Category Books

The Making of a Syrian Identity: Intellectuals and Merchants in Nineteenth-Century Beirut »

Authors: Fruma Zachs, F. Zachs
ISBN-13: 9789004141698, ISBN-10: 9004141693
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Date Published: March 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)

Author Biography: Fruma Zachs

Fruma Zachs, Ph.D. (1997), is Lecturer in Middle Eastern History at the University of Haifa. She has published articles on 18th and 19th century Syria in Die Welt des Islams, BRIJMES, MES and others. She is also co-editor of Ottoman Reform and Muslim Regenerations (I.B.Tauris).

Book Synopsis

The book takes a close look at the origins and development of the Syrian identity, during the 18th and 19th centuries, through the role of Christian Arab intellectuals and merchants, Ottomans and American missionaries. It examines its background, stages of evolution, and components.

Ch. 1	First notions of a "Syrian vision" : the period of Amir Bashir II	11
Ch. 2	Beirut and the emergence of a "Syrian identity" : Christian Arabs as agents of change	39
Ch. 3	Re-enforcing an identity : The Tanzimat reforms	86
Ch. 4	Revisiting the American Presbyterian missionaries in nineteenth century Syria	126
Ch. 5	Narrating an identity : new genres, new identity (1858-1881)	155
App. I	Biographies of leading families and individuals from the Syrian middle stratum
App. II	The various meanings and definitions of the name "Syria"