The Opening of South Lebanon, 1788–1840: A Study of the Impact of the West on the Middle East

328 Pages·1963·20.523 MB·English

by  William R. Polk

HARVARD MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES 8
THE O P E N I NG OF
SOUTH L E B A N O N, 1788-1840

W I L L I AM R. P O LK
T HE O P E N I NG OF
S O U TH L E B A N O N, 1788-1840
A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF
THE WEST ON THE MIDDLE EAST
H A R V A RD UNIVERSITY PRESS
C A M B R I D G E, M A S S A C H U S E T TS • I 9 6 3
© COPYRIGHT 1963 BY THE
PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
DISTRIBUTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON
Ji. .JC- -W, Oi- -1'- ¿t.
PUBLICATION OF THIS WORK HAS BEEN AIDED BY A GRANT
FROM THE FORD FOUNDATION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 63-13815
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO A.R.P. WITH LOVE AND ADMIRATION

PREFACE
WE, THE Western outsiders who have tried to understand
the Middle East, have come late to the scene. In the American
"discovery" of the Middle East, following World War II, as
in the previous English and French discoveries, the very
book titles focus our attention on The Crisis ..., The Revo-
lution . . ., The Awakening . . . and words like "change,"
"flux," and "tensions" speckle the pages of books and
articles on the area. Yet, in our concentration on the con-
fusing, turbulent and searching modern period, we have
lacked a historical bench mark: we all know the Middle
East is changing, in every perceptible way, but from what—
as a beginning in understanding toward what—is obscure.
In my own approach to the Middle East, I began with
a contemporary study of political thought. Soon I found that
the problems which disturbed the thinkers and politicians
lay more below the surface than I, or perhaps even they,
thought. As I pushed my inquiry, I raised many of the
questions to which this study is addressed.
In my research, I came to the conclusion that the years
1832 to 1840 are a sort of watershed in the history of the
Levant. During those years, the Egyptians "opened" Syria
to a relatively large-scale penetration by the West. In my
opinion, a full understanding of that period can do a great
deal to clarify the legacy of the past and to make under-
standable the portents of the future. For this reason, the
following study is balanced on that crucial decade.
What I have done is to concentrate attention on one
PREFACE
relatively small area, the southern part of Mount Lebanon.
With all the available materials, I have attempted to analyze
the nature of the society before the "impact of the West";
then to show the ways in which the Western impact, both
as translated through Egypt and direct from Europe and
America, began to affect the people of the Levant; and
finally to sketch the beginnings of changes which underlay
the events of the following century..
The nature and extent of the available information, of
course, set limits on the study. The diffuse and often obscure
nature of the sources has forced me to approach my subject
in a variety of ways—through a study of the available docu-
ments in the European and Egyptian archives; a reading
of the Arabic chronicles; a sociological study of a key village
in the area; and a linguistic study of locally preserved con-
tracts and letters. These are discussed in an appendix.
The bibliography will reveal few important secondary
works. I have, therefore, labored under the handicaps im-
plicit in an exploratory work. In the chapters to follow, I
have laid out what are really fields for expanded research as
new materials come to light or as comparable areas are
studied. My purpose is as much to raise questions as to seek
to answer them. For, clearly, we need to know much
more to achieve a more sophisticated understanding of the
sweep of modern Middle Eastern history.
Since a number of documents and secondary sources in
European languages are quoted in the body of the text, it
is impossible to achieve uniform spelling of Arabic or Turk-
ish words. The Arabic of such names as that of the ruler
of Lebanon, al-Amiru Bashir, becomes Emeer Besheer,
Emir Beshir, Emir Bechir, Amir Bachir, et cetera, depend-
ing upon the language which then set the style of translitera-
tion. In quotations, the spelling of the author has been
left unchanged, with, in case of lack of clarity of meaning, a
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PREFACE
bracketed standard spelling, for example, Emeer Besheer
[Amir Bashir j. Outside of quotations, I have tried not
to burden the reader with elaborate transliterations—
which the Arabist does not need and the non-Arabist cannot
use. Rather, I have aimed at simplicity and clarity by using
common spellings where they exist—for example, Beirut for
Bairut, and I have tried to capture the sound in unfamiliar
Arabic and Turkish words without using non-English signs.
In a work such as this, which has developed over a period
of years in several places, many people have given help and
encouragement. It is a pleasure to thank the following:
Professor Sir Hamilton Gibb, under whose direction most
of this study was made; Mr. Albert Hourani, who led the
way into the nineteenth-century Levant; Professor Nabih
Faris, who helped in many ways; Professor Asad Rustum,
whose pioneering works are often cited in the text; and
Dr. and Mrs. Emrys Peters, whose study of a Shii Lebanese
village afforded insight and inspiration. To a number of the
townsmen of Ammatur, and especially to Shaikhs Naif,
Badia and Arif Abu Shaqra, I owe thanks for hospitality
and daily help in gathering the "oral traditions" and docu-
ments of the Shuf. Mr. John Marshall of the Rockefeller
Foundation, of which I was a fellow from 1951-1955, was a
constant source of encouragement. The staff of the Public
Record Office greatly facilitated my researches there and
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
generously allowed me use of its archives. Miss Carolyn
Cross and Mrs. Martha Smith painstakingly typed and
checked the manuscript. And, lastly, the Rockefeller Founda-
tion's generosity made possible periods of study and frequent
trips throughout the Middle East.
W.R.P.
March 1963
Washington, D. C.
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