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The Making of Ras Beirut: a Landscape of Memory for Narratives of Exceptionalism, 1870- 1975.” University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 9-2013 The akM ing of Ras Beirut: A Landscape of Memory for Narratives of Exceptionalism Maria B. Abunnasr University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Abunnasr, Maria B., "The akM ing of Ras Beirut: A Landscape of Memory for Narratives of Exceptionalism" (2013). Open Access Dissertations. 776. https://doi.org/10.7275/4ykj-qv59 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/776 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “THE MAKING OF RAS BEIRUT: A LANDSCAPE OF MEMORY FOR NARRATIVES OF EXCEPTIONALISM, 1870- 1975.” A Dissertation Presented by MARIA B. ABUNNASR Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2013 Department of History © Copyright by Maria B. Abunnasr 2013 All Rights Reserved “THE MAKING OF RAS BEIRUT: LANDSCAPE OF MEMORY FOR NARRATIVES OF EXCEPTIONALISM, 1870-1975” A Dissertation Presented By MARIA B. ABUNNASR Approved as to style and content by: ________________________________ Mary C. Wilson, Chair ________________________________ David H. Glassberg, Member ________________________________ Gerald W. McFarland, Member ________________________________ Neil A. Silberman, Outside Member __________________________________ Joye Bowman, Chair History Department DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated with love to my parents, Catherine and Munir; to my brother, Michael; to my sons, Zayn and Jad; and to my husband, Yaser. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation owes so much to the encouragement of so many in Ras Beirut and Amherst. I would like to thank my advisor, Mary C. Wilson, for her thoughtful support and the confidence she inspired in me throughout the years. Thanks are also due to my dissertation committee members: Gerald McFarland, who never doubted I would find my way; to David Glassberg who oversaw the embryonic beginnings of this project; and to Neil Silberman, whose comments and suggestions were always provided with passionate enthusiasm. I would like to thank the invaluable guidance of many wonderful archivists. At Mount Holyoke College Archives, Patty Albright and Jenifer Gunter King, offered me support and made my year there as Scholar-in-Residence possible . At Amherst College Archives, Margaret Dakin was a pleasure to work with, always enlivening the archival experience. At AUB Jafet Library Archives, I would like to thank Samar Mikati for her helpful advice and Imane Abdallah for her warm enthusiasm. I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to all the individuals who volunteered their time and participation in this project. A special thanks to Cynthia Myntti who made the Ras Beirut Oral History Seminar at AUB’s University for Seniors possible. Thanks to Umayma Yamut Nasser, one of the seminar’s key participants, who connected me with several interviewees. Thanks to George Sabra, for his insight and advice; and to Tony Nawfal for putting me in touch with his family connections. I was incredibly fortunate to have the intelligent, compassionate, and fun companionship of Nadya Sbaiti to keep me buoyed in my last year of writing in Beirut while she was on sabbatical. Christine Lindner also shared keen insights and her v contagious excitement kept me going. Both Ellen Fleischmann and Betty Anderson provided wise and positive encouragement. Ussama Makdisi gave of his precious time whenever asked. Many friends tolerated my ramblings with kind attentiveness; among them Sumaya Baroody, Zeina Barakeh, Rula Theodory, Jen Mactaggart, Colin Chant, Delphine Garde, Randa Cardwell, Hibah Osman, Sumaya Kubeisy, Ramla Khalidy, Bethany Millard, Taryn and Ray LaRaja, Scott and Sarah Auerbach, Carleen and Henry Basler-Chang. I surely failed to mention others, and for that I apologize. Most importantly, I wish to express my thanks to my family. To my parents, Catherine and Munir Bashshur, whose love anchored me. To my brother, Michael Bashshur, who is an example to follow with his generosity and down-to-earth positive energy. To the unconditional love my sons, Zayn and Jad, provide me. Aged six and seven when I started and now aged thirteen and fourteen as I finish, they literally grew up with me on this journey. To Munira Bashshur and her loving embrace. To Mona Abunnasr, who lovingly nourished us with her gourmet meals. To Paul Ossenbruggen and Cathy Burns who made their home our US family home base with regular Thanksgivings in New Hampshire and with arms wide open from the moment we first landed in the US in 2006 until now. To Gretchen and Rich Walters who shared tender moments in between the chaos. To Maureen and Richard Bergson who kept regular tabs on us as they cheerlead us on from the West Coast. Finally, I thank my husband, Yaser, my partner and companion. He has tolerated my roller coaster ups and downs and is my ever-present sounding board dealing with my endless demands, asking for nothing in return, while incredibly completing his own dissertation. vi ABSTRACT “THE MAKING OF RAS BEIRUT: A LANDSCAPE OF MEMORY FOR NARRATIVES OF EXCEPTIONALISM, 1870-1975.” SEPTEMBER 2013 MARIA BASHSHUR ABUNNASR, B.A., DREW UNIVERSITY M.A., AMERICAN UNIVERSITY Ph.D, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Mary C. Wilson This dissertation examines the memory of Ras Beirut and the various claims to its exceptionalism. I frame its history as a landscape of memory born of the convergence of narratives of exceptionalism. On the one hand, Ras Beirut’s landscape inspired Anglo-American missionary future providence such that they chose it as the site of their college on a hill, the Syrian Protestant College (SPC, later renamed the American University of Beirut [AUB]). On the other hand, the memory of Ras Beirut’s “golden age” before the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 inspired longings for a vanished past to Ras Beirut’s oldest inhabitants. Shaped by the push of prospect and the pull of recollection, Ras Beirut emerges as a place formed out of the contest of these overlapping articulations of exceptionalism. Moreover, Ras Beirut’s narratives have a wider significance and application in their transnational and interconfessional relevance. The missionary New England microcosm of the SPC represented the transnational transposition of memory onto Ras Beirut in an architectural narrative of exceptionalism. The monumental size and scale of their buildings oriented Ras Beirut and realized a vii “city upon a hill.” Drawing from letters written to and from the US, I examine their ambiguous relationship to Ras Beirut that made them both part of the place and apart from the people. At the same time, the local Muslim-Christian community of Ras Beirut argued that Ras Beirut’s distinct character rested on their own history of harmonious coexistence. In the early twentieth century, Arab Protestant converts settled in Ras Beirut and became known as the Protestants of Ras Beirut in their affixed identity and collective rootedness to place. This dissertation draws upon archival research and tangible sources in the changing architectural and urban environment. It also relies on oral history and memory to capture the multi-disciplinary making of place that best relates the textured history of Ras Beirut while giving meaning to everyday lived lives. In the process, the connections between the Middle East and the US unfold in transnational terms while the idea of Ras Beirut as a paradigm of coexistence unfolds interconfessional terms. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION, TRANSLATION, AND DATES ..............................xv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 Ras Beirut as a Product of Narratives of Exceptionalism ........................................1 Locating Ras Beirut in Space, Time, and Community ............................................4 Ras Beirut’s Exceptionalism ....................................................................................9 Relevant Historiography ........................................................................................13 Beirut in the Nineteenth Century .....................................................................13 From Beirut to Ras Beirut as Anglo-American Missionary Center .................18 Anglo-American Missionaries and Transnational History ..............................25 Theoretical and Methodological Approaches ........................................................30 Dissertation Chapters .............................................................................................35 2. “ANOTHER AMHERST ON THE SITE OF ANCIENT BERYTUS”: EARLY IMPACTS
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