Geography of Lebanon

Anient History of Lebanon

(Read the current history at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107710.html)

Semitic tribes settled in villages scattered along the Mediterranean coast, around 3,000 years before Christ. The Greeks named the tribes to the north “Phoenicians”, and the Bible called the tribes in Palestine “Canaanites.” Where the coastal plain broadened out and was watered by a river flowing down from the snows of the Lebanon Mountains, some of the tribesmen formed a settlement. The Phoenician name for the town was “Beirut”, derived from their word for “wells”. In ancient times Beirut was easily captured by a long series of invaders: Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. In 30 B.C. the Emperor Augustus demobilized many of his Roman troops in Lebanon, granting them homesteads between Beirut and Baalbek. Many Lebanese have the “Latin” look, due to the invasions.

Around 60 A.D. during the time of Saint Paul, the Romans started to build the great Temple of Baalbek on the site of an ancient shrine. Jesus Christ’s followers soon began to make many converts, and by 313 A.D. Christianity became the principal religion of the Empire. The early Christians were divided between a numbers of sects. Just before the Muslin conquest a new sect was formed, known as the Maronite.

During the Crusades the Maronite Church became affiliated with the Vatican. Beirut became famous for it’s school of law and its distinguished jurists. The town grew in importance due to the security of Roman rule. Over the next 1000 years Beirut went through a number of religious invasions and revolutions. The Mt. Hermon region was the home of a new religion called “Druze”, which became powerful in Southern and Central Lebanon. During the Crusades the Church of St. John was built, and a new stream of European blood mingled with the Semitic blood of the Lebanese.

For several centuries Lebanon was harassed by intense feudal strife. The orthodox Sunnite Muslims and Greek Orthodox Christians lived in the seacoast towns while the Shiite Muslims found refuge in the hills between Galilee and Lebanon and in the upper valley above Baalbek. The Druzes were located in the mountains of Southern and Central Lebanon and the Maronites occupied the even more impregnable fortresses to the north. Many of the more important families of modern Beirut belong to these highland clans.

The Emir Bashir Shihab became the overlord of Lebanon in 1800 A.D. He changed his religion from Muslim to Maronite and encouraged relations with Europe. It was during this period the pioneer American missionaries started their work in the Near East. A number of American and European missionaries worked in Lebanon for years from this time. In 1835 they opened a school for boys at Beirut.

In 1840 the Egyptians began to attack Lebanon and the British came and took the Americans to safety. From 1842 to 1860 Lebanon was under Ottoman rule, but its local administration was divided between a Druze Emir and a Maronite Emir. In June 1843, Dr. C. Van Dyck founded the ‘Abaih Academy’, which was the forerunner of the University at Beirut. In 1860 hostilities broke out between the Druzes and the Maronites where 11,000 Christian Maronite were massacred. The British and Ottomans came to intervene. They formed a newly organized country, established a new government, and appointed a Christian Governor. From that time forward, business was conducted in the Arabic language, rather than Turkish as dictated by the Ottomans.

More Protestant American missionaries joined the religious work in Lebanon, among them Dr. & Mrs. Bliss. They went to Lebanon and studied Arabic, opened a mission in Suq al-Gharb, and became the superintendent of a girl’s school. Dr. Bliss and Dr. Stewart Dodge organized the University at Beirut with an endowment fund from Americans of $200,000. The first graduation exercises took place in 1870 and the University purchased land in Ras Beirut for a permanent University campus. The inhabitants thought that Dr. Bliss was mad when he bought property in the country for the University, but Lebanon grew and prospered in the late 1800s. Lebanon had a medieval tower, known in Arabic as “al-Burj”. The city was surrounded by walls, and had an old sea castle. As the city began to grow, the tower, walls, and sea castle were eventually razed, and replaced with more modern structures. Everyone rode donkeys and merchants prospered. The Lebanese authorities were honest; the people had freedom and justice and there were few taxes. Every time a red tile roof took the place of a flat one, it meant that some member of the family had gone abroad and made good.

Almost every Lebanese family supplemented its normal income by selling silkworm cocoons and the peasant families sent the girls to work in nearby thread mills. The Lebanese villages, which were 4,000 feet above sea level, were more important than the seacoast towns. Towns in the foothills had olive groves and grew grains. All families grew their own vegetables, fruits, and olives and put them up for winter. They also raised two sheep for family use. The grapes were used for an alcoholic drink, “arak”, or boiled down for molasses, called “dibs”. In the high mountains people burned out the sap from cedar stumps to make medicine for pack animals with sore backs. These animals were used until the Italian engineers came and built roads. Then the tourists from Egypt and Palestine began to come to the mountains. Most of the students in the University came from the villages and received their preparation in mission schools. They were self-reliant, serious minded and hard working group of men.

The students did the architectural design, and helped construct the new permanent buildings of the University, planted the trees, and raised the bell tower. In the book, “The Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss”, he states, “Years later when an English Architect visited, he asked, “who worked out the plans?” On my telling him that we did, and that we had made many mistakes but had managed to cover them up, he replied: ‘That is perfection in art’.” The new campus was ready by 1873. The medical and pharmaceutical schools prospered. A boys' preparatory was started and a theological seminary was begun in 1883. The Arabic language, literature, and history were taught. English was used as the principal teaching language, which allowed the school to bring in many excellent instructors and students from other countries.

A road was built between Beirut and Damascus, a breakwater was built at Beirut, and a harbor was established to encourage sea trade. A railroad was laid to the principal trading communities. Modern streets were built in Beirut, and prosperous merchant families began to spend their summers in France. The French had a great influence on the people of Lebanon. At the same time the Americans created their missions and University, the French were developing Missions and a school called the Universite Saint-Joseph, founded by the Jesuits. It made valuable contributions to historical and Oriental studies. The American University grew and added an observatory and a new chapel. The University offered courses in Arts & Sciences, Commerce, Pharmacy and Medicine, and in secondary school work. In 1910 the course in Dentistry was started and shortly afterwards a University hospital was opened.

Even at the beginning of the First World War health work was considered revolutionary. People with severe mental health problems were either chained or else allowed to wander about loose until the Lebanon Hospital for Mental Diseases was created. Old women, mosque attendants, and quack doctors used amulets and verses from the Koran instead of medicines. The Bedouin’s used camel’s urine and red-hot irons. Midwives were so dirty that they spread infection. Antiseptic surgery was still an innovation. People were so afraid of tuberculosis that cases were cared for in isolated houses, until Dr. Mary Eddy and Dr. Nimeh Nucho of the University founded a sanitarium and taught people how to treat the disease. As Ottoman law forbade dissection, it was necessary to buy or dig up cadavers secretly and to smuggle them into the campus by night.

The University students loved the new sports taught them at the school. They played soccer football, gymnastics and field events, tennis, field hockey and basketball. Their social life was very simple. In 1913 a new hall was built which gave the students a place for social and religious activities on campus.

From 1909 through 1913 the Turkish-Italian War over Tripoli in North Africa and the Balkan Wars took place. The parents hid the ages of their sons so they wouldn’t be taken to fight the Turk wars. England protected the Druzes, France protected the Maronites and the Latins, and Russia protected the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians. The European Powers were planning the downfall of Turkey and the subject peoples inside of the Empire wanted to help. World War I began in 1914 and Turkey joined the German side. The United Stated evacuated American citizens from Syria and Palestine, but most of the professors remained at Beirut and kept the University running. Most of the older students were called to military service. The University medical team took care of many soldiers throughout the empire.

When the Turkish leader discovered that the only doctors whom he could trust to work in front line hospitals and typhus wards were Beirut graduates, he furnished the University with wheat and other supplies at military prices. He also permitted the British professors to carry on their work and released most of the Lebanese teachers from military service. The Turkish military massacred a million Armenians, but the people of Lebanon were protected. Dr. Bliss was always honest with the Turks and they trusted him. In spite of the Holy War, the University gained the confidence of the Muslin Community.

Lebanese Food

Lebanese Food was always one of the country's principal attractions, and it has now largely passed the borders to become extremely popular in the West. Lebanese cuisine as a whole goes under the heading "health food". It is mostly based on cereals, in the shape of bread, bourghoul (crushed wheat) and rice. A large and varied assortment of vegetables and milk products accompany the above, and meat plays a relatively small part.