims, they pray to God, and we pray to God. Their Prophet is Mohammed, and our Prophet is Mohammed. What is there to be scared about?” he told The National beside a sea of candles.
Pilgrims from Iran are so far conspicuous in their absence: Syria’s new authorities have placed entry restrictions on nationals of the country.
“As the administration of the shrine, we have no problem with anyone,” said Mr Kareem, diplomatically. We don’t close the door to any visitors allowed by the state to enter Syria.”
Locals formerly working in the religious tourism economy are relying on pilgrims coming back in larger numbers.
"Each person brings in minimum $300 ... They don’t just come to Sayyida Zaynab but also to Damascus, Aleppo and other places,” Haytham Al Housh, 40, who was selling prayer beads and jewellery in a shop near the shrine, told The National.
“Things are OK here now. There was fear at first but then the [rebel] brothers came and we are together now. Pilgrims are starting to come back - from Lebanon and Iraq, not from Iran, really."
Many of them come “to kill two birds with one stone” by combining a pilgrimage with business and medical treatment, he stated. “They bring a lot of money into the country.”
