Chapter 12 THE LEBANESE REVIVAL In the wake of the massacres of Christians that took place in the Lebanon and Damascus between Apnil and July 1860, France, which considered itself the traditional protector of the Christians in the Levant, sent a force of 6,000 soldiers to restore quiet to the region. In addition to punishing the rioters and compensat- ing the Christians of Damascus and the Lebanon, it was decided that the administration of Mount Lebanon be reorganized. An international committee including representatives of the Euro- pean powers decided that Mount Lebanon should now be an autonomous sanjaq under a Christian Ottoman governor- general. The boundaries of this sanjaq were narrowed to exclude the city of Beirut, the Biqa’ and a number of other towns and villages. All the regulations concerning the special status of this sanjaq were summarized in a protocel that was signed by the representatives of the European powers on ¥ June 1361 and was called the réglement organique of the Lebanon. The period that followed, until the outbreak of World War I, saw endless con- frontation between the Ottoman authorities, who tried to dimin- ish the rights of the autonomous sanjaq, and the residents of the Lebanon, who tried to preserve them by various means— prima- rily by asking the European powers to defend the réglement organique The problematic nature of Mount Lebanon's special status in the Empire came to the fore after the Young Turk revolution. News of the revolution led to fears among the populace that impending changes would affect this special status. This anxiety grew with the beginning of the election campaign for the first parliament, when many residents of Mount Lebanon adamantly opposed sending representatives 1o the parliament, a step which they felt would harm its autonomous status.' The framework of the demands that the Lebanese would raise from then on was outlined in Paris by Bulus Nujaym, a Maronite lawyer, and author af the book La Question du Liban under the pseudonym M. Jouplain. In this book he spoke of the Lebanese nation which had existed from the dawn of history, and called for the return of teritories to Mount Lebanon that had been unjustlyTHE LEBANESE REVIVAL i separated from it by the 186] réglement organique, and without which it could not develop: the areas of Beirut, Tripoli, the Biga’ and Sidon, He also called for political reform in the Leba- non’s regime, a reform which would suit the democratic ambi- tions of its residents and would block the Young Turks’ intention to abrogate its autonomy. He pinned his hopes for the realization of these aspirations on France, the traditional protec- tor of the Lebanese Christians for hundreds of years, to whom the Lebanese now looked for salvation? Similar and even more extreme demands were presented dur- ing the following six years by a series of Lebanese socicties inside and outside Mount Lebanon, most with the same Arabic name: The Lebanese Revival (aNahda al-Lubnaniyya). They were independent of one another, but they worked towards the same goals and there was some coordination among them, THE SOCIETY IN TI EBANON AND CN BEIRUT On 12 September 1908, while the governor-general of the sanjaq ofthe Lebanon, Yusuf Franku Pasha, was in his summer home in Bayt al-Din, a large number of Lebanese notables gathered in Beirut and decided to send a delegation to him to present a list of demands concerning the situation in the Lebanon. The most eminent of those initiating this mecting was Salim ‘Ammun, a Maronite from Dayr al-Qamar who was the former qa‘imaqam of the Kisruwan district and had been dismissed by the governor-general at the end of 1907, As a result of differences of opinion that broke out among the conference orgamzers, and also because of his personal indecisiveness, he drew back at the last moment and decided. not to join the delegation that was. leaving that day for Bayt al-Din. When the delegation reached the governor's palace, its mem- ber Habib al-Sa'd presented the governor with the demands of the Lebanese, which were: (a) that the representatives to parlia- ment from the Lebanon should not have the right 10 discuss matters connected with the Lebanon’s special status, Such mat- ters should be decided upon by the Lebanese themselves; (b) that the Lebanese Administrative Council should be dissolved and new members should be elected in accordance with the will of the Lebanese people; (c) that cormupt functionaries should be removed from the Lebanese administration; (d) that some new taxes should be abolished. The governor refused even to listen to this and left the room.72 THE EMERGENCE OF THE ARAB MOVEMENTS: The delegation responded that it would not leave the palace until its demands were heard. When the governor wanted to set his soldiers against the delegation, he discovered that the local soldiers were sympathetic to it; their Turkish officers tried to persuade him to enter into negotiations with the delegation. On the following day, after the palace had been surrounded by many Deuzes from the neighbourhood, the govemor agreed to talk to the delegation and even accepted some of its demands. A num- ber of officials and functionaries who were not accepted by the inhabitants were dismissed, and it was decided that a new Administrative Council would be set up, whose vice-president would be Salim ‘Ammun. While the latter was indeed accepted by most of the people, there were thase who held a grudge against him because he had not participated in the delegation and they considered this a lack of resolution on his part. When difficulties also manifested themselves over the procedures for choosing the members of the new Administrative Council, sev- eral Lebanese despaired of improving the situation of the Leba- non from within, and they therefore decided to found the Society of the Lebanese Revival.’ The initiators of the society were Maronites of the al-Khazin family of Juniyya. The members of this family had extended connections with France, and during the seventeenth and eight- eenth centuries members of the family held the position of Vice Consul of France for 100 years. The twa most prominent people from this family at the beginning of the twentieth century were the brothers Philippe (1865-1916) and Farid (1869-1916) al- Khazin, both honorary dragomans at the French consulate- general in Beirut Other prominent members of the saciety were Rizq Allah Argash, a Greek Catholic journalist and lawyer; Khalil Zayniyya, a Greek Catholic journalist and author; and Bishara al-Khuri, who became the first president of independent Lebanon. The first activity of the society was to protest against sending Lebanese representatives to the parliament. The society organ- ized a conference in Beirut with the participation of Christian and Druze notables from all the districts of the Lebanon. At the conclusion of the conference they sent a telegram to the fovernor-general in which they announced their opposition to sending “whoever it might be” to parliament. At that time the society was headed by a committees of 25 peaple whase task, according to the society's programme, was to supervise the activ- ities of the governor and the Administrative Council; to call them to order if they should perform activities harming the