Old City of Tripoli, Bereft of Glory, Now Serves as Home to Scores of Slum-Dwellers

For 55 years, Shafiqa Masri has lived huddled in a damp and dingy room just 3 feet square on the edge of a once-magnificent courtyard. She is not fond of her home, but she has nowhere else to go.

Masri is one of scores of destitute people who live in the ruined Old City of Tripoli, a remnant of this northern Lebanese town’s glorious Mameluke past.

“My husband died when I was 20. A charity organization told me about this place, which was endowed to needy widows,” said Masri, 75 years old and bedridden.

Built by Mamelukes

Her humble three-walled home, in what was once a fine hotel, was built by the Sunni Muslim Mamelukes from Egypt. They occupied Tripoli from the 13th to 15th centuries after ousting the European Crusaders.

Masri’s worldly belongings--including a small bed, a red carpet, a stove and an old radio--are crammed into a niche in a stone arch.

Apart from rare visits from her neighbors, Masri’s only companion is her radio. “I understand some of the news but I don’t understand it all,” she said. “I know there are troubles in Palestine and that many people are dying.”

Desperate and miserable, many residents of the Old City have almost lost touch with the outside world. Their only links are the few charity workers who pay them occasional visits.

‘Please Help Me’

“Are you from a humanitarian organization? Please help me. . . . I am sick and poor,” Mohammed Abbas Mahmoud, 85, pleaded with a journalist.

Modern buildings have encroached on the Old City, and its richly decorated mosques, madrasahs (schools), hammams (Arab baths), khans (hotels) and souks (market) have become a maze of filthy slums.

“The people here are as ignored as our fabulous past,” said Tarek Bekdash, a civil engineer and a member of the Society for the Protection of Historical Monuments in Tripoli.

“Ironically, what protects the monuments from destruction is the poverty of the people living there. They are very poor and have no means to repair or rebuild (them),” he added.

The society was founded in 1987 to keep the city’s heritage alive, but it has no money to carry out the task.

Water Pipes and Cards

In cafes at the entrance to Old Tripoli, scores of old men play cards and smoke water pipes. Tobacco smoke mingles with the rich smell of Oriental sweets.

In Souk al Dababisi, a narrow passageway lined with small shops, a discotheque playing a Michael Jackson hit drowns out the calls of street vendors selling vegetables.

Shops that in the Mameluke era displayed jewelry, brass handicrafts, perfumes, swords and shields have been turned into markets that sell chicken, fish, meat, vegetables, sweets and videos.

Ignorant of the historical value of their district, residents of the Old City dream that one day apartment buildings will rise to replace the ruins.

“We are bored with these old houses. They should be destroyed,” said Suad Safi who lives with her seven children in Al Ma’ali Mosque.