12 Days in Lebanon
By Kazeem Ugbodaga/Lebanon
As the Egyptian plane descended on
the tarmac of Beirut Airport on 1 September, 2018, many thoughts filled my
heart, how is Lebanon? What manner of country is it? Are the people friendly?
The only thing that overwhelmed me back in Nigeria was that the country was
home to the dreaded Hezbollah that held the small nation in the jugular some
few years back and a deadly civil war. These thoughts and many more clouded my
being. I was rudely shaken out of my vanity when the plane hits and taxied on
the tarmac. We are in Lebanon!
A group of 10 lucky Nigerians
comprising journalists, administrators, student, lecturer and the rest had been
selected to embark on a 12-day trip in Lebanon under the Study Abroad in
Lebanon, SAIL project. The SAIL Project is a programme of the Notre Dame
University, NDU’s Benedict XVI Endowed Chair of Religious, Cultural, and
Philosophical Studies in collaboration with the Cedars Institute and the Wole
Soyinka Foundation in Nigeria. This course is co-taught by 3–6 faculties with
different specializations: Philosophy, Theology, World and Ottoman History, and
Art and Architectural History. It is an intensive ten-day course with over
eight hours of daily contact and interaction with the faculty, guest lecturers,
and officially certified tourist guides.
The distinguishing feature of this
course was that it combines and fuses rigorous academic knowledge with
first-hand experience of historical sites of global and regional significance.
It focuses on the historical foundation of Lebanon as a geopolitical strategic
region that sets the stage for the rise of Phoenician Civilization and examines
its emergence as a hub of international trade of global significance. The
course also shows how Lebanon became a centre of trans-national culture and
learning, a refuge for religious minorities, as well as a major region of
religious pilgrimage, among others.
The course is structured to enable
participants assess and evaluate historical and philosophical concepts both
methodically and critically; reflect, think critically about their own
experiences confronting new cultural contexts, as well as give participants
ample opportunities to engage the faculty in critical discussions of all
aspects of the course, and several others.
While we were yet to settle down at
NDU campus, Prof. Edward Alam, a Professor of History at NDU knocked at our
doors, saying it was time for business. We had thought we would have a day off,
but how wrong were we. Introducing himself warmly, we got down to business.
Alam introduced his research assistance, Honoree Claris Eid to us; from then,
we knew we were in for a rigorous, but exciting days in Lebanon. The agenda was
set, no much time for chatting, browsing and feasting ourselves on the allures
of life in Lebanon.
Tony Nasrallah, Assistant Professor
of Philosophy, NDU sets the stage with his introductory lecture: “Regional
History in the Context of World History: The Stellae of Nahr el Kalb.” The
stellae are a group of over 20 inscriptions carved into the limestone rocks
around the estuary of the Nahr el Kalb (Dog River) in Lebanon, just north of
Beirut. The Nahr el Kalb stellae include three Egyptian hieroglyphic
stellae from Pharaohs, including Ramesses II, six Cuneiform inscriptions
from Neo Assyrian and Neo Babylonian kings, including Esarhadon and
Nebuchadnezzar, Roman and Greek inscriptions; Arabic inscriptions from the
Mamluk Sultan Barquq and the Druze prince Fakhr el Din II, a memorial to
Napoleon III’s 1860 intervention in Lebanon and a dedication to the 1943
independence of Lebanon from France. There were also the stellae of Marcus
Aurelius, Proclus, the crusades, among others.
A major wonder in Lebanon, is the
Jeita Grotto. The grotto represents the pearl of nature in Lebanon. This jewel
of tourism is located in the valley of Nahr el Kalb at 18km North of Beirut.
The Jeita Grotto is a system of two separate, but interconnected, karstic
limestone caves spanning an overall length of nearly 9km. A ride on Cable Car
took us to the upper part of the grotto. Historically, the grotto was inhabited
in prehistoric times; the lower cave was not rediscovered until 1836 by
Reverend William Thomson; it can only be visited by boat since it channels an
underground river that provides fresh drinking water to more than a million
Lebanese.
In 1958, Lebanese speleologists
discovered the upper galleries 60 metres (200 ft) above the lower cave which
have been accommodated with an access tunnel and a series of walkways to enable
tourists safe access without disturbing the natural landscape. The upper
galleries house the world’s largest known stalactite. The galleries are
composed of a series of chambers, the largest of which peaks at a height of 12
metres (39 ft). Aside from being a Lebanese national symbol and a top tourist
destination, the Jeita Grotto plays an important social, economic and cultural
role in the country. It was one of top 14 finalists in the New 7 Wonders of
Nature competition.
At Byblos, A UNESCO World Heritage
Site, Dr. Joseph Rahme, Associate Professor, NDU and President of the Cedars
Institute, took charge of a lecture: “What is the ‘Lebanon’? What is the
‘Middle East’? Why is it Important? What Role Did Geography play in the rise of
Phoenician Civilization? What Kind of continuity exists between the Phoenician
past and Contemporary Lebanon? The Phoenician Template: Political
Decentralization, Commercial Competition, Social and Religious Diversity.”
In the words of Rahme, the name ‘Lebanon’
is derived from three things-whiteness (snow), mountain and Cedar trees.
Lebanon is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the
north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus is west across the
Mediterranean Sea. The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back
more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history.
Lebanon was the
home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a maritime culture that
flourished for over a thousand years (1550–539 BC). In 64 BC, the region came
under the rule of the Roman Empire, and eventually became one of the Empire’s
leading centres of Christianity.
In the Mount Lebanon range a
monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab
Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion and
identity. However, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in
Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for
centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the
Roman Catholic Church and asserted their communion with Rome. The ties they
established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The
region eventually was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918. Following
the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that
constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon.
The French expanded the borders of
the Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was mostly populated by Maronites and
Druze, to include more Muslims. Lebanon gained independence in 1943,
establishing confessionalism, a unique, Consociationalism-type of political
system with a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities. Foreign
troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946.
In Rahme’s view, certain factors
gave rise to civilization, which include economic surplus, trading; developing
a medium for preservation, accumulation and dissemination of knowledge;
development of cities and development of complex, social, economic and
political organisation. He explained that the Cedar tree was a symbol of
civilization for the Phoenicians which King Solomon used in building the temple
in Jerusalem. The Phoenicians were also known for inventing their own
alphabetical system which aids the dissemination of information. They
established trading outpost through the Mediterranean where they were able to
disseminate knowledge in West Mediterranean. In Rahme’ assertion, we didn’t
come to Lebanon to know about its history, but discuss world’s history in
Lebanon’s point of view, a replica of what Samuel P. Huntington calls ‘Clash of
Civilisation.” Lebanon has been a melting point of cultures and civilization,
being used and dumped by several foreign invaders, leaving their footprints in
the sand of time.
A walking tour of the old city of
Byblos, led by historian, Hyame El-khoury reveals it ruins. The castle
was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century from indigenous limestone and
the remains of Roman structures. The finished structure was surrounded by a
moat. It belonged to the Genoese Embriaco family, whose members were the Lords
of Gibelet.
Saladin captured the town and castle
in 1188 and partially dismantled the walls in 1190. Later, the Crusaders
recaptured Byblos and rebuilt the fortifications of the castle in 1197. In
1369, the castle had to fend off an attack from Cypriot vessels from Famagusta.
The Byblos Castle has distinguished historical buildings for neighbours. Nearby
stand a few Egyptian temples, the Phoenician royal necropolis and the Roman
amphitheatre. The fortress of the Byblos Castle was later built by the French
crusaders spanning 900 years.
Up the Cedars
The pride of Lebanon had always been
its Cedar trees dating back to thousands of years. The Cedar is a national
symbol in the ancient city. With deforestation and other man-made intrusion,
the Cedar of Lebanon is gradually going into extinction, but a portion of the
trees have been preserved for tourism purposes. The Cedar of Lebanon is a
species of cedar native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It
is an evergreen conifer that can reach 40 m (130 ft) in height. It is the
national emblem of Lebanon and is widely used as an ornamental tree in parks
and gardens.
The Lebanon cedar once thrived
across Mount Lebanon in ancient times. Their timber was exploited by the
Phoenicians, Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans,
and Turks. The wood was prized by Egyptians for shipbuilding; the Ottoman
Empire used the cedars in railway construction, among others.
Parking our loads, we left the NDU
campus where we were camped and up we go to the Cedars in the mountains of
Lebanon. The drive to the Cedars took about two hours. We were to spend three
days on altitude where the temperature hovers between 10 and 15 degrees at
night. The beauty of Lebanon is revealed by its landscape. Deep valleys and
rocky terrains adorn the ambience. In the valleys and mountains, disperse
settlements abut the terrains. Shortly after we lodged at the Cedar Institute,
off we go to the Cedars. Rahme led the excited Nigerian adventurers to see the
Cedars. The Cedar trees are named according to their sizes and circumference.
Thus we have biggest Cedar tree named ‘Pope,’ next in hierarchy is the
‘Patriarch,’ followed by the ‘Priest,’ ‘Deacon’ and ‘lay people.’
Rahme listed seven notable things to
remember about the Cedars. The first thing was that Queen Victoria built a wall
around the Cedars for protection; the trees influenced the nation’s flag,
currency and postal stamp; ranking of the trees according to their size; the
sculpture of Rudy Rahme depicting the passion of Christ; two helmets in the
Cedars; Church of the Cedar Growth built in the 19 century and the ‘Pope,’
which is the biggest tree.
According to Rahme, by the time the
Romans intruded the Cedar, there was little Cedar trees left because of
deforestation. “The Phoenicians had to rely on triangular trade. The Lebanese
are excellent traders. Selling second hand cars is key here,” Rahme said.
Clash of interest in Lebanon has
made it impossible to conduct a national census, with the last census dating
back to 1932. Lebanon has been described as a nation of refuge. Diversity has
been the characteristics of Lebanon, with electricity a major challenge like
Nigeria.
A tour of the Baalbec, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site, reveals the ruin of the temples at Baalbec. A tourist
guard said 60,000 slaves worked to build the temples tt Baalbec, which were
later destroyed. One of the temples still standing in Baalbec was Bacchus
Temple, known as the god of pleasure. The tourist guard said about 100 men and
women simultaneously, in nudity feast on the vanity and thrills of life
culminating in orgasm. It was a temple of unabated pleasure and defilement.
Visited in the mountains is the
Monastery of Saint Antony where Prof. Alam delivered a lecture on “The Global
Significance of Christian Monasticism” at the Valley of Qadisha (Holy Valley).
Alam delved into what gave birth to Monasticism and its rise. Saint
Antony the Great from Egypt is credited as the founder of Monasticism.
Rahme led the tour on the Monastery,
which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first printing press in the Arab
World dating back to 1610 is at the Monastery Museum. A grotto hewn in the rock
at the Monastery serves as refuge abode from invaders. In the cave were
artifacts representing faith, refuge and healing. A staff dating back to 13
Century is preserved at the museum, among several others. A tour to the Gilbran
Khalil Museum reveals lots of his paintings depicting nudity, but representing
the beauty and originally of nature. Khalil was a Lebanese-American writer,
poet, visual artist and Syrian nationalist. As a young man Gibran
emigrated with his family to the United States, where he studied art and began
his literary career, writing in both English and Arabic. In the Arab world,
Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at
the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabic literature, especially prose
poetry, breaking away from the classical school. In Lebanon, he is still
celebrated as a literary hero. His publications were also on display at the
museum, the most popular of them being “The Prophet,” one of the bestselling
books in the world in the last century.
At the Gilbran Museum, Alam
delivered a lecture on the Crusades and how Constantinople was conquered by the
Turks. The capture of the city marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, a
continuation of the Roman Empire, an imperial state dating to 27 BC, which had
lasted for nearly 1,500 years. The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 also
dealt a massive blow to Christendom, as the Muslim Ottoman armies thereafter
were left unchecked to advance into Europe without an adversary to their rear.
The Ottomans ultimately prevailed due to the use of gunpowder (which powered
formidable cannons).
Down the Cedars
After three days in the mountains,
we were back to the lowland again. The first place of call was Mizyara Village.
The village is a display of Lebanese-Nigerian cultural relations. Mizyara is
home to many Lebanese who have made their fortune in Nigeria. Example of such
is Gilbert Ramez Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire businessman. Most of the
Lebanese in Nigeria erected mansions and develop the village, but do not live
in the mansions. They come once in a while. A mansion, with the shape of a
plane is built at Mizyara. At Mizyara, there is Abuja Street, Nigeria road,
Lagos Street and the rest. The houses in the town bare resemblance of the
mansions in Banana Island, Lekki Phase I and the rest. Mizyara is the
wealthiest village in Lebanon.
Next point of call was Tripoli (not
the Libyan capital). In Tripoli is the ancient Citadel. History has it that in
1102, Raymond VI of Saint Gilles, Count of Toulouse, one of the first knights
who set out on the First Crusade in 1096, turned his attention to the conquest
of Tripoli, the most important emirate on the coast. Raymond wished to
establish a principality that would command both the coast road and the
Orontes. In 1103 Saint-Gilles who had camped on the outskirts of the city,
ordered the construction of a fortress which to this day is still known by his
name. This fortress was the first ever of its kind. No caravan could reach or
leave Tripoli without being intercepted by Saint-Gilles’s men.
During the Crusade period, Tripoli
witnessed the growth of the inland settlement surrounding the “Pilgrim’s
Mountain” (the citadel) into a built-up suburb including the main religious
monuments of the city such as: The “Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Pilgrim’s
Mountain”, the Church of Saint Mary’s of the Tower, and the Carmelite Church. The
state was a major base of operations for the military order of the Knights
Hospitaller, who occupied the famous castle Krak Des Chevaliers.
In 1289, when the Mamluk occupied
the city, the Mont Pèlerin quarter was set ablaze, the castle of Saint-Gilles suffered
from the holocaust and stood abandoned on the hilltop for the next eighteen
years. But, in 1308, The Mamluk Governor Essendemir Kurgi, decided to restore
and rebuild StGilles Castle on the hill, so he incorporated what he could in
his citadel, and made use of Roman column shafts and other building material he
found nearby.
The City of Tyre, popularly
mentioned in the Bible, is an ancient city inhabited by the Phoenicians. It was
this city that we visited in Lebanon. The ruins of the old city left behind a
sour taste of its conquest by Alexander the Great. In Dr. Rahme’s historical
perspective, the siege of Tyre was orchestrated by Alexander the Great in 332
BC during his campaigns against the Persians. The Macedonian army was unable to
capture the city, which was a strategic coastal base on the Mediterranean Sea,
through conventional means because it was on an island and had walls right up
to the sea. Alexander responded to this problem by first blockading and
besieging Tyre for seven months, and then by building a causeway that allowed
him to breach the fortifications.
It is said that Alexander was so
enraged at the Tyrians’ defence of their city and the loss of his men that he
destroyed half the city. 8,000 Tyrian civilians were said to have been
massacred after the city fell. 30,000 residents and foreigners, mainly women
and children, were sold into slavery.
A tour of the ruins of the city reveals
several graves. The hippodrome in the city is still standing and in Rahme’s
view, it can take 30,000 spectators during horse racing in those days.
Garden of Forgiveness
The garden of Forgiveness lies close
to Martyrs’ Square and the wartime Green Line (1975-1990). It is surrounded by
places of worship belonging to different denominations in Beirut and reveals
many layers of Beirut’s past. According to Chady Rahme, Assistant Professor,
NDU, who lectured on the garden, the place is central in the history of Lebanon
and symbolizes unity as the different faith in the country after the end of the
civil war in 1990 came together as one in the garden to pray.
The Garden of Forgiveness is an
exemplary space since it touches the back walls of three churches and three
mosques, making it a backyard to them all. It is a special place for
inter-religious dialogue.
The brain behind the Garden of
Forgiveness is Alexandra Asseily. Alexandra, an 81-year old and founder of the
Silk Museum in Lebanon, told her story how the Garden of Forgiveness came into
being.
As witness of the pain of the civil
war in Lebanon (1975-199o), Alexandra decided to explore her own responsibility
for war and peace and became a psychotherapist. In 1997, Alexandra had a life
changing experience that inspired her to begin the Garden of Forgiveness
(Hadiquat as Samah) in Beirut, a project to create a garden in the heart of the
City to facilitate forgiveness.
She is presently keeping the essence
of the Garden of Forgiveness alive by a central project, entitled “Healing the
Wounds of History: addressing the Roots of Violence”. The theory is that the
cycles of violence between generations are healed by forgiveness and
compassion. In the “Healing the Wounds of History” project people are taught to
become aware and sensitive to the depth of their own and other’s traumatic
memory and pain, which they may have experienced or unconsciously inherited.
The release of this pain in traumatic memory, past or present, also releases
the impulse to repeat the
violence, inwardly or outwardly.
National Museum of Beirut
Other places of interest visited are
the National Museum of Beirut. At the museum were preservations and artifacts
dating back to prehistoric period. The museum, built in the Pharaonic style of
the Egyptian Revival, from the nineteen-thirties, was ravaged. The museum had
relics from the bronze and iron ages, as well as the Phoenician, Persian,
Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab conquest, and Ottoman periods. There are also
relics of the sarcophagus of Ahiram, the king of Byblos, dates to the tenth
century B.C.; it features one of the earliest examples of the Phoenician
alphabet. At the museum, is an enormous painted tomb, which was discovered in
the Tyre region in the far south of Lebanon in 1937, spanning the second
century AD, among several collections.
Soyinka in Lebanon
Three days to our departure from
Lebanon, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and his wife, Folu were in Beirut.
The Wole Soyinka Foundation is sponsoring the programme in Lebanon in
conjunction with NDU and the Cedar Institute. Soyinka was first at the American
University of Beirut, AUB to deliver a lecture, titled: “Oh-oh, Fables Sweeter
than Facts: History, Culture and Revisionism.” The lecture was part of the NDU
Louaize-organized SAIL/WSF–Nigeria programme. According to Soyinka, “we cannot
be in denial to others’ cultures and world heritage: music, dance etc. Facts
are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” AUD students had a
staged reading from “Death and the King’s Horsemen,” a book published by
Soyinka in 1974.
At the Garden of Forgiveness,
Soyinka met with us in the presence of the exceptional woman who initiated the
idea of this Garden, Alexandra. Soyinka also spoke about the untold story of
the Asaba massacre during the Nigeria-Biafra War, and how General Yakubu Gowon
(Rtd) begged for forgiveness over the massacre, while Alexandra shed light on
the Lebanese civil war highlighting special cases of forgiveness in both.
A dinner party at the Kalani Halat,
organized by Dr. Habib Jafar, chief donor and promoter of the SAIL/WSF Nigeria
project ended our adventurous stay in Lebanon. A special rendition on the Epic
of Gilgamesh was rendered by participants of the 2018 SAIL project. It was
championed by Lanre Fakeye, accompanied with guitar music by Osamudiamen
Ivbanikaro-Isaac, popularly known as ‘Osas.’ Hundreds of audience at the event
were thrilled to a scintillating performance.
