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Iyad Krayem was born in Damascus in 1965. He describes himself as someone who grew up in a modern-day Abrahamic household with two mothers-–a household in which the story of Hagar was constantly referenced. He also grew up in a world that seemed cursed by this story and its falsified interpretations.
Krayem considers himself blessed by the rich, multi-denominational and multi-cultural exposure that life has given him, despite the turmoil, instability, and hardships of his world…the world of the “Arab Israeli Dilemma.”
In 1990, after earning a bachelor’s degree in Political Communication from The George Washington University in Washington DC, Krayem returned to Damascus and started his career as a communication and marketing expert. He worked with some of the world’s biggest brands and advertisers.
During his studies in the US, Krayem realized that the story of Abraham and the narratives built on it were central to the West’s distorted view--specifically the Judeo-Christian West and the view taken there of the Middle East, its people, and problems.
With time he realized how this 4,000-year-old story was still being used in today’s politics to manipulate people into waging today’s wars and “peace". More recently, this has become ever more blatant in ideas circulated during the Trump administration, proposing to create a Palestinian state in the Sinai desert, as well as in the naming of the Abraham Accords, which were rushed through at the last minute to secure more of AIPAC’s support in the 2020 US Presidential Elections. Why use Abraham?
While all of this was happening, and as the Covid pandemic began its global rollout, Krayem ended his 25-year career with one of the world’s leading advertising agencies. Soon after, he would also have to attend to his mother’s deathbed and funeral via webcam because of the travel restrictions and lockdowns imposed at the time.
Krayem had been writing memoires of his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina with his mother as part of their Hajj in 2009. Now with her death, he sat down to finish that story. It would help him relive the best experience that he’d ever had with his mom, or anyone else for that matter.
Unfortunately or fortunately, all of the above made him change his mind and write this story instead.
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