The : Celebrating a Thousand Years of Diversity

In the last decade, the Middle East and the world around it has witnessed the rise of several extremist groups, which seek to drag the region and its people back to an imagined past, which in their understanding, epitomizes the golden age of Islam. These groups’ fallacious readings of history is easily debunked by a simple historical investigation into the pluralistic and diverse composition of societies across the region, under the rule of the successive Islamic empires or later within the modern nation states. This mosaic of both sects and ideas across time and space stand in stark opposition to this extremist exclusionist rhetoric preached by some of these radical factions and by some of their western opponents. For the Druze, a small Islamic sect, this diverse setting proved instrumental for its survival and development over the last ten centuries, permitting it to grow and even rule or administer Muslim domains in Mamluk and Ottoman Bilad al-Sham, playing pivotal roles in the sociopolitical history of the region, specifically in the evolution of the Lebanese entity as well as modern and . The Center of Arts and Humanities at the American University of Beirut is organizing an international conference which will bring together leading researchers who have contributed to the field of Middle Eastern Studies with particular reference to the Druze. The conference will focus on the political, social and cultural evolution and/ or political role of the Druze over the past millennium. This two-day conference which will be held at the American University of Beirut in October 30 & 31 2018 will also feature a number of activities covering art, food and culture allowing the public to become more familiar with these socio-cultural tools which help the Druze community to maintain a distinct identity while simultaneously being part and parcel of their societies. While this conference essentially focuses on the Druze, it will certainly incorporate the stories of many of the groups which inhabited the same regions and which through conflict and often accommodation and cooperation came to define the rich history of the Druze and of the region as a whole.

*Simultaneous translation available الدروز: �ألف ٍعام من ةالتعدديّ و احل�ضارة

شهدالرشق األوسط والعامل من حوله يف العقد املايض ظهور العديد من الجامعات املتطرفة التي تسعى إىل جر املنطقة وشعوبها إىل ٍماض ُم َتخـيَّل ِّيجس ُد، وفقا ًملفهومهم، العرص الذهبي لإلسالم. بيد أنهّ من ُاملمكن وبسهولة كشف زيفْ القراءات املغلوطة للتّاريخ التي قامت عليها هذه املجموعات من خالل ٍبحث ّتاريخي َّمبسط ُيتناول التكوين ِّاملتعدد ِّواملتنوع للمجتمعات يف املنطقة، تحت حكم اإلمرباطوريات اإلسالمية املتعاقبة أو داخل الدول القوميّة الحديثة ًالحقا. وتُع ِّ ُرب هذه البنية الفسيفسائية من ق َالفرواألفكار املختلفة عرب الزمان واملكان عن ٍتعارض ِّ ٍبي لهذا الخطاب ّاإلقصايئ ِّاملتطرف الذي تب ّرش به بعض هذه الفصائل الراديكالية وبعض خصومها الغربيِّي. بالنسبة ّللدروز ِّ)املوحدين(، ُموه طائفة إسالمية الجذور، قليلة العدد، فقد أتاح ُم لهاإلطار التعددي ِّاملتنوع القيام ٍبدور َّفعال يف مجتمعاتهم مام مكنهم ليس فقط من البقاء ُّر والتطووالنمو عىل مدى القرون العرش املنرصمة، بل مكنهم أيضاً من لعب أدوار قيادية و ُحكم وإدارة ٍمقاطعات إسالميَّة يف نطاق بالد الشام، خصوصاًيف العهود األيُّوبيَّة واململوكيةَّ والعثامنيَّة، حيث قاموا ٍبأدوار بالغة األهميَّة يف تشكيل التاريخ االجتامعي والسيايس للمنطقة بشكل عام، و يف ُّرتطو الكيان اللبناين بشكل خاص، فض ً العن أدوار هامة يف تاريخ سوريا الحديثة واألردن. ينظم مركزِّ الفنون واآلداب يف الجامعة األمريكية يف بريوت مؤمتراً دوليّاً بعنوان: ّ»الدروز: ألف عام من التعددية والحضارة« يومي الثالثاء واألربعاء يف 30 - 31 أكتوبر 2018. يضم ثلة من الباحثي البارزين الذين ساهموا يف إثراء مجال دراسات الرشق األوسط واهتموا بشكل خاص مبساهامت الدروز يف مواطنهم. ويركِّز هذا املؤمتر عىل ُّرالتطو ّالسيايس ّواالجتامعي ّوالثقايف ّللدروز. كام ينظم املركز ًعددا من األنشطة ّالفنية والثقافية، بالتزامن مع املؤمتر، مام يتيح للجمهور أن يصبح أكرث دراية باألدوات االجتامعية والثقافية التي متيِّز املجتمع الدرزي. وبينام يركِّز هذا املؤمتر بشكل أسايس عىل الدروز، فإنه ّمن غري املمكن أن ال يأخذ بعي االعتبار اإلشارة إىل العديد من املجموعات التي سكنت املنطقة نفسها، والتي من خالل ُالتنازع أحيانا،ً أو عرب التوافُق والتّعاون يف أغلب األحيان، أثْ َرت التاريخ ّالغني للدروز وتاريخ املنطقة ٍبشكل عام.

*الرتجمة الفورية متوفرة

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Opening Ceremony Assembly Hall

Registration

Opening session 9:30-11:00

Abdulrahim Abu Husayn Professor, Department of History & Archeology; Director, Center for Arts and Humanities, AUB

Fadlo Khuri MD. President, AUB

Abbas Al-Halabi Judge

Keynote Address 11:00-12:15

Engin Akarli Professor, Department of History, Istanbul Şehir University Glimpses of Druze History: Preservation of Dignity and Community in Oneness with Humanity

12:30-2:00 Lunch Break Panel 1: Druze in the service of Empire and Nation College Hall 2:00-3:00

Chair: Ilham Khuri-Makdisi Professor, Department of History, Northeastern University in Boston

Michael Provence Professor, Department of History, University of San Diego What was “Druze” about Opposition to Adib Shishakli in 1954?

Fikri Çiçek Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, University of Minnesota Disentangling Good and Wrong: An Ottoman-Druze Bureaucrat and Intellectual Ma’nzada Husayn and a Puritanical Islamic Movement of Kadızadelis in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Crisis Panel 2: Intercommunal Relations: Druze and Others 3:00-4:30

Chair: Samir Seikaly Professor, Department of History & Archeology, AUB

Leila Fawaz Professor, Department of History, Tufts University Reflections on Sectarian Relations in Nineteenth Century and Syria

Raymond Hamden Consultant in Forensic & Political Psychology at the Foundation for International Human Relations MuwaHiddoun to Druze and Back Again: In Search of Identity

Chaady Radwan Health Science Specialist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs› Center of Innovation on Disability & Rehabilitation Research (CINDRR) Discourses on the sweet burden: Applying research to facilitate community-wide heritage preservation strategies

4:30-5:00 Coffee Break Panel 3: Druze in International Venues 5:00-6:15

Chair: Tufan Buzpinar Professor, Department of History, Istanbul Şehir University

Tarek Abu Hussein PhD Candidate, History and Middle East Studies, Harvard University Pele, Pepsi and the Promotion of Druze-Lebanese Culture

Cafer Sar-Kaya Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Boğaziçi University The Druze Representation in the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Panel 4: Druze in WWI 9:00-10:30

Chair: Dr. Birgit Schäbler Director of Orient-institute, Beirut

M. Talha Çiçek Assistant Professor, Department of History, Istanbul Medeniyet University Liberty in Return for Loyalty: Cemal Pasha and the Druze in the Great War

Graham Pitts Postdoctoral Scholar, North Carolina State University An Ecologically Autonomous Community? The Druze during World War I

Reem Bailony Assistant Professor, Department of History, Agnes Scott College Georgia New York's Al-Bayan and the Druze Diaspora in the Interwar Period

Intervention: Mr. Fadi Zuhayri Chairman of the American Druze Foundation Panel 5: Druze Institutions and Institutional Building 10:45-12:15

Chair: Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn Professor, Department of History & Archeology; Director, Center for Arts and Humanities, AUB

Abbas Al-Halabi Judge املوحدون الدروز واملؤسسات: النضال من أجل استمرار الدور الريادي

Makram Rabah Lecturer, Department of History & Archeology, AUB In Search for Land: The Druze and the American University of Beirut

Alex Henley Lecturer, Study of Religion, University of Oxford Mashyakhat al-‘Aql: The Making of a Modern Lebanese Druze Institution

12:15- 1:30 Lunch Break

Intervention: Dr. Makram Bou Nassar President of Social Work League Panel 6: Druze Intellectuals 1:30-2:30

Chair: Cemal Kafadar Professor, Department of History, Harvard University

Fikriye Karaman PhD Candidate, Department of History, Istanbul Şehir University Challenges and Responses: Amir Shakib Arslan in World War 1

Ellen Fleischmann Professor, Department of History, University of Dayton, Ohio Searching for Najla: A Druze Woman Intellectual of Her Time

Panel 7: Druze History and Historiography 2:30-3:30

Chair: Michael Provence Professor, Department of History, University of California in San Diego

Said Abou Zaki PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Saint Joseph أهميّة املصادر الشفهيّة يف دراسة التاريخ: سلوك ّعقال الدروز تجاه العنف مثا ًال Naila Kaidbey Lecturer, Department of History & Archeology, AUB Druze in the Historical Writings of Ottoman Bilad al-Sham

3:30-3:45 Coffee Break Panel 8: Music, Theater and Architecture 3:45-5:15

Chair: Hani Hassan Instructor, Philosophy Department; the Civilization Sequence Program, AUB

Kathleen Hood Professor, Department of Ethnomusicology, University of California - Los Angeles The Jawfiyya: Linking the Past and the Present

Michael M Najjar Associate Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Oregon The Druze in Film and on the Theatrical Stage: Representations, Fictions, and Inventions

Makram al-Kadi Lecturer, Department of Architecture, AUB Pray-grounds: The Politics of Religion in the Architectural Typologies Panel 9: Exploring Diversity: Language and Cultural Heritage in Artworks. 5:30-6:30

Chair: Nadia El-Cheikh Professor, Department of History & Archeology; Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, AUB

Zena el Khalil Artist-in-residence, Center for Arts and Humanities, AUB

Rania Jaber Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Media Studies, AUB

Hala Schoukair President, Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

OPENING OF ART EXHIBIT & COCKTAIL RECEPTION

Women: Diversity and Disruption The AUB Byblos Bank Art Gallery

Opening remarks

Nadia El-Cheikh Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, AUB

Nahla Khaddage Bou Diab Deputy General Manager-COO of AM Bank.