The Levant: Arab Lands of the Eastern Mediterranean
Razan Abou Chakra and Yvan Chamoun
Introduction
The invention of identities is not a peculiar term in the history of the Middle East. Through centuries, various events led to the rise of a colonial-racist term, “Nationalism” which resulted in what today differentiates us from the other citizens of the Levant. Our passports hold the names of our created nationalities. We use them to verify our identity when crossing the “invented” artificial boundaries worldwide. Even though the history of regulation differs from one boundary to another, it is undeniable that a “New World Order” dictated the state of governing after implementing the world’s greatest war ideology, “divide and conquer”.
Therefore in the Middle East’s unique history, three major dynamic influences have significantly impacted the Levant starting from the First World War up until the present day as well as into the near and long-term future. Subsequently, nations were created. Greater Lebanon was created by combining Beirut, Al-Biqā, and other specific districts to an “autonomous territory based on an 1861 decision” known as Mount Lebanon. In 1923, the League of Nations formally put Greater Lebanon (Grand Liban; further called the Lebanese Republic - الجمهورية اللبنانية) and Syria under the mandate of France. (Maksoud & Khalaf, 2020)
Consequently, the upcoming eras held new social, cultural, and political changes inside the Lebanese community that continued to shape today’s unstable fate of the Lebanese. As if instability was the fate of Lebanon, “a city that defied expectation and logic, a city that made no “damn sense at all - in the best possible way” described by Anthony Michael Bourdain, an American celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian. (Petri, 2017)
With this aim, this research paper looks forward to tracing back the events that created a distinct sense of the interconnected socio-cultural identity that distinguishes Lebanon from the Levantine’s nations; through its complex ethnic, religious, and political aspects that make up a nation living homogeneously and heterogeneously. The paper starts tracing events from the era of Ottomans Rule over “The Great Syria” to the November 21st, 1917 French Mandate analyzing how it was implemented through law and military power, the system of knowledge, and advancement.
Simultaneously, moving into the Lebanese Independence in 1941, the Civil War of April 13, 1975, to 1990 specifically illustrating its consequences that affected the recent Lebanese Wars and the Foreign Interferences of the outside nations in the political movement - الحراك السياسي. Including Syria's interference from May 31, 1976, to April 26, 2005, and the interference of colonial Israel to aid a certain Lebanese party to agitate an Arab civil war. In the final analysis, the recent Lebanese Revolution - الثورة will be tackled to propose suitable solutions inspired by the requirements of the people protesting and the analysis that reveals the set of conspiracies that prevent the nation from surviving.
The Ottomans and their Rule over “The Great Syria” from 1516 to 1918.
The story of the world’s peerless empire started by the leader of a nomadic Turkic tribe from Anatolia, Osman I, who sought to weaken the Christian Byzantine Empire. Further, his descendants expanded the Ottoman Empire across the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa by 1453. Due to its strength, the empire played a major role in European politics. (Images, 2019)
To analyze this fact, we can infer that this was a reason that provoked the Europeans to raid complex strategies and conspiracies to weaken what was named by the 19th century as the “sick man of Europe”. The empire’s power and wealth have agitated the ambitions of other European powers to take over and control social, cultural, and political aspects of the empire’s land to become the World’s Greatest Colonial Power. For instance, looking at the members of the League of Nations, we can recognize that only the Greatest Powers ruled and it has continued indirectly up until now. This brings us to understand that factors such as wealth, double-dealing strategies, diplomatic agreements, military strength, and the presence of the histories masterminds (for example European leaders) are what allows a nation to become strong enough to conquer another nation. Of course, those factors were not and will not be available to the Middle East.
Moving towards the empire’s religious aspects. While the Ottoman Empire sought to spread the Islamic religion, it classified itself more as a European empire rather than a Middle Eastern one. Also, it took a very tolerant view of non-Muslims. (Shuster, 2004) A culture of tolerance led to the rise of the historic ideology, “human mosaic” that played a significant role in showing how heterogeneously people differing in religion can live in harmony to become a homogenous nature with its shared culture. But, on the other hand, if we dig deeply through history, we see that great powers had their stake in shaping the region's identity. Lebanon, the land in which a person's name can indicate his religion which eventually indicates whether he/she is a northerner, southerner, westerner, or easterner.
To prove this separated mosaic, let's look at the Ottoman’s rule over Great Lebanon. By defeating the Mamlūks in (1516 to 1517), Lebanon was added to the empire's reign of Sultan Selim I (1512 to 1520) and evolved socially and politically up until the 18th century. At that time the capitals governed certain locations in regards their positions on the map and the population was divided as the following:
The location of the Capitals and the division of its populations which continues up until now.
Ottoman Aleppo or Tripoli governed the north.
Sunnis were populated mostly in the north.
Damascus the center, and Sidon governed the south after 1660.
Shi’ah were driven away from the north to gather in the south and increase their strength.
Coastal Lebanon and Al-Biqāʿ valley were governed directly from the Ottoman capital.
Mount Lebanon enjoyed semi-autonomous status.
Druze moved from the south to Jabal al-Durūz in southern Syria.
Maronite peasants moved south into districts mainly populated by the Druze.
(Kingston & Maksoud, 2020)
Significantly that era held a lot of impacts on Mount Lebanon as many notable Christian and Druze figures were politically dominant. Amir Fakhr al-Dīn II of the house of Ma’n was named governor over most of Lebanon from 1593 to 1633. Practicing diplomacy, the leader of the Druze reconciled with the Ottomans to support in consolidating his power in northern Lebanon. Fakhr also took advantage of the preoccupation of the Ottomans fighting in Europe and eastern Anatolia to expand his authority to southern Lebanon. Most prominently, he allied with Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany in a “secret military provision directed against the Ottoman Empire” as mentioned in the book “Middle East Conflicts from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century”. (Tucker, 2019)
As a result, the Ottomans sent him to exile in Tuscany in 1613 to then return in 1618 and built a regular army consisting of 100,000 soldiers relating to different religious sects of Lebanon. Fakhr al-Dīn II and his Lebanese Army defeated the army of Ottoman-appointed governor of Damascus, Mustafa Pasha, in a historical battle at Anjar in 1623. Consequently, he was able to strengthen Lebanon’s strategic position by extending its territory: North to Keliakia - Turkey; South to Arish - Egypt; and East to Damascus - Syria having Beirut as the Capital. Several measures were taken to modernize the country that was more than three times larger than Lebanon today. However, in order to prevent Lebanon from establishing its complete independence, the Ottomans sent the Governor of Damascus to attack the Lebanese ruler who was defeated and executed in Constantinople in 1635. (LGIC.org, "History Of Lebanon Ottomans- French- Independence ( 1516 AD - 1943 AD)")
After the end of the house of Ma’n by 1697, a Prince of the Chehab family - a Sunni Muslims members but with Druze followers - was elected and ruled up until 1842. Definitely, the European influence grew and established a major Lebanese export in Sidon and other coastal towns, which is the Silk industry from the 17th to the 20th century. (Kingston & Maksoud, 2020) Recently, the industry became distinct in Lebanon as the government closed the factory that turns raw materials into actual Silk to be exported. (Rahayel, 2020)
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Maronites became integrated into the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical, a codified structure in 1736, the French government was able to politically influence the region and support the Maronites. On the other hand, the British supported a section of the Druze, and at the same time, the Ottomans wanted to retain its authority through weakening the codified structure. By 1860, a conflict arose within the massacre of Maronites by the Druze. As a result, the Organic Regulation of 1861 - modified in 1864 - was imposed to let Mount Lebanon become an axial mountain region where the Ottoman sultan auto points the regulation and a council that assists the assorted communities. Up until the First World War, the Ottomans regime remained in strict control over Mount Lebanon which was named “Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate”. Therefore, the 19th century significantly changed the rate of economic growth, social change, and political crisis to the region. Importantly, the French Catholic and American Protestants used schools and systems of knowledge to implement their ideologies to the local communities. For example, “in 1866 the American mission established the Syrian Protestant College (now the American University of Beirut), and in 1875 the Jesuits started the Université Saint-Joseph.” (Kingston & Maksoud, 2020) With those events, Beirut became a great international port that was able to establish connections with Egypt, the Mediterranean countries, and England especially the literate class consisting of Christians. (Kingston & Maksoud, 2020)
That being the case in the change of the rate of economic growth, social change, and political crisis starting from 1861 to 1914, the First World War marked the change from a Geo-historical description into a Geo-political description. Lebanon as a “distinct political entity” did not exist until 1923 when the ideology of “Nationalism” succeeded in separating the Ottoman Vilayet into specific artificial boundaries as shown in the comparison map.
So previously the Ottoman map was divided accordingly, Beirut was the capital of the Ottoman Vilayet ruled by Ottoman Vali - governor. Where modern-day Syria was made of the vilayet of Damascus (modern-day Israel and Jordan) and the vilayet of Aleppo (modern-day Syria and Turkey). Beirut vilayet (stretched over the coastal region, modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Latakia from the north, Haifa and Akko from the south, and a large area of the modern-day Republic of Lebanon.) (Salameh, 2018)
The French Mandate - November 21st, 1917
As per a plan to weaken the power of the Ottoman Empire, the British looked for a state to ally with and help them in their war. So, at that time, one of the three main dynamic influences was the Sykes-Picot Agreement on November 21st, 1917 where the British civil servant, Mark Sykes, and French diplomat, Francios George Picot marked the lands they wanted from the Levant’s map and agreed to create the modern Middle East. In the San Remo Conference, September 1st, 1920, France proclaimed the establishment of Greater Lebanon and the creation of the artificial borders that remain up until the present day. (Hughes, 2018)
Henceforth, five artificial nationalities were created, Syrians, Iraqis, Transjordanians, and Palestinian Arabs while Lebanon was singled out by the Arab’s opinion that it is an “artificial creation of foreign imperialism in a special way.” (Salibi, 2017) As no member of the other nationalities advanced in supporting the validation of the given nationality. But, in Lebanon, some accepted and welcomed the French mandate, especially the Maronites, and they were more approachable to the creation of a new identity. (Salibi, 2017)
Furthermore, this led to the distinctness of the implied mandate over the Lebanese people. According to the National Pact, it is said that they adopted a “neither Arab, nor Western” formula (Ritli, 2011) and were classified as the Lebanese who “would not seek unity with Syria and the Arab World nor special ties to France in particular or the West in general.” (Krayem, n.d.).
As well as, since day one, France not only gained the trust of the Maronites as a used strategy to establish Lebanon but also, Phoenicianism, that related the Lebanese nationality to the important Phoenician tribe. The result was separating the existence of the Lebanese nationality from the other Arab nation as they “are not part of the Arab ethnicity, their contribution to Western culture is priceless, their skills in commerce are incomparable, and their inherent national characteristics are wisdom and tranquillity” (Ritli, 2011)
All this played a role in agitating the wars between the nations especially Arab Syria as many were forced to become Lebanese compatriots without their consent. Following is the rise of Arabism, a movement that opposed the practices of the Lebanese people and kept it under the external and internal forces even after their legitimate independence in 1941.
However, how did the French succeed in positioning Lebanon in such a political state that will keep them unstable up until the modern days? First, they empowered and allowed the Maronites in Lebanon to maintain their paramount control. Second, they made sure to influence the Christians not to be willing to share the country with the Muslims as political equals due to their co-religion with the other Arab countries that would sway them to an unwanted resistance. (Salibi, 2017)
One of the most prominent strategies that allowed the French to strongly impose what Edward Rabbath refers to their “regime of direct rule”, was through political control and constitutional laws where the High Commissioner Gouraud started by appointing Major Trabaud governor of Lebanon and then executed seven-directors-general with limiting the Muslims generally. However, on March 9, 1922, the Administrative Commission was replaced by the Representative Council that started attracting other non-Christain sects.
A major High Commissioner from 1924 to 1926, Maurice Sarrail, implemented a lot of political actions. Sarrail unified the fiscal system, proposed a secular and public education system, divided Lebanon into eleven mixed “Muhafazah”, and importantly did not apply sectarian representation in the electoral process.
Likewise, the written constitution also came to implement the direct rule of the French mandate after the 1925 - 1927 Syrian Revolt shock. Here, the League of Nations mandate granted Lebanon its first written constitution on May 23, 1926. Greater Lebanon was renamed as “Lebanese Republic, and the tricolor French flag with a Cedar in the White strap defined the Lebanese Flag. (Traboulsi, 2012)
Another used strategy to create so-called Great Lebanon was the use of different advancement that the French entrepreneurs exceeded in. In the Political Economy of Grand Liban, Roger Owen said that:
“By splitting off Greater Lebanon from its natural hinterland the French not only confirmed the financial and commercial hegemony of Beirut over the Mountain but also strengthened a pattern of economic activity in which agriculture and industry had become subordinated to banking and trade.” (Traboulsi, 2012)
This was a technique to render the types of work a Lebanese citizen can be engaged in. With this, they succeeded in creating a hierarchy that obliges people to look into certain careers instead of what was normal in that era. Agriculture was not considered a prominent respected work, as well as most of the practices that did not require a college certificate. Consequently, all Lebanese ran after enrolling in the established schools and colleges to maintain a respected level of hierarchy in the society.
Where after the French mandate, new schools opened all over the country, teachers of high qualification were well paid to provide Lebanon with the French curricula that guided the policy of public education. (KURANI, n.d.)
Surprisingly, this opened a way for the French to impose their rule through the system of knowledge and the implementation of the french language as the main criterion in passing the Lebanese Baccalaureate diploma that proved to be harder to obtain than the French Baccalaureate. Which proves that the education did not serve the public as they served private interests of one sect only to breed sectarianism in the country and hinder the power of other inter-religious sects through providing low financial support and strict regulations on their schools. (KURANI, n.d.)
The Lebanese Independence Day, on November 22, 1943
In the remembrance of the liberation from the French Mandate, November 22, 1943 is declared a national day celebrating, The Lebanese Independence Day. In 1940, the Vichy government assumed power over French territory and appointed General Henri Fernand Dentz as a high commissioner of Lebanon. The Lebanese president Emile Edde resigned on April 4, 1941. (Staff, 2014)
On July 14, 1941, Vichy’s control ended and General Charles de Gaulle, a French army officer and statesman, paid a visit to Lebanon. After negotiations with de Gaulle, the Lebanese national leaders demanded the end of the French Mandate and the recognition of Lebanon being an independent state. National and international pressure on General Georges Catroux, a delegate general under de Gaulle, resulted in announcing the Lebanese independence on November 26, 1941. Many nations recognized the independence but nothing stopped the French from interfering through their authorities. (Staff, 2014)
On November 8, 1943, president Bechara El Khoury, prime Minister Riad al-Solh, the Chamber of Deputies amended the Lebanese Constitution. All the articles referring to the Mandate were abolished. Consequently, the French arrested the president, the prime minister, and other cabinet members in an old citadel located in Rashaya. This unified the Christian and Muslim against the mandate. Therefore, in the morning of Monday November 22, 1943, due to international pressure and massive street protests, the prisoners were released. The Lebanese Independence Day has been celebrated.
Lebanon became a member of the Arab League on March 22, 1945 and a member of the United Nations (UN San Francisco Conference in 1945). Finally, on 31 December 1946, the signing of the Franco-Lebanese Treaty led to the complete withdrawal of the French forces from Lebanon. (Staff, 2014)
The Lebanese civil war stretched from April 13, 1975 till 1990.
This civil war played a prominent factor in shaping the fate of the Lebanese as well as the culture of immigration that scattered at a huge rate all around the world. The following headlines take over the major factors that were the turning points of the Civil War.
Gemayel’s phalangists killed the Frangieh family in Ehden, June 13, 1978.
Maronites in Lebanon have always been divided, like any other sect (Naor, 2016). Bashir Gemayel was the most powerful Maronite Militia leader in the Lebanese civil war in 1975, but he had a lot of enemies that he cannot fight without full Maronite support. Gemayel did not want that, because he was supported by the Israeli army and Syria did not have any good relationship with Israel which made the Frangieh family an enemy to Gemayel. On June 7, 1978, the Falange wanted to take over Chekka, a city near Tripoli because it was the best way to destroy Frangieh’s economy, but it ended up killing Jude al-Bayeh by the Frangieh followers. Furthermore, to make the Lebanese Maronites “United”, Gemayel sent 200-600 men on June 13, 1978, to raid Ehden which was the hometown of the Frangieh Family. The plan was to surround Tony Frangieh’s house and kidnap him (Naor, 2016), but Bashir knew what to do, he ordered Samir Geagea, a major Lebanese warlord to take this mission. Geagea went to the Frangieh house and murdered every single one of them except for Suleiman Frangieh, son of Antoine because he was hidden in the washing machine, and now he is in the place of his father. The murder of Tony Frangieh made a huge conflict, the war was declared from Suleiman (the grandfather) on Gemayel’s troops, but they did not fail in the end because they have Israel in their back helping them (Naor, 2016).
Samir Geagea imprisonment, April 12, 1994.
In 1986, Samir Geagea became the Lebanese forces head after destroying Elie Hobeika who wanted this post too, and he, Geagea, made the Lebanese forces militia even more powerful in terms of training and fighting. In 1990, Samir Geagea was convicted in the killing of Dany Chamoun and his family (Kenaan, 1995). However, after a long-war-life with no mercy, Samir Geagea got arrested on April 12, 1994, for the murdering of the Chamoun family, and bombing a church killing 11 worshipers and injuring 60 other people. The Lebanese government put him in a maximum-security jail (Kenaan, 1995).
The Taif Agreement
Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and the Lebanese forces militia leader Samir Geagea took part in the negotiations with the Lebanese prime minister of the provisional military government who was against the Taif agreement. General Michel Awn who is the president of Lebanon now, did not agree on the Taif agreement, but Awn lost the Taif war, and the 62 of the Lebanese parliament members signed the Taif agreement on September 30, 1989, in Saudi Taif city (قيود, 2015).
The Taif agreement declares that the rights of the Lebanese president will be limited compared to the rights of the Lebanese prime minister and the speaker of the parliament as a major rule, and to stop the Israeli occupation and deal with the Syrian occupation by making and planning for relations with Syria (Azar, 2005).
Major consequences of June – September 1982 Lebanese War.
In 1978, operation “Litani” was launched by the Zionist army by occupying south Lebanon to the Litani river, (Ynetnews, 2008) and what made Israel stronger was their alliance with the troops of the Lebanese force under the leadership of Bashir Gemayel because Israel promised to help defeating the Palestinians in Lebanon. (Ynetnews, 2008) During this war, the Christian militia leader Mr. Gemayel was elected as president and got killed after 21 days on September 14, 1982. As a result, the Lebanese forces made a massacre in “Sabra w Shatila” to avenge the death of their leader.
Sabra w Shatila massacre, 16-18 September 1982.
For taking revenge for their leader Bashir Gemayel, the Lebanese phalanges entered the Palestinian refugee camp in Sabra w Shatila in western Beirut and killed 800 of them by the coverage of the Israel defense forces under the lead of Ariel Sharon (Ynetnews, 2008). Some other sources say that the Lebanese Christian militia was ordered by the Israeli army to make this massacre to destroy the camp. (Shakra, 2020)
After all of these wars, Lebanon had more problems coming - July 2006.
On 12 July 2016, Israel waged the war against Hezbollah in south Lebanon and on Beirut the capital of Lebanon. They fought in air, sea, and land but the airstrikes were the most harmful strikes. The war was won by Hezbollah because Israel left Lebanon on the 14th of august, but Lebanon lost a lot in this war. 1,109 deaths and 4,399 injuries resulted in Lebanon, and only 50 deaths for Israel. Plus, we cannot forget about the destruction that Israel made all over the Lebanese lands from its north to its south especially by destroying all of its bridges and making Lebanon separated in lands; while making the estimated war damage close to 2.8 billion dollars (Stead, 2018).
The reason for this war was because of an ambush made by Hezbollah on the 12th of July inside the Israeli borders. They killed three of their army and captured two. When the Zionist army tried to get those two hostages, Hezbollah did not let them succeed, he killed five more troops. The war was ended by the law 1701 made by the UN (Stead, 2018), and got approved by the secretary-general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and by Israel.
Law 1701 prevents the Lebanese army and civilians from crossing the borders to Israel and vice versa, and it is still going until now.
Naher al-Bared, May 2007
The war started on May 20, 2007, when the Lebanese army entered a house owned by someone from Fateh al Islam which are terrorists living in the refugee camp in Naher al-Bared near Tripoli and found a lot of guns and bombs.
The Nahr el-Bared war ended in September 2007 by the victory of the Lebanese army taking with it 158 martyrs to the Lebanese army (History Guy, 2019).
Fajer Al Jouroud, August 2019
The Lebanese army had a war against ISIS in August 2017 in the Ras Baalbek and al Qaa region. The war was a victory to the Lebanese army under the leadership of General Joseph Awn. (Edenglish, 2017) The Syrian army and Hezbollah also fought in this battle from the Syrian side so that ISIS can’t escape.
Syria’s Interference May 31, 1976 - April 26, 2005
During the civil war (1975), and after almost a year of massive bombing, the Lebanese government asked for support from Syria’s president Hafiz al Assad in June 1976 (Pan, 2005). But the Syrians did not come to help. In fact, they stayed in Lebanon, they came to occupy north Lebanon, until April 26, 2005. They stayed and tortured every man in north Lebanon, raped, destroyed, and caused corruption. They used this land "to have fun" as many records by killing anyone they wanted. They used to hit the men with wooden and iron sticks and they kidnaped a lot of the people in the north, especially in the Christian northern towns.
In 1990, in the war between the Lebanese forces militia under the lead Samir Geagea and the Lebanese army under the lead of Michel Awn in the war of “ELGHA”, Syrians fought with the Lebanese army against the Christian militia, but after that, they fought against the army and they bombed the presidential mansion in Baabda.
On the 26th of April, 2005, Syria notified the united nation about its withdrawal from Lebanon under the resolution 1559 (2004) which forbid any foreign troops on the Lebanese lands. After 30 years of war, this withdrawal has drawn the line on the saddest chapter in the history of Lebanon (UN, 2005).
The Lebanese Revolution, October 17, 2019
On October 17th, 2019, the Lebanese government announced a tax of $6/month on WhatsApp calls and video calls, and every other platform which has this specialty. Salloukh Said said “This is what made people snap!”, hours after, the government retreated on its new Tax (Sullivan, Wright, & Ferguson, 2019). The revolution was peaceful, people were dancing, laughing, singing on the streets, but politics always ruined everything. Politicians used their troops to turn this beautiful revolution into a nightmare. The new hashtag became “#Lebanon_is_burning” (Sullivan, Wright, & Ferguson, 2019). Hezbollah and the free patriotic movement guys fighting the revolution which other political leaders started to lead! The dollar rate per Lebanese Lira became very high “it was 1500 LBP for each dollar”, now the single dollar makes 5000 LBP.
Conclusion:
As a final analysis, it is undeniable that the Lebanese history is repeating itself day by day. Since the Ottomans, Lebanon has not had any peaceful day. Most of Lebanon's aid providers, internal and external forces interfere in its issues. This plays a role in destroying it. The basic reasons are: First, a history full of the world's powerful colonizers who shaped the social, cultural, and political aspects of the Lebanese Republic. Second, the ambition of most corrupt Lebanese politicians in ruling the entire region led to a series of civil wars. Third, it is a land that many envy its existence. Lebanon is what every country needs, four seasons with a sea close to the mountains, and a lot of smart people who are tortured by the government’s corruption caused by the foreign countries who always want to benefit from the region's resources. The Lebanese people are tired of being scared about their future which is owned by those politicians, and that’s why after many years of war, and warlords who sit in the Lebanese parliament and do nothing. A lot of the Lebanese people are protesting in a peaceful revolution since October 2019, and they will never stop until they see their beautiful Lebanon coming back to life.
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