MY DEBT TO THOSE WHO OVER MANY years have taught me about Syria is greater than I can ever repay. I am particularly grateful for the education I received from the late Patrick Seale, John Cooley and Peter Jennings, all of whom wrote presciently about Syria throughout their illustrious careers. I must also thank the Agence France Presse correspondent in Beirut, Rana Moussaoui, for her insights into a conflict she has been reporting from Syria since its birth in March 2011; Jim Muir of the BBC; David Hirst, formerly of the Guardian; and Jonathan Steele of the Guardian.
Most of those I need to thank are Syrian friends who have endured with patience the slow destruction of their country while giving of their time to explain it to this outsider: Armen Mazloumian of the famed Baron’s Hotel in Aleppo, Magdy Jubaili, George Saliba, Tony Touma, Georges Antaki, Ghaith Armanazi, Mounzer Nazha, Sara Shamma, Colette Khoury, the human rights lawyer Anwar Bounni, Samir Khaterji, Bishop Armash Nabaldian, Monsignor Boutros Marayati, Jihad Makdissi, Lina Sinjab and Jack Barsoum of the BBC, Roulla Rouqbi, Nabil Sukkar, Nashwa Mraish, Orwa Nyarabia, Zaidoun Zoabi, Khaled Khaleefa, Nora Arissian, Missak Baghboudarian, Maia Mamarbashi, Yazan Abdallah, Bouthaina Shaaban, Reem Haddad and Emma Abbas. I hope that it will soon be possible to repay the kindness of the Greek and Syriac Orthodox archbishops of Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi and Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, who were kidnapped in Syria in April 2013. They did all they could to prevent the spread of hatred and fanaticism in their country and became two of among millions of victims in a war that should never have begun. There are other Syrians that I can thank by name only at the risk of their lives, so I must acknowledge them here without revealing their identities. They know how much I owe them. My thanks must also go to countless United Nations staff and aid workers, who have been unfailing in their courtesy in difficult circumstances. I think particularly of Moktar Lamani, Yacub El Hilo, Emilio Tamburi Quinteiro, Matthew Hollingworth, Tamara Zayyat, Hussam El Saleh and Karin McLennan, although this list is anything but exhaustive. I would also like to thank Walid Bey Jumblatt for his many insights into Syrian history and his caustic observations on its political life, as well as his wife Nora, a loyal Syrian of whom her country can be proud.
Without the support of Robert Silvers at the New York Review of Books, I would not have been able to spend as much time as I was able to in Syria after 2011. He is as gracious and conscientious an editor as any writer could hope to please. I must also express my gratitutde to Jamie Stern-Weiner for his meticulous editing of my often unwieldy text and to Colin Robinson for suggesting this book and bringing it to fruition at OR Books. I would like also to thank Leo Hollis and Mark Martin at Verso for their valiant work in bringing out the new and updated edition. My thanks must also go to my literary agent, Ed Victor, who represents me and countless others with the aplomb and style for which he is justifiably famous. I owe Patrick Cockburn a drink for his unjustifiably laudatory foreword.