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The Origins of the Lebanese National Idea. Carol Hakim
Читать онлайн.Название The Origins of the Lebanese National Idea
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isbn 9780520954717
Автор произведения Carol Hakim
Издательство Ingram
This is why Murad finally appealed to France to fulfill the “commitment reiterated by Guizot to . . . do her utmost to restore to the Maronites of Lebanon the government they had lost and yearn for with all their heart.”84
Murad did not specify in his treatise the kind of French help he had in mind. For that, we have to consult his personal correspondence, among which two letters addressed to Guizot, one dated March 27, 1842, and the other November 27, 1842, explicitly solicit a French military intervention “in the name of Christendom, with a view to re-establishing Shihabi rule.”85 Thus, the political project of the Maronite Church of establishing a semi-independent Emirate in Mount Lebanon became tied to and, more so, dependent upon, French military intervention. After the collapse of the plans of the Maronite Patriarch to mobilize his community and to impose its dominance on the ground, and following his reliance on French diplomatic support in Istanbul and the failure of such policies, the Church was slowly turning toward the only solution left: foreign military intervention. The recent military operation of the Allies and the Ottomans to reestablish Ottoman rule or, more probably, the intervention of the European powers that contributed to the liberation of the Greeks some years earlier, as well as the numerous exhortations of some French circles, may have inspired and instigated such designs. But the main reason for this plea for foreign military intervention was the acknowledgment by the Church, after its reversals locally and in Istanbul, that it did not possess the means required to fulfill its ambitions. Or, to use Murad's own words in a personal letter to King Louis Philippe, “[The Maronites] know that they must await their deliverance from the King of France . . . after God.”86
The aspirations of the Maronite Church to establish an autonomous Christian Emirate hence became tied to French designs in the region. However, if the French government needed the Maronites to secure its influence and a foothold in the region in case of an eventual intervention, should the Ottoman Empire disintegrate, it was not willing as yet to take any initiative toward the realization of the Maronite project, a fact that generated much friction and misunderstanding between both sides as well as some frustration among some Maronite circles.
The legacy of Murad was therefore twofold. First, he laid the basis for the historical legitimization of the Lebanist project and ideal. Many Lebanese and foreign publicists would follow in his footsteps, refining his initial blueprint. The second aspect of Murad's legacy is more ambiguous. Murad's views concerning the religious affinity and the identification of the Maronites with the French were more rarely integrated into the core of the Lebanist ideology. Future advocates of a Lebanese identity preferred to tone down such an association, or to appeal to more secular grounds of affinity between the Lebanese and the French, but they did often refer to Murad's vision of France's “moral obligation” to assist in the liberation of the Lebanese without encroaching on their independence and identity.87
More concretely, Murad was to have a successor in the person of Father ‘Azar, who, in 1846–47, undertook a mission to France similar to that of Murad, with the aim of requesting France's support for the Maronites. Less distinguished than his eminent predecessor, and speaking barely a few words of Italian and no French at all, Father ‘Azar seems to have endured many difficulties before being introduced to members of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, to whom he presented apparently outdated, and greatly exaggerated, petitions regarding the distressful situation of the Maronites and their urgent need for French support. These supplications ended up in the French Chamber of Deputies through the intermediation of a Catholic deputy, provoking strong criticisms of French governmental policy concerning Mount Lebanon.88
Ultimately, ‘Azar's political mission, like that of Murad before him, ended in failure; both discovered that the policy of the French government was in effect much more circumspect than that of the French circles they used to frequent. More important to this study is that ‘Azar, like Murad before him, apparently scribbled some notes on the history of the Maronites that were then translated into French in the form of a brochure and circulated, along with ‘Azar's petitions, in Catholic and colonial circles.89 The brochure was duly published some five years later in France, in the form of a book entitled Les Marounites, d'après le manuscrit arabe du R. P. Azar.
‘Azar's book was clearly rewritten by a Frenchman who interjected himself into the text by frequent reference to “us” or “our country” when mentioning the French and France. Moreover, the text was updated to fit changing circumstances and governments. The publication of the book corresponded with the proclamation of Napoleon III as Emperor, and it was addressed to him, enjoining him to carry on the great deeds of his uncle and all his eminent royal predecessors and to save and protect the Maronites: “Prince, turn your gaze upon Lebanon, and see the blows that have been dealt against France, against humanity, against the Catholic faith. . . . Associate your name with the names of St. Louis, Louis XIV and Napoleon; let us have our life, let us have our faith, you can do it: when France wants to do something, it can—especially when she is governed by those Napoleons.”90 Moreover, to strengthen this plea the small phrase allegedly attributed by Murad to Napoleon himself, to the effect that the Maronites were French “since immemorial times,” is continually reiterated throughout the text.
Most themes dealt with by Murad on the history of the Maronites, their historical Emirate, their close association with the French, and the traditional French protectorate of the community are reproduced in ‘Azar's book, with some slight alterations and stronger emphasis. For example, the identification of the Maronites with the French is pushed even further in'Azar's book, and the Maronites are not only the French of the Levant, or even the protégés of France, but clearly and simply French since the time of the Crusades: “The Maronites, then, are indeed French; they mix their blood with French blood on the battlefield; a noble fraternity of arms exists between them and the French. They also mix their blood through marriage; French blood flowed and still flows in Maronite veins.”91 Similarly, the moral obligation, and indeed duty, of the French to succor the Maronites in their time of suffering is strongly underscored in ‘Azar's text. Moreover, the advantages France could reap from such an endeavor, and indeed the identity of interests between the French and the Maronites, are more clearly highlighted. Hence, the author discussed at length why it was in French interest to help these “400,000 Maronites ripe to form a nation.”92 The Ottoman Empire was collapsing, and “the political eventualities which might arise in the Orient required that we protect the Maronites,”93 “this European colony transplanted in Asia.”94 In short, as the author asserted: “In the East, there is only one people that has virtue: the Maronite people; the Maronites are destined for greatness; on their own they will be able to revive and reinvigorate Asia: all of civilization's hopes rest upon them.”95
‘Azar's book, like that of Murad, had more immediate impact in France than in Mount Lebanon, where both works seem to have remained unknown for a long time. They were, however, rediscovered, along with many other French works of the same epoch, by some Lebanese intellectuals at the beginning of the twentieth century who drew much inspiration from them. Bulus Nujaym, also known as Jouplain, for example, often referred to ‘Azar's manuscript in his major work, La question du Liban.96
| CHAPTER THREE | · | The 1860 Massacres and Their Aftermath |
| A Map for Lebanon |
The massacres of 1860 in Mount Lebanon and Damascus represent a watershed in the history of the Syrian provinces in general, and of Mount Lebanon in particular. Their scope and magnitude ended a long period of crisis and instability that had marked the region since its occupation by Ibrahim Pasha in 1831, its reintegration into the Ottoman Empire in 1840, and the subsequent movement of reforms initiated by the Ottoman government. Underlying fears, expectations, tensions, and contradictions that had been building throughout this troubled period were brought to such an extreme limit, and expressed in such an appalling way during the events of