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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Conflict and Institution Building in Lebanon, 1946-1955 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67x11827 Author Abu-Rish, Ziad Munif Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Conflict and Institution Building in Lebanon, 1946-1955 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Ziad Munif Abu-Rish 2014 © Copyright by Ziad Munif Abu-Rish 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTAITON Conflict and Institution Building in Lebanon, 1946-1955 by Ziad Munif Abu-Rish Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor James L. Gelvin, Chair This dissertation broadens the inquiry into the history of state formation, economic development, and popular mobilization in Lebanon during the early independence period. The project challenges narratives of Lebanese history and politics that are rooted in exceptionalist and deterministic assumptions. It does so through an exploration of the macro-level transformations of state institutions, the discourses and practices that underpinned such shifts, and the particular series of struggles around Sharikat Kahruba Lubnan that eventual led to the nationalization of the company. The dissertation highlights the ways in which state institutions during the first decade of independence featured a dramatic expansion in both their scope and reach vis-à-vis Lebanese citizens. Such shifts were very much shaped by the contexts of decolonization, the imperatives of regime consolidation, and the norms animating the post-World War II global and regional orders. However, they also reflected the contingent nature of the ii nexus of alliances and conflicts that animated the local political economy. The dissertation therefore combines an attention to historical legacies with an appreciation of the strategies and options available to social actors in the dynamic juncture of decolonization. In doing so, this dissertation seeks less to posit an alternative static model of state formation, economic development, and popular mobilization. Rather, it argues that such processes must be disaggregated in both time and place so as to appreciate the ways in which they challenge rather than follow the scripted trajectories that have thus far characterized discussions of the period. iii This dissertation of Ziad Munif Abu-Rish is approved. Gabriel Piterberg Akhil Gupta Lynn A. Hunt James L. Gelvin, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright Notice Page i Abstract of the Dissertation ii Dissertation Approval Page iv Table of Contents v Note on Transliteration and Translation vi Acknowledgements vii Vita xii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Formation of Lebanon: Late Ottoman and French Colonial Legacies 23 Chapter 2 Beyond Lebanese Exceptionalism: Institution Building and Political Organizing in Early Post-Independence 58 Chapter 3 Foreign Concessions, Public Utilities, and the Origins of Sharikat Kahruba’ Bayrut 110 Chapter 4 Popular Mobilizations, Elite Conflict, and the Nationalization of Sharikat Kahruba’ Bayrut 163 Conclusion 232 Bibliography 237 v NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION I have used a modified version of the style of the International Journal of Middle East Studies for the transliteration of all Arabic terms, which favors minimal diacritics. Only those diacritical marks indicating the hamza (’) and the ‘ayn (‘) are used here. In references, I have retained the spelling of names (or their correct transliteration) as they appear in original source documents, even though in the body of the text itself I may have used the more commonly used spelling; for example, Khuri versus Khoury. All Arabic words have been italicized save for those that are proper nouns or have entered the English language, such as “hadith,” for example. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to the many people that have supported me in the journey of this doctoral dissertation. These pages cannot adequately express my appreciation. My doctoral committee, a group of outstanding scholars, was the building block of my project. Akhil Gupta, Lynn Hunt, and Gabriel Piterberg each in their own ways pushed me to consider issues that became central to my work and thinking. Their broad- based scholarly engagement has challenged me to speak to scholars of various regional, temporal, and topical interests, while at the same time grounding my project in its specific historiography that makes it possible. James Gelvin was the most supportive advisor I could have hoped for. As an intellectual, a scholar, a teacher, and a mentor, he has with unwavering attention been a powerful presence and model that will continue to shape me.. I am grateful to the Department of History, the International Institute, and Graduate Division, all at UCLA, for the variety of fellowships, travel grants, and conference reimbursements they made available to me. I am especially grateful to Susan Slyomovics, who twice took me on as a graduate reader and research assistant. While the income generated from such work was crucial to my ability to meet my financial needs, the knowledge gained in the study and teaching of the Maghreb was invaluable. Much of the research for this dissertation relied on archivists and librarians who embraced my project and guided me to necessary sources. I am grateful to the staff at the Lebanese National Archives, the Nami Jafet Library at the American University of Beirut, the British National Archives, the British Library, the US National Archives, and vii the Library of Congress. I owe a special debt of gratitude to David Hirsch, the Middle Eastern studies bibliographer, and the entire Inter-Library Loan staff at the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library. Their tireless efforts at locating, obtaining, and extending my access to hundreds of sources was crucial in piecing together archival traces of a history that the Lebanese Civil War obliterated, both materially and in collective memory. I was extremely fortunate that my time in the Department of History coincided with the tenure of three graduate advisors: Lindsay Kovner, Eboni Shaw, and Hadley Porter. Their relentless commitment to ensuring graduate students funding and their assistance in surviving the University of California’s bureaucracy anchored me in more ways than one Lebanon is not the easiest of research sites to navigate, for reasons that have nothing to do with Orientalist clichés of mystery, treachery, and violence. Institutional affiliations granted to me by the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for Behavioral Studies, and the Issam Faris Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, all at the American University of Beirut, afforded me regular campus access as well as the academic credentials necessary for networking throughout Lebanon. I was lucky to have countless conversations with colleagues and scholars who were kind enough to share their thoughts on my research topic, pass on lessons learned from their own research experience, introduce me to others, or simply allow me to think out lout with them. These individuals include Betty Anderson, Sami Atallah, Reem Baylouni, Michael Gasper, Mona Harb, Nubar Hovsopian, Nick Kardahji, Laleh Khalili, Jamil viii Mouawad, Graham Pitts, Hicham Saffiedine, Paul Salem, Nisreen Salti, Rosemary Sayigh, and Max Weiss. I am grateful to Rayan El-Amine, Brooke Atherton, Maha Issa, Abdul Rahman Zahzah, Ahmad Dallal, and Dalal El Madade. Their kindness and hospitality made Beirut a much easier place to work in despite the highs and lows of graduate education and dissertation fieldwork. Home-cooked meals, evening conversations, and day trips were a wonderful occasion to take breaks, connect with a broader set of interests, passions, and concerns, and remember that Beirut—and Lebanon more generally—was a lived place, one in which historical research and writing must be responsible and accountable to. I could not have stayed in Lebanon as long as I did, or enjoyed it as much as I did, without the generosity of these three families. This dissertation has benefited from the feedback of a number of people who volunteered to read it in part or whole. Murat Yildiz has been one of the best cohorts a graduate student could ask for. While our immediate research interests are quite distinct, he has time and again been a wonderful interlocutor on the dissertation and Middle East history more broadly. I have been fortunate that my time as a graduate student coincided with my involvement in the Arab Studies Institute (ASI), through both the Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya e-zine. The past several years have offered observers of the Middle East, to say nothing of people living in the region, an array of contradictory experiences including hope, fear, rage, joy, awe, and outrage. I could not have asked for a better group of colleagues to survive these contradictions and think through their consequences on producing critical knowledge and hoping for a better future. Hesham Sallam discussed with me the important intersections of elite conflict, popular ix mobilization, and institutional outcomes. Maya Mikdashi highlighted new ways of thinking through the complexities and problematics that inform the historiography and contemporary politics of Lebanon. Rosie Bsheer shared with me a love for the peripheral geographies that make up Middle East studies as well as an interest in the forgotten histories of foreclosed possibilities. Her friendship and camaraderie have been crucial to my ability to withstand the pressures of graduate work. I am particularly indebted to Nadya Sbaiti and Sherene Seikaly, two individuals who graciously gave me much of their time long before we became the friends that we are today. Nadya was the first person to encourage me to take up my dissertation topic and she guided and facilitated my fieldwork in Lebanon. Sherene inspired me to relish in the specificities of history while at the same time not lose sight of the comparative implications of one’s research.

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