{"product_id":"writing-the-history-of-mount-lebanon-church-historians-and-maronite-identity-9781649031259","title":"Writing the History of Mount Lebanon: Church","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA meticulous deconstruction of Maronite history writing and the ways in which Lebanese nationalist myths have been invented and perpetuated by historians\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWriting the History of Mount Lebanon\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUltimately, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This book is an intriguing comparative analysis of histories of Lebanese identity . . . Recommended.\"—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHOICE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mouannes Hojairi provides a most important history of how Maronite identity was conceived in Lebanon and how crucial church historians were to the creation of nationalist mythology. The details this book unravels are essential to understanding contemporary Lebanese nationalism and sectarian politics.\"—\u003cb\u003eJoseph Massad, Columbia University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In this careful deconstruction of Maronite history-writing from the sixteenth century to the present day, Mouannes Hojairi forcefully shows that Lebanese historians, and Maronite historians in particular, have continued to write tendentious, religiously tainted histories of their country. In doing so, they uncritically reproduce older narratives, including pure lore, that thus survive through the centuries, even though their original empirical evidence is flimsy at best. This book will serve as a salutary lesson for historians and history writers today.\"—\u003cb\u003eSune Haugbølle, Roskilde University, Denmark\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With a shrewd elegance and well-versed skill of sailing between myth and fact, which are, in the case of Lebanon, a woven tapestry of church and civil history, almost impossible to disentangle, Hojairi emerges as a miracle-maker capable of delivering a coherent narrative that defies the reality of Lebanon and somehow makes sense of its interconnected counterfactual religious histories, while laying bare their complexity for everyone to see and enjoy.”—\u003cb\u003eGeorge Saliba, American University of Beirut and Columbia University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This edited volume explores the conditions of social science doctoral studies in Egypt and the ways that being outside global knowledge centers impacts the country’s academics. The book’s chapters aim to outline the role of Egyptian universities in providing space and legitimacy for the production of knowledge and access to labor. The contributors are concerned with the class constraints encountered when studying the humanities as well as state and international emphasis on more high-earning fields of study. With multiple case studies, the book includes chapters on the anthropology of doctoral candidates themselves, the operating procedures of university departments, the overthrow of President Husni Mubarak’s impact on academia, and more.\"—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Middle East Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTurning Points in Historiographical Debates      \u003cbr\u003eHistoriography and the Nationalist Discourse   \u003cbr\u003eMaronite Identity Past and Present        \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e1. Lebanon, the Mountain Refuge       \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaronite Church Historians: Origins and Development\u003cbr\u003eof Clerical Historiography        \u003cbr\u003eHistories of Syria and Lebanon: Lay Historiography and\u003cbr\u003ethe Persistence of a Tradition   \u003cbr\u003eRevisionist Historiography: The Debate over the Mountain\u003cbr\u003eRefuge Theory \u003cbr\u003eFrom Idea to Hypothesis: The Mountain Refuge in the\u003cbr\u003eHistories of Today\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e2. The Mardaites: The Church-Adopted Myth of Origin       \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Mardaites in History and Historiography    \u003cbr\u003eRoots of the Mardaite Myth\u003cbr\u003eThe Debate among Clerical Historians  \u003cbr\u003eClerical Resistance\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e3. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntegration into Roman Catholicism: The Quest for Orthodoxy\u003c\/b\u003e   \u003cbr\u003eThe Birth of the Maronite Church        \u003cbr\u003eContested Claims about the History of the Maronite Church    \u003cbr\u003eThe Roots of Authority\u003cbr\u003eChain of Transmission  \u003cbr\u003eRedeployment and Regeneration of Authoritativeness\u003cbr\u003eFacticity within a Self-Sufficient Tradition           \u003cbr\u003eSelectiveness and Interpretation\u003cbr\u003eConclusion      \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e4. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMoments of Change in History and Historiography         \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRome Reaches Out      \u003cbr\u003ePolitical Order in the Time of the Imarah          \u003cbr\u003eThe Maronite Church as a New Source of Leadership\u003cbr\u003eRegional Politics and Foreign Intervention         \u003cbr\u003eThe Tanzimat Reforms and Integration into the\u003cbr\u003eWorld Economy          \u003cbr\u003eThe Moment of Change: 1860  \u003cbr\u003eThe Mutasarrifiya         \u003cbr\u003eThe Emerging Historiography   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e5. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Phoenician Hypothesis: Secular Historiography and Greater Lebanon’s Pre-Christian Past          \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAncient Phoenicia: The People, Geography, and History\u003cbr\u003eArchaeology and the Discovery of Phoenicia     \u003cbr\u003eHistorical Evolution and Variations on the Hypothesis   \u003cbr\u003eGolden Age and National Rebirth         \u003cbr\u003eThe Emergence of the Modern Lebanese State  \u003cbr\u003ePhoenicia in Early Twentieth-Century Historiography    \u003cbr\u003eRelation between Lay and Clerical Historiographies       \u003cbr\u003ePhoenicia in Contemporary Historiography       \u003cbr\u003eConclusion      \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eConclusion    \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNotes  \u003cbr\u003eBibliography     \u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American University in Cairo Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51041975271767,"sku":"9781649031259","price":44.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781649031259.jpg?v=1750952440","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/writing-the-history-of-mount-lebanon-church-historians-and-maronite-identity-9781649031259","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}