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CHURCH HISTORIANS and MARONITE COMMUNAL CONSCIOUSNESS: Agency and Creativity in Writing the History of Mount Lebanon Mouannes M

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CHURCH HISTORIANS and MARONITE COMMUNAL CONSCIOUSNESS: Agency and Creativity in Writing the History of Mount Lebanon Mouannes M CHURCH HISTORIANS AND MARONITE COMMUNAL CONSCIOUSNESS: Agency and Creativity in Writing the History of Mount Lebanon Mouannes Mohamad Hojairi Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree Of Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Mouannes Mohamad Hojairi All rights reserved ABSTRACT CHURCH HISTORIANS AND MARONITE COMMUNAL CONSCIOUSNESS: Agency and Creativity in Writing the History of Mount Lebanon Mouannes Mohamad Hojairi The intent of this dissertation is to trace the genealogy of Maronite identity through an examination of the development of the historical tradition that shaped its contemporary manifestation. It examines how the current identity of the Lebanese Maronite community was formed and how its content is claimed by those interpellated by it as a stable and fixed essence, and what the claims of the contemporary nationalists regarding its formation would be. What this study aims to reveal, is how early Maronite historiography’s plea for inclusion, as a part of Catholic orthodoxy, was transformed and recast in subsequent centuries into a demand for exclusion and exclusivity. The metahistorical task of Maronite ecclesiastical historiography, the claim of perpetual orthodoxy was recast through emplotment in different narratives that perform oppositional tasks relevant to each era and each political project. Those include an exclusivist and exclusionary political history with the nineteenth century rise of sectarian politics, as well as a nationalist narrative in the twentieth century that attempted to preserve Maronite privilege and political ascendency. This study brings evidence to bear on a particular aspect of history writing in Lebanon by presenting a reassessment and re-examination of an existing historiographical debate. It will demonstrate how history writing is one of the main instruments in generating and perpetuating nationalist myths and ideologies and that historians are central agents of nationality. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction....................................................................................................................................1 Part I.............................................................................................................................................41 The Quest for Orthodoxy: Istifan Al­Duwayhi and the Origins of an Ecclesiastical History...................................................................................................................41 Contested Claims About the History of the Maronite Church................................................52 The Roots of Authority................................................................................................................57 Chain of Transmission.................................................................................................................59 The Mardaites: Al-Duwayhi’s Adopted Myth of Origin..........................................................66 The Mardaites in History and Historiography.........................................................................73 Roots of the Mardaite Myth........................................................................................................78 The Debate Among Clerical Historians.....................................................................................88 Lebanon the Mountain Refuge...................................................................................................92 Duwayhi’s influence on Maronite Church Historians: Origins and Development of Clerical Historiography..........................................................................................................98 i Part II..........................................................................................................................................105 Moments of Change in History and Historiography..............................................................105 Rome Reaching Out...................................................................................................................106 Political Order in the Time of the Imarah...............................................................................109 The Maronite Church as a New Source of Leadership..........................................................115 Regional Politics and Foreign Intervention.............................................................................126 The Tanzimat Reforms and Integration Into the World Economy......................................130 1860 The Moment of Change....................................................................................................133 The Mutasarrifiyyah..................................................................................................................135 The Emerging Historiography..................................................................................................137 The Refuge of the Mutasarrifiyyah..........................................................................................149 Yusuf al-Dibs..............................................................................................................................153 HenriLammen............................................................................................................................160 Redeployment and Regeneration of Authoritativeness..........................................................164 The Modern Debate About the Mardaites...............................................................................168 Clerical Resistance.....................................................................................................................183 ii Metahistorical Task and Changing Narratives.......................................................................190 Part III........................................................................................................................................192 Lay and Clerical Historiography in the State of Greater Lebanon......................................192 The Emergence of the Modern Lebanese State.......................................................................192 The Persistent Question of Orthodoxy: Facticity Within a Self-Sufficient Tradition.....................................................................................................................................197 Selectiveness and Interpretation in Defending Orthodoxy....................................................207 The Mountain Refuge in the Lebanese Republic....................................................................213 Histories of Syria and Lebanon: Lay Historiography and the Persistence of a Tradition.....................................................................................................................................218 Revisionist Historiography: The Debate Over the Mountain Refuge Theory.....................227 From Idea to Hypothesis, the “Mountain Refuge” in the Histories of Today......................232 The Reemergence of the Mardaites..........................................................................................235 The Phoenician Hypothesis: Secular Historiography and the Pre-Christian Past of Greater Lebanon........................................................................................................................241 Ancient Phoenicia: the People, the Geography and the History...........................................245 iii Archaeology and the Discovery of Phoenicia..........................................................................250 Historical Evolution and Variations on the Hypothesis.........................................................258 Golden Age and National Rebirth............................................................................................263 Phoenicia in Early Twentieth Century Historiography.........................................................265 Relation Between Lay and Clerical Historiographies............................................................268 Phoenicia in Contemporary Historiography...........................................................................272 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................276 Epilogue......................................................................................................................................281 Topography and Geographic Conditions................................................................................289 Bibliography...............................................................................................................................290 iv 1 Introduction Two men are of the same nation if and only if they share the same culture, where culture in turn means a system of ideas and signs and associations and ways of behaving and communicating. Two men are of the same nation if and only if they recognize each other as belonging to the same nation. In other words, nations maketh man; nations are the artifacts of men’s convictions and loyalties and solidarities1 When addressing the ever evolving conflict over identity in Lebanon one has to remain vigilant in observing the quickly shifting sands of the political field in the country. The one stable fact about the political alignments in Lebanon is their inherent instability. The nebulous and unstable realm of political
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