جميل المعلوف: الاتحاد العربي والعلمانيّة

Jamil al-Maalouf: Arab Union and Secularism

Bidayat

Jamil Maalouf, a pioneer of Arab unity, saw radical secularism, the separation of religion and state, and women's liberation as the key to the East's salvation from its misery and its progress.

الاقتصاد والطوائف في نشوء «لبنان الكبير»

Economy and Sects in the Genesis of "Greater Lebanon"

Bidayat

The emergence of 'Greater Lebanon' was not merely a response to sectarian desires but a comprehensive French colonial operation that instrumentalized economics and sects to define an entity serving its interests in controlling Syria.

من سويسرا الشرق إلى هانوي العرب تاريخ مختصر لصورة بيروت

From the Switzerland of the East to the Hanoi of the Arabs: A Brief History of Beirut's Image

Bidayat

Beirut, port for assembling cities — from "Switzerland of the East" to "Hanoi of the Arabs": every image has its political and class context.

مقالات عن سورية ولبنان، ١٨٦٠

Articles on Syria and Lebanon, 1860

Bidayat

Translation: Marx in 1860 reveals great-power horse-trading over Syria's corpse — but neglects the internal causes: the collapse of the muqata'ji system and peasant uprisings.

مثقفون في حوداث الـ١٨٦٠

Intellectuals in the 1860 Events

The 1860 civil war didn't only produce victims — it produced intellectuals. The Nahda wasn't born from "contact with the West" but from the cracks of civil war itself.

مئوية سايكس بيكو الخرائط والتاريخ

The Sykes-Picot Centenary: Maps and History

Bidayat

The Great Loot: Gouraud raised his glass — "the deal will be profitable!" What the French unified economically, the independentists divided in 1950. One partition Sykes-Picot can't be blamed for.

Ahmad Faris Al-Shidyaq: In quest of another modernity

Cambridge University Press

Al-Shidyaq, bearer of "the possible modernity": Work, not Education, as the motor of renaissance; the repression of female instinct as the basis of male domination—and peasant revolts, not the European "spark," as his context.

Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq: An Arab Traveler in Nineteenth-Century Europe and Beyond

Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, the rebellious Nahda thinker, bridged the gap between East and West, advocating for freedom, equality, and women's liberation, facing censorship and marginalization.

Ahmad Faris Shidyaq: An Arab Traveller in 19th Century Europe

Shidyaq: a deacon who converted, the first Arab socialist—and 121 years on, his Muslim name still embarrasses his Maronite village.

Genealogy: Science or Practical Illusion?

Genealogy is "practical illusion" per Ibn Khaldun: its utility lies not in knowledge but in cementing solidarity and "social honor"—and families accept from their own history only what pleases them.

A Collective History for Lebanon

Qantara.de

The solid confessional blocs only emerged in the mid-19th century — before that, leaders were secular, and in 1820, Christians, Druze, Shia, and Sunnis rebelled together against taxes.

The financial-merchant oligarchy in Lebanon

The Consortium: thirty families ruled independent Lebanon — the Pharaon-Chiha Bank made the president, and Chiha's five sisters married into the oligarchy to protect wealth.

The Woes of Confessionalism

As-Safir

Translation of two columns from as-Safir: Yousif Bey Karam said it in 1867—sectarian division invites external domination. The question: "Do we change the system or the people?"

Lebanese Oligarchy

Lebanon's oligarchy: Pharaon-Chiha Bank manufactured Khuri's presidency and placed three-quarters of parliament on its payroll—and Michel Chiha was both banker and chief ideologue.

Arab Democracy and New Geo-Strategic Realities

The Washington Papers

Has the West tried to impose democracy on us?—No. It exported modernization, not democracy, and always backed authoritarianism. The 1949 Zaim coup was about oil and Israel, not the Cold War.