The Clarion Of Syria (a Patriot's Call Against The Civil War Of 1860)

By (author) Butrus al-Bustani; By (author) al-Bustani, Butrus; Translated by Hanssen Jens; Translated by Safieddine, Hicham; Foreword by Makdisi Ussama
Description:
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When Nafir Suriyya—“The Clarion of Syria”—was penned between September 1860 and April 1861, its author Butrus al-­Bustani, a major figure in the modern Arabic Renaissance, had witnessed his homeland undergo unprecedented violence in what many today consider Lebanon’s first civil war. Written during Ottoman and European investigations into the causes and culprits of the atrocities, The Clarion of Syria is both a commentary on the politics of state intervention and social upheaval, and a set of visions for the future of Syrian society in the wake of conflict.
 
This translation makes a key historical document accessible for the first time to an English audience. An introduction by the translators sketches the history that led up to the civil strife in Mt. Lebanon, outlines a brief biography of Butrus al-­Bustani, and provides an authoritative overview of the literary style and historiography of Nafir Suriyya. Rereading these pamphlets in the context of today’s political violence, in war-­torn Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world, helps us gain a critical and historical perspective on sectarianism, foreign invasions, conflict resolution, Western interventionism, and nationalist tropes of reconciliation.
Table of contents:
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Ussama Makdisi
Introduction: Translating Civil War
Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine

Part I: The Clarion of Syria: The Context
Chapter 1: The War of 1860: Roots and Ramifications
Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine

Chapter 2: Butrus al-Bustani: From Protestant Convert
to Ottoman Patriot and Arab Reformer
Jens Hanssen and Hicham Safieddine

Chapter 3: Nafir Suriyya in Arab Historiography
Jens Hanssen
Contents

Chapter 4: Toward a Conceptual History
of Nafir Suriyya
Jens Hanssen

Chapter 5: Wataniyya as Antidote to Sectarianism
Jens Hanssen

Part II : Translation of The Clarion of Syria
Chapter 6: Clarion 1
Chapter 7: Clarion 2
Chapter 8: Clarion 3
Chapter 9: Clarion 4
Chapter 10: Clarion 5
Chapter 11: Clarion 6
Chapter 12: Clarion 7
Chapter 13: Clarion 8
Contents
Chapter 14: Clarion 9
Chapter 15: Clarion 10
Chapter 16: Clarion 11

Notes
References
Index
Review quote:
"An essential multidisciplinary text invaluable to scholars and students from a number of vantage points."
Review quote:
"​​The Clarion of Syria is an excellent addition to the recent scholarship about the Nahda and from whose visions Arab leaders and the people at large would benefit. The book would be of interest to scholars and students of history and Middle East and cultural studies."
Biographical note:
Butrus al-Bustani was a nineteenth century Ottoman Arab educator and public intellectual regarded by many as the first Syrian nationalist due to publication of Nafir Suriyya following the 1860 communal disturbances in Mt. Lebanon and Damascus.

Jens Hanssen is Associate Professor of Arab Civilization, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean history at the University of Toronto. He is author of Fin de Siècle Beirut and coeditor of Arabic Thought Beyond the Liberal Age and Arabic Thought Against the Authoritarian Age.
 
Hicham Safied