Job's Tomb

I'll take a break from blathering on and on about Zanzibar to get caught up with some earlier posts, in this case with another place I love: Oman. It's funny how some memories are so powerful and others, even of places that you really enjoyed, somehow fade away. I was reading Colin Thubron's wonderful Shadow of the Silk Road and he starts his tale, naturally enough, in Xian, and it brought back very pleasant memories, but also memories that for some reason weren't floating very near the surface. I had very few "present" memories of Xian, and absolutely none of Beijing. It's like the month I spent in China has been completely reduced to Kasgar and far western China. Now, this may relate to the fact that I teach a class on the Silk Road, and because of my own fascination with the desert and central Asia, but it's odd how I have to make a concerted effort to dredge up seemingly amazingly memories of the Great Wall or the Forbidden City, whereas I think of Jordan or India practically every day quite naturally.

So what does that have to do with this posting on Oman? I guess it just makes me want to get more serious about posting pictures and reflections on places to help lock in those memories. It also means that you can expect some long delayed posts from China as well.

On my last trip to Oman I loved Salalah, and can't wait to go back. One of the best parts of the trip was a trip up into the foothills of the mountains to visit the tomb of Job (although, much as with the different places you can visit to see where Jesus was baptized, there are multiple claimants to this title). Job, or Ayyub as he is known in the Quran, is one of those characters wherein subtle differences in interpretation can tell us a lot about the differences between the monotheistic faiths. In Judaism Job has served as something akin to a tool that Jews have used to sharpen their faith by struggling with the question of why bad things often happen to good people. As Job struggles with the question and remonstrates with God it represents our own challenge to understand the complexity of monotheism. In Islam Job is rewarded because his faith never wavers, so you have a definite, although seemingly subtle, difference that tells us a lot about the two religions. It's also interesting because Satan in the Old Testament version of the story is so much diffrerent than the later Christian concept of the Devil, but that's another story.

It is an easy, and well-marked, drive up to the tomb and is barely an hour from downtown Salalah. Plus, you get the benefit of seeing dozens and dozens of camels loafing along the road. There is a mosque there, as seen in the first picture with the flowers, but the tomb itself is smaller and around in the back. I was there on a Friday morning, which probably explained why there were so many folks praying there. I didn't see any women inside the tomb, although I don't really know if they are forbidden. Just inside the front door an older religious scholar seemed to be in charge, but didn't say a word to me other than exchanging a polite smile. Outside the tomb, and completely unmarked, is what appears to be the entrance to a cistern, but is really a walled monument that protects the footprints of Job.

Recently I came across another retelling of a trip to the tomb on another blog, which was embarrassingly disrespectful of the Islamic story of Job/Ayyub, and, for that matter, Islam. I guess I just don't understand that level of smug self-importance, although I probably should. Christianity does not have a particularly strong history of tolerance, which is amazing when you consider how much Jesus stressed the concept in the Sermon on the Mount. Even with some well-documented short-comings, which, truthfully, are usually societally/culturally rather than religiously based, Islam has always been a much more tolerant faith. As the Quran stresses, we are all Peoples of the Book. Anyway, if you're in Oman you should definitely make a trip to Salalah and a sojourn out to Job's tomb. It's a moving experience.