In a white-walled village where the sun made me squint, I went to see a doctor.

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Around 1286, this village of thick-walled farmhouses was founded by settlers from the west.

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Here in Qobtan Jebel, a pinprick village of century-old stone walled homes in the hills west of Aleppo, Mr. Shehab Eddin's word is law, at least for now.

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Sipping lemon-ginger tea on the cushions of our house's rooftop pavilion, I watch the first light spangle the leaves of the poplars along the village's irrigation stream, see lambs herded into a small willow-walled corral, a woman in a black robe and orange head scarf testing her lower back after filling her buckets.

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