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Transcription: [00:44:43]
{SPEAKER name="Charles Bojrab"}
for a family, you see, I brought the history. Where do you come from and what they did.

[00:44:50]
[coughing]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Yes

[00:44:52]
{SPEAKER name="Charles Bojrab"}
Of course...
[00:44:52]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
I think that's helpful [[CROSS TALK]]

[00:44:53]
{SPEAKER name="Charles Bojrab"}
And the men, they try to live up to that standard.

[00:44:56]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Right, right. I mean, you know, you don't want to spoil your family name among 'ear'

[00:45:02]
{SPEAKER name="Charles Bojrab"}
No [[CROSS TALK]] regardless if we have...they have respect for their families.

[00:45:09]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Malik, 'ear' [[Arabic word]] is a very strong thing in our nationality, isn't it? 'ear'

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Shame isn't it

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
You don't do

[00:45:18]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
It's a disgrace

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Yes, that holds us pretty much...

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Ya, that word is, it isn't only shame. It is disgrace.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Lots of things

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
It means, that word means many things.

[00:45:30]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
How do you spell it? Hionereede?

[[CROSS TALK]]

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Hioneerde

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Hioneerde. Hmmm, I just tried to write it the other day, and I couldn't write it.
Um...Did they have a lot of superstitions when they first came here to this country? I suppose they brought a lot of their superstitions with them, right?

[00:45:51]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Oh well, I...

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
And this isn't anything wrong because everybody is...

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Oh yes, they have.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Because they all did.

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
They all did.

[00:46:01]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Can you think of anything that they were particularly superstitious about? Something that was particularly, uh, I suppose a lot of them were religious.

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Ya, of course. If a black cat run in front of you...

[00:46:15]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
But is that American or is that Syrian, Mr. Malik?

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
That's Syrian.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Is it really?

[00:46:18]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
That come from Neero That's what in Neeor and day Friday 13th, that comes from Neeor. Before we brought it, if we didn't bring it, it's the other Europeans brought it. Lots of those things, you see.

[[dishes clinking]]

[00:46:34]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Mm, that tasted good. Well, I thought really that was only American or European, not Syrian necessarily.

[00:46:40]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
No, well, you know, before the, even Europeans, they took lots of their ideas and lots of superstitions from the near East. Because, you know, at the time, the East was on the top. All Europe was in darkness.

[00:46:55]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Yes, yes, I know that very well from my history books. Um, Mr. Malik, there are certain miracles or traditions that they talk about - who was it today? - mentioned something, for example, about the church in Constantinople, the Christian church, Hagia Sophia. Isn't there a story about how that was built?

[00:47:20]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Yes.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
How did, how, what is the miracle story about that?

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Well, it was built by Constantine the Great.

[00:47:30]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Well, how did they get, what is the story about Hagia Sophia in the Boosheer

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Well, Hagia Sophia, that means two words. The eadal. The justice. See there's Hagia Sophia.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Mm-hm.

[00:47:48]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
I think another word too. I don't know exactly. I forget, But anyway, that was built by Constantine.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Mm-hm.

[00:47:58]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
See, Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to become a Christian. And he was really fors his mother. His mother. He built it in memory of his mother.

[00:48:11]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Yes, I know, Mr. Malik. Uh, that story I know of as it's in the history books. I was just thinking, trying to pick up some belief I thought the Syrians had, belief that it was built in another way through a miracle.

[00:48:26]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Not that I know of.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Oh, somebody was mentioning this today to me.

[00:48:30]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Well, if any miracle, or anything, would not be in Constantinople, it will be in Palestine or in Zurich. Because you see Constantinople church was the last to be established.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Uh-huh

[00:48:45]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
First was the Antiochian church. Antioch. And then after that is Alexandria.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Yes.

[00:48:52]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Well then Rome, then Jerusalem, and Constantinople. But when Constantine brought the capital from Rome to Constantinople, so the bishop in Constantinople was the head of the...

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
...Eastern church

[00:49:14]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Eastern church. Of course, this is when we used to go about, if you know the history.

[00:49:20]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Yes. I was just trying to get th-the in-insteringly of the Syrians. Mr. Malik, I think...

[00:49:24]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
You know, I think my sar are talking about one church in sower, Saidnaya, the monastery, I bet you. Well, there is history to it. You know, Justinius...

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Yeah, no, I know about it.

[00:49:36]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Well, Justinius, King Justinius, he want to fight the Persians.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Mmhmm

[00:49:45]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
And when he want to fight the Persians, he came to that little mountain in Saidnaya. Well, he begin to pray. He know they outnumber him, the Persians. And he felt that his army is going to be crushed to pieces.

[00:50:06]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Where was, Where was he from? [[CROSSTALK]] Justinius.

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
He was what you called the Greek Emperor. Well, he was there, and he was preying. He was Christian.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Mmhmm

[00:50:21]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Well, at that time, when the bottle of the war began to start, the fighting between the two armies, all what they could see is sandstorm. And sandstorm come from the West to the East where the Persian army was stationed.

[00:50:42]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Did the sandstorms usually come from the West to the East?

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
No, there's no sand, no sands whatsoever at that area. And on top of that sandstorm, it was a dull, seeamen You see?

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Uh-huh, uh-huh.

[00:50:55]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
And he was preying to Saint Mary. And he believed that Saint Mary was the one causing the Christians the time to beat the heathens, the Persians. And he stood up on the top of that mountain, and he said, "I shall build here".

[00:51:16]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Can you say it for me in Syrian?

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Well, yes.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Please say it in Syrian.

[00:51:20]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Sa'abnih huna [shortened Arabic version]

[00:51:29]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Oh do you now?

[00:51:31]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
And he built it. He built that. And that monastery, and that church is known throughout the world. People will come from, will go there, if they didn't see that, they didn't see anything.

[00:51:43]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
I'm sorry, I had to miss it.

{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Oh, that is very, very nice place. They have monastery, they have churches. And lots of miracles happen there.

[00:51:52]
{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
Do you know of any other miracles that happened there?

[00:51:53]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
Oh yes, lots of them. People will go there, you know, all kinds of diseases, and they get well.

{SPEAKER name="Selma Bonahoom"}
And they do get healed. Wonderful.

[00:52:00]
{SPEAKER name="Alexander Malik"}
And they get healed because the sisters over there. They'll have what you call duea' khasin that means 'a special prayer'. They'll go to the church, and all the sick people will lie down on the floor of the church, and the sisters with the priest, they'll pray and pray. And always
[00:52:20]