Sobre Camila Pastor, The Mexican Mahjar: Transnational Maronites, Jews, and Arabs under the French Mandate

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Asad Rustum and the Egyptian Occupation of Syria (1831–1841): Between Narratives of Modernity and Documentary Exactitude

The Lebanese historian Asad Rustum (1897–1965) devoted much of his career to the study of Ottoman Syria in the early nineteenth century. For him, this history culminated in the dramatic events of 1840–41, when a Lebanese armed uprising against an Egyptian occupation, combined with European intervention, triggered far-reaching changes in the region’s politics. This article explores how Rustum’s accounts of the Egyptian occupation period and its end refract the complexities of that moment itself, through the dilemmas of a self-consciously professional historian working under the French Mandate and in early independent Lebanon. By comparing his histories of the Egyptian occupation with both his documentary collections and his own private archive held at AUB, this article reveals the complexities, achievements and limits of Rustum’s historical method. Above all, it argues, Rustum’s desire to narrate Lebano-Syrian modernisation was held in check—paradoxically perhaps—by his conviction of his own modernity.

Karel Hansa: the Czechoslovak Traveller in Syria and Lebanon in 1922 and His Work for the Benefit of Armenian Genocide Survivors

In 1922, the Czechoslovak traveller Karel Hansa visited the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, where he became acquainted with the lamentable living conditions and pitiful experiences of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide. He was deeply impressed by the work of Western humanitarian organizations, especially the American Near East Relief. This experience led Hansa to decide to write, lecture and try to organise humanitarian aid for Armenian orphans in Czechoslovakia, although his humanitarian efforts had only limited success.

Armenian Clergy and Conflict Management in Lebanon, 1920-1994

This essay discusses the role played by Church institutions and leaders in the history of the Armenians of Lebanon after their settlement in the country. The development of Armenian institutions in Lebanon is marked since the period of the French Mandate by the pervasive role played by political parties based on mass mobilisation. Through alliances and expediency, these parties managed to carve out their own quotas in Lebanon’s peculiar power-sharing system. However, Armenians in Lebanon remained highly vulnerable to domestic volatility and regional tensions. Church deliberative organs became a site of conflict among opposed political agendas related to the definition of Armenian and Lebanese national identities, Lebanon’s foreign policy, and the relation between the Soviet Union and the Armenian diaspora in the Middle East. Despite these constraints, Armenian Churches remained a vital component in the preservation of Armenian culture and heritage.

ON THE JESUIT-MARONITE PROVENANCE OF LEBANON'S CRIMINALIZATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY

Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, effectively, criminalizes homosexual practices. Most commentators have claimed that its existence in modern Lebanon is a “colonial relic,” specifically of the French Mandate, 1920–1946. But since 1791, French penal codes have not criminalized same-sex relations. I argue, instead, that Article 534 was the product of native religious, legal, and moral thinking among the Maronites, reinforced by the Thomistic and post-Tridentine moral theology taught in Lebanon by the Jesuit missions. Thomistic and post-Tridentine moral theology classified same-sex relations as worthy of condemnation as “unnatural acts”—the same language used in Article 534. Therefore, as a product of Lebanese political and religious sectarianism, Article 534 is a specific case of a congenial collaboration of Jesuit moral theology and a conservative Maronite ethical and legal koine.

History and Development of the National Library of Syria

In the context of the decreasing intensity of the armed conflict, but still ongoing crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria), preservation of the historical and cultural monuments, including manuscript ones, is important for the country and its future. Al-Assad National Library of Syria has a leading role in the preservation of the documentary heritage of the country. The history of the emergence and development of the National Library of Syria has a number of political, cultural and social features. At present, Russian universities are updating the Arabic country studies. The author notes that the number of publications on the history and development of librarianship in Syria in the Russian professional press is insufficient, thus confirming the relevance of the present study. The fact that the National Library has survived despite the war is of great value to the Syrian people, the Arab world and the UNESCO World Heritage. The article considers the emergence, formation and development of the Al-Assad National Library of Syria. The author shows the revival of the first National library in the territory of Syria (Az-Zahiriya Library) during the Ottoman occupation and describes the historical and political situation that accompanied its appearance. The article highlights the main sources of the formation of Az-Zahiriya Library collections in the late nineteenth century. The author provides analytical information on the growth dynamics of its collections and considers the significant role of Az-Zahiriya National Library during the French mandate in Syria and after gaining independence. In the 1970s, strengthening processes of progressive socio-economic and cultural transformations led to the emergence of Al-Assad National Library, which became the new National library of Syria. The article analyses the main stages of creation of Al-Assad National Library and presents its main characteristics and challenges at present.