التفكير الاجتماعي في أزمنة التحولات الكبرى

Social Thinking in Times of Great Transformations

SifR

What is needed are forces that translate Palestine into questions of power and livelihood — not rhetorical solidarity while neoliberalism devours the rest.

في وداع زياد الرحباني

Farewell to Ziad Rahbani

Ziad created the lingua franca of post-war Lebanon — through it a generation found each other across front lines and carried their innocence to October 17.

في صداقة الياس خوري

On the Friendship of Elias Khoury

I have not yet said goodbye to Elias Khoury — for him, culture was a moral act and friendship its highest commitment.

Democracy in the Arab World

The Arab ruler concedes everything to Washington and nothing to his people — a pyromaniac firefighter.

Social Thinking in Times of Great Transformations

The left must translate Palestine into questions of power and livelihood — not rhetorical solidarity while neoliberalism devours the rest.

غواية النجوم

Starry Temptation

Rhodes wanted to colonize the stars; Ibn Arabi wanted to unite with them: between greed and vision through the heart lies the meaning of the world.

Starry Temptation

Between Cecil Rhodes' colonial ambition to annex the planets, Muhammad al-Maghut's refusal to own a home in the stars, the Little Prince's vision of them as laughing joys, and Ibn Arabi's Sufi "marriage" to them, different dimensions of the relationship with place and the cosmos are revealed.

كارل ماركس – مقالات عن سورية ولبنان، ١٨٦٠

Karl Marx - Articles on Syria and Lebanon, 1860

Bidayat

In his articles on the 1860 events in Syria and Lebanon, Marx exposes French and Russian imperial ambitions behind the pretext of protecting Christians, and reveals the "Arab Kingdom" project.

سحر التسمية ووهم الخرائط “بناية الأسُود” في بيروت و”وعد” سايكس-بيكو

The Magic of Naming and the Illusion of Maps: "The Lions' Building" in Beirut and the Sykes-Picot "Promise"

Al-Quds Al-Arabi

The "Lion Building" has no lions and "Sykes-Picot" is not the partition map — naming is the power of erasure. Naming kills.

من المكبوت الفلسطيني-اللبناني نشأة المخيّمات الفلسطينية في لبنان

The Palestinian-Lebanese Taboo: The Genesis of Palestinian Camps in Lebanon

As-Safir

We put them near the cities — to serve businessmen's need for cheap labor: the repressed Palestinian-Lebanese history.

لبنان البدايات في سيرة مثقف حداثي — مراجعة كتاب جاد تابت

Lebanon's Beginnings in the Biography of a Modernist Intellectual - A Review of Jad Tabet's Book

Tripoli was annexed to Greater Lebanon to prevent it becoming Syria's port — it remains the poorest city on the Mediterranean.

هل كانت الحرب حتمية؟

Was the War Inevitable?

The war was not inevitable: the Lebanese Front militarized the conflict, the bourgeoisie blocked reform, and social pressure burst through the sectarian fault.

استئناف نقاش مع فكر مهدي عامل – ٢

Resuming a Discussion with the Thought of Mahdi Amil - Part 2

SifR

Can theory invent history? And is Marxist-Leninist thought truly absent from Arab thinking? A critical discussion with Mahdi Amil.

استئناف حوار مع فكر مهدي عامل -١

Resuming a Dialogue with the Thought of Mahdi Amil - Part 1

SifR

Mahdi Amil was distinguished by his theoretical independence from Soviet orthodoxy and the Communist Party, yet he remained rigorously committed to justifying its policies, creating a tension between his thought and his theoretical and political practice.

عكس السير – القراءة السياسية للاقتصاد. سلطة المال وسلطة السياسة

Against the Current - A Political Reading of the Economy: The Power of Money and the Power of Politics

SifR

Reverse direction: the political reading of economics — the ruling class uses power to build its interests, and the state is a tool of accumulation, not development.

مجموعة «لبنان الاشتراكي» السنوات الأولى ١٩٦٥-١٩٦٨

The "Socialist Lebanon" Group: The Early Years 1965-1968

Bidayat

From the heart of the "Lebanon Socialist" experience and its self-critique, a contemporary question emerges: Can social justice, by ensuring equal opportunities and fair resource distribution, socio-economically hollow out sectarianism and curb sectarian grievances?

عن الماركسية والتاريخ والثورات والدولة الوطنية والمجتمع المدني والطائفية وأشياء أخرى

On Marxism, History, Revolutions, the Nation-State, Civil Society, Sectarianism, and Other Things

الترا صوت

In a comprehensive intellectual review, the author re-examines fundamental concepts and experiences in the Arab world, calling for a critical, self-reliant approach that transcends imported ideas and simplistic dichotomies.

بدايات تختتم عيدها العاشر وتعلّق الصدور مؤقتًا

Bidayat Concludes Its Tenth Anniversary and Temporarily Suspends Publication

Bidayat

After ten years of publication, “Bidayat” magazine is temporarily suspending its work due to funding challenges, hoping to find a qualitative shift that ensures its continuity or concludes its venture.

غزة – فلسطين والصراع العربي الاسرائيلي

Gaza - Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

From the 1982 Beirut siege to Gaza today, the AI-powered brutality of the occupation is revealed against the backdrop of popular resistance, Arab regime complicity, and an unprecedented surge of global solidarity.

عن الماركسية والثورات والمجتمع المدني والطائفية

On Marxism, Revolutions, Civil Society, and Sectarianism

Bidayat

This article interrogates post-Cold War concepts adopted uncritically by the Arab world—from Marxism to the national state, civil society, and sectarianism—calling for a critical vision rooted in Arab reality.

المقابلة – فوّاز طرابلسي: توجد دولة ولكن لا توجد معارضة 

The Interview - Fawwaz Traboulsi: There Is a State but There Is No Opposition

SifR

The interview challenges dominant narratives of the Lebanese crisis, asserting that the state exists and serves an oligarchy, and that the real problem lies in the absence of an organized opposition.

المبادئ الاقتصادية والاجتماعية في الدستور اللبناني

The Economic and Social Principles in the Lebanese Constitution

SifR

The Lebanese constitution was neoliberal before the word existed — we beat Pinochet by decades.

هذا العدد

This Issue

Bidayat

200 individuals control Lebanon's economy and the "consortium" connects to the president's family — corruption is a capital-power partnership.

الثورة والسياسة الثورية في فكر لينين

Revolution and Revolutionary Politics in Lenin's Thought

Bidayat

Lenin developed his revolutionary theory by adapting Marxism to Russia's reality of being "economically backward yet politically advanced," considering it the "weakest link" where revolution could precede advanced nations.