The golden cupola of the Sayyida Zainab mosque glints, magnificent, against the clear sky. In the courtyard, children play amid shoes shed by their parents before they entered to pray. Only the crack of gunfire, the hissing of bullets overhead and mortar fire close by disturbs the tranquil...

Before the bloodshed of the civil war in Syria, the country’s economy was diverse. The most important sectors included agriculture (22 percent of the economy), industry and excavation (25 percent), retail (23 percent), and tourism (12 percent), according to 2009 figures quoted by the Syrian...