And these were more than just the two mentioned in the question from the get-go. That is just the pinnacle of the unease and tensed situation throughout the entire century, with bitter rivalries between all groups. The Druzes and Maronites also didn't share power as much as they were forced to cooperate by the Ottomans and told what to do by politicians like Metternich or incited to rebel by French and British influences. But before, in the 19th century, the situation largely favoured the Druzes, especially in the so called mixed areas of the two qaim-mayqamam.
The Maronites sharing power with two more parts of state instead of just the Druzes might seem strange. My question is about this turnabout which isn't detailed in the book, how did it happen? How did they turn from being early proponents of Arabism and a separate non-Ottoman identity to having a narrower non-Arab Lebanist vision for the country (not only that but an active opposition to an Arab definition)?Īnd given their political ambitions and standing at the time, why would they want to expand the territory to include people who had a different vision of Arabism and with whom they would need to share power? Later the British-backed Faysal would popularize the idea with Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Jordan.Īround chapter 10, after the end of WWI a Christian Lebanese delegation to Paris is lobbying for the establishment of a country of Greater Lebanon (larger than the previous autonomous mountain areas under Ottoman rule) sponsored by a mandatory France.ĭuring the Ottoman era, they shared and ruled the mountain with the Druze, but in an expanded state they would now have to share power with Shiites and Sunnites, especially the urban classes who were a different society than the more feudal societies of the mountain.
In the first chapter he argues that it was initially the Christian minorities of historic Syria that first articulated an Arab identity and awareness.
I'm currently reading A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered (1988) by Kamal Salibi.
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