The Modern History of Lebanon

by Kamal Salibi

Book Overview

A survey of the country & its people, followed by a brief sketch of early Lebanese history, with more detailed treatment beginning with the reign of Bashir II (1788-1840) & continuing to 1960. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0882060155
• ISBN13: 9780882060156
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Caravan Books
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The first accurate version on Lebanese history

Noted historian Kamal Salibi wrote this book right after he had acquired his PhD in the mid-1960s. His skill and genius is evident as the book covers the history of the most of the fragments of the Lebanese society that has been since the dawn of history divided into sectarian communities. Still, Salibi's perspective on Lebanon and his understanding of the country and its history changed by the time he had released his second book that also covers the history of this small Mediterranean nation. His book, A House of Many Mansions, is a later version of Salibi's view on the Modern History of Lebanon. This latter book appeared I around 1989. Therefore, despite the wonderful style and the amount of information The Modern History of Lebanon offers, I suggest that readers go for the more updated version and buy A House of Many Mansions where this leading historian comes up with more innovative analysis and bold statements. A House of Many Mansions has also been very controversial since Salibi argues that Maronites had always been a Church following the rite of the Eastern Church and that the community is originally of an Arab stock that had emigrated from Yemen in old times. Maronite historians, the subject of Salibi's PhD dissertation, started rewriting their history after the great schism between the Eastern and the Western Church in the mid 15th century by linking the history of their Church to the Catholic Church of Rome instead of their original following of the Eastern Church of Antioch.