A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon ReconsideredToday Lebanon is one of the world's most divided countries. But paradoxically the faction-ridden Lebanese, both Christians and Muslims, have never shown a keener consciousness of common identity. How can this be? In the light of modern scholarship, a famous Lebanese writer and scholar examines the historical myths on which his country's warring communities have based their conflicting visions of the Lebanese nation. He shows that Lebanon cannot afford this divisiveness, that in order to develop and maintain a sense of political unity, it is necesary to distinuish fact from fiction and then build on what is real in the common experience of both groups. Salibi offers a major reinterpretation of Lebanese history and provides remarkable insights into the dynamic of Lebanon's recent conflict. In so doing, he illuminates important facets of his country's present and future. This book also gives a masterly account of how the imagined communities that underlie modern nationalism are created and will be of interest to students of international affairs as well as Near Eastern scholars. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
How it all began | 19 |
The confidence game | 38 |
Talking geography | 57 |
Rose among the thorns | 72 |
The Maronite record | 87 |
The imagined principality | 108 |
The mountain refuge | 130 |
how unique? | 151 |
Phoenicia resurrected | 167 |
Trial and error | 182 |
The war over Lebanese history | 200 |
A house of many mansions | 216 |
235 | |
238 | |
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Common terms and phrases
actually Aleppo Antioch Arab history Arab nationalism Arab nationalist Arab world Arabia Baalbek Barquq became began Beirut Bekaa valley Bilad British Bsharri Bsharri district Buhtur Buhturids Byzantine Cairo called Chiha Christian Arabs coastal confessional continued Crusaders Damascus district Druze Druze country Duwayhi dynasty Egypt established European Eyalet Fatimid Faysal French mandate Gharb Greater Lebanon Greek Catholic Greek Orthodox historians history of Lebanon Husayn Ibn al-Qilai Imams Iraq Ismaili Jabal Amil Jabal Lubnan Jumblat kaymakamate Khazins Kisrawan Lammens Lebanese history Lebanese Republic Lebanism Mamluk Mardaites Maronite church Maronite patriarch Melchites modern Mount Lebanon muqaddams Muslim Muslim Arabs nineteenth century northern Lebanon originally Orontes Ottoman empire Palestine Pasha Persian Phoenician political region religious remained Roman rule Sanjak sects secular sheikhs Shihab emirs Shuf mountains Sidon social sultan Sunnite Sunnite Muslims Syria Syrian interior territory traditional tribal tribes Tripoli Turkish Twelver Shiites Umayyad Vilayet villages Western