Mouannes Hojairi

Writing the History of Mount Lebanon (eBook, ePUB)

Church Historians and Maronite Identity

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A meticulous deconstruction of Maronite history writing and the ways in which Lebanese nationalist myths have been invented and perpetuated by historians

As a frequently contested territory, Mount Lebanon has an equally contested history, one that is produced, shaped, and revised by as many players as those who molded the Lebanese state since its inception in 1920. The Lebanese Maronite Church has had more at stake in the process of history writing than any other group or institution. It is arguably one of the most influential institutions in Lebanese history and definitely the most influential institution in the country at the moment of the state's birth.

Writing the History of Mount Lebanon traces the genealogy of Maronite identity by examining the historical traditions that shaped its contemporary manifestation. It explores the presence of a tradition in Maronite Church historiography that was maintained by the historians of the Church, whose claims and hypotheses ultimately defined the communal identity of the Maronites in Mount Lebanon and deeply influenced subsequent Lebanese national identity. Rooted in a reexamination of the existing literature and bringing evidence to bear on this particular aspect of history-writing in Lebanon, it shows how early Maronite ecclesiastic historiography's plea for inclusion as a part of Catholic orthodoxy was transformed and recast in subsequent centuries by lay and secular historians into a demand for exclusion and exclusivity, which in turn led to the rise of exclusivist political identities based on sectarian belonging in Mount Lebanon.

Ultimately, Mouannes Hojairi shows how history-writing is one of the main instruments in generating and perpetuating nationalist ideologies and how historians are central agents of nationality.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bonnier Books UK
• Seitenzahl: 240
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. Oktober 2021
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781649031266
• Artikelnr.: 62600162

Autorenporträt

Mouannes Hojairi is assistant professor of history at the American University in Cairo. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2011. In 2009-2010 he was visiting assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Bard College and in 2010-2013 he was Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Africana Studies at Vassar College. His research is focused on the relationship between history-writing and identity formation specifically on historiography and the rise of nationalist identities in the Modern Middle East.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction
Turning Points in Historiographical Debates
Historiography and the Nationalist Discourse
Maronite Identity Past and Present
1. Lebanon, the Mountain Refuge
Maronite Church Historians: Origins and Development
of Clerical Historiography
Histories of Syria and Lebanon: Lay Historiography and
the Persistence of a Tradition
Revisionist Historiography: The Debate over the Mountain
Refuge Theory
From Idea to Hypothesis: The Mountain Refuge in the
Histories of Today
2. The Mardaites: The Church-Adopted Myth of Origin
The Mardaites in History and Historiography
Roots of the Mardaite Myth
The Debate among Clerical Historians
Clerical Resistance
3. Integration into Roman Catholicism: The Quest for Orthodoxy
The Birth of the Maronite Church
Contested Claims about the History of the Maronite Church
The Roots of Authority
Chain of Transmission
Redeployment and Regeneration of Authoritativeness
Facticity within a Self-Sufficient Tradition
Selectiveness and Interpretation
Conclusion
4. Moments of Change in History and Historiography
Rome Reaches Out
Political Order in the Time of the Imarah
The Maronite Church as a New Source of Leadership
Regional Politics and Foreign Intervention
The Tanzimat Reforms and Integration into the
World Economy
The Moment of Change: 1860
The Mutasarrifiya
The Emerging Historiography
5. The Phoenician Hypothesis: Secular Historiography and Greater Lebanon's
Pre-Christian Past
Ancient Phoenicia: The People, Geography, and History
Archaeology and the Discovery of Phoenicia
Historical Evolution and Variations on the Hypothesis
Golden Age and National Rebirth
The Emergence of the Modern Lebanese State
Phoenicia in Early Twentieth-Century Historiography
Relation between Lay and Clerical Historiographies
Phoenicia in Contemporary Historiography
Conclusion
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index