Writing the history of Mount Lebanon : church historians and Maronite identity / Mouannes Hojairi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hojairi, Mouannes, 1980- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church. Maronite Patriarchate of Antioch--Historiography.

Catholic Church.

Lebanon--Church history--Historiography.

Lebanon.

Mount Lebanon (Lebanon : Province)--Historiography.

Mount Lebanon (Lebanon : Province).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (178 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cairo, Egypt ; New York, New York : The American University in Cairo Press, [2021]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

"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."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

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

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Hojairi, Mouannes Writing the History of Mount Lebanon

ISBN:

9781649031273

1649031270

9781649031266

1649031262

OCLC:

1248601947