In the stone courtyard of a lovingly — if quirkily — restored 500-year-old house in the Old City of Damascus, a ginger-bearded man in a baseball cap opens his arms to another set of visitors."Hi," says Syria's most successful sculptor, Mustafa Ali. "This is my place."Tourists may be avoiding Damascus, thanks to more than five years of war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more. But Ali's artists' retreat, a combination gallery, performance space and fun-house, is nearly always busy.On a recent afternoon, a rock band practices its version of Queen's "Somebody to Love," the guitar solo mingling with the call to prayer from a nearby mosque.Ali has been an important part of the revival of the Old City's Jewish Quarter. The country's Jewish population has dwindled to a few dozen. He shows visitors his office, which used to be a private synagogue. Arches made of stone cut 1,200 years ago support walls covered with contemporary art and photography.Ali's
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