Saadah and Phoenicianism

Sa'adeh's Response to Phoenicianism:

Asher Kaufman

Of all the adversaries to Lebanese nationalism, Antun Sa'adeh (Antun Sa'ada) was the only one who led an organized movement with a clear political agenda and with a distinct historical theory that challenged the Lebanese-Phoenician view of the past. His party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (better known as the Parti Populaire Syrien or the PPS), posed a major threat to the existence of Greater Lebanon since its inception in 1932 until Sa'adeh's execution by the Lebanese government in 1949 and even after during the 1950's and 1960's. Not only did Sa'adeh defy the right of Lebanon to exist as an independent state, separate from Syria, but, as we shall see, he often used similar arguments mounted by Lebanese nationalists themselves to withstand their own reasoning for the existence of Lebanon as a viable national community.

When Sa'adeh established the PPS, the idea of a greater Syrian, non-Arab nation had been in existence for at least twenty-five years. Already in 1904, Henri Lammens wrote about the importance of the geographical composition of Syria, highlighting the uniqueness of a Syrian national circumscribed within the limits of greater Syria, and utterly different from the Arab ethnicity.(1) In fact, well until April 1919, the Syrianism that Lammens professed was dominant among intellectuals in geographical Syria, particularly in Beirut, more than Arabism or Lebanism. As we have already noted in the first two chapters. Chekri Ganem, Bulus Nujayam, Jacques Tabet, Georges Samne, Charles Corm, and many other publicly expressed their desire to establish "la plus grande Syrie," as a secular non-Arab nation, granting Lebanon a leading role in its formation. They based these aspirations on the scholarly works of Elisee Reclus, Henri Lammens and other French scholars,(2) who scientifically "proved" the existence of a Syrian nation since time immemorial. For reason already explained, by the end of 1919 most of the Lebanese who supported the formation of a greater Syrian state had modified their views and begun advocating for the formation of an independent Greater Lebanon. They, nevertheless, continued to base their political beliefs on the same learned works of Lammens and his peers. Thus, the Syrian ideology as expressed by Sa'adeh can be best understood against the backdrop of this Syrian stream that existed in greater Syria long before the establishment of the PPS and which was the foundation of Sa'adeh's Syrian convictions. This is also the reason why Sa'adeh's ideology was appealing for more than a few Lebanese at its inception.

Simply put, Syrianism was not a far-fetched ideology in the 1930's, Greater Lebanon had only been in existence for little more than a decade when Sa'adeh established his party with enough supporters of his doctrines in Lebanon. Sa'id Aql, for example, began his literary career as a supporter and member of Sa'adeh's party.(3) The flirt Aql conducted with PPS did not last long and by the mid-1930's he left the party and departed on an individual path of literary and political activity. Another Lebanese who was infatuated with the Syrianism of Sa1adeh was Salah Labaki whom we have also met previously in Chapter 3. For a few years, Labaki was vice president of the PPS and in charge of its propaganda. He ceaselessly called for the inclusion of Lebanon into greater Syria and the formation of a Syrian, non-Arab, state.(4) On March 1936, Labaki even participated in the Conference of the Coast as a representative of the PPS and together with prominent Muslim Lebanese leaders called for the annexation of Lebanon into Syria. Like 'Aql, by the end of 1936, Labaki left the party to become a leading literary figure in Lebanon and wrote extensively about Lebanon using Phoenician symbols to glorify the country. Seemingly, one might notice a contradiction between Sa'adeh's ideology and the Lebanist idea, but in fact Lebanism was conceived along with Syrianism and not in contradiction of it. Bulus Nujayam comes to mind as the perfect example for this illusive incongruity. In 1908, when he wrote his book La Question du Liban, solving the problem of Lebanon was in his mind, but he thought this problem would be best resolved in the wider context of a secular non-sectarian federated Greater Syria. Although Nujayam of 1908 spoke about a Greater Lebanon in a Syrian federation, he was no less a Lebanese nationalist. In 1919, once the Ottomans were out of the picture and the Syrian national movement had been taken over by the Arab government of Faysal, he no longer supported the formation of a greater Syrian federation. With this in mind, it is easier to understand how come persons like Sa'id 'Aql, the Lebanese nationalist par excellence, and Salah Labaki, both began their literary careers as members of the PPS.(6)

It is exactly for this reason that Sa'adeh's opposition to Lebanon's integrity was so threatening. More than al-Rihani, Zuayk and Rabbath, Sa'adeh was very clear and adamant about his disapproval of the narrative of Lebanese nationalism, i.e. the Phoenician myth of origin. In his A'da al-Arab A'da Lubnan (The Enemies of the Arabs, the Enemies of Lebanon) he clearly stated:

"There are those who claim, misleading the people, that the Lebanese question is not a religious one, but rather a racial, social and historical question. They justify this by affiliating the Lebanese with the Phoenicians, distinguishing them from the rest of the Syrians, asserting that the Lebanese have always been an independent country, and other similar groundless arguments. The descent between the Lebanese and the Phoenicians is baseless. Its falsity is proved by anthropological and genealogical scientific facts. (….) It is not Lebanon that derives it s origin from the Phoenicians, but rather Syria!" (7)

Clearly, Sa'adeh's disapproval of Phoenicianism emanated from its association with Lebanese Christian nationalism, which he rebuked. Lebanon's existence was based on a religious rationale and Phoenicianism was invalid for him not so much because he thought it was fictitious but more because he believed these Phoenicians were actually Syrians and Syrianism was not a religious identification. As we shall see below, this theme of utter rejection of Phoenicianism in the Lebanese context and embracing it in the Syrian context was a recurrent motif in his writing about the national identity of Syria and Lebanon.

In 1947, two years before his swift overnight trial and execution by the Lebanese government, Antun Sa'adeh published the principles of the PPS in a book entitled Kitah al-Ta'alim al-Suriyya al-Qawmiyya al-Ijtima'iyya, (The Syrian Social Nationalist Book of Teachings).(8) The book is divided into two parts: the first contains eight "fundamental principles" for the existence of a Syrian nation, and the second carries five additional "reform principles." The fourth principle of the first part of the book deals with the historical unity of the Syrian nation and is summarized by Sa'adeh as follows: "The Syrian Umma is the unity of the Syrian people, born out of a lengthy history going back to pre-historical time."(9) A careful reading of this section of the book reveals that it was, in fact, a direct response by Sa'adeh to the political and cultural division in Lebanon. Sa'adeh referred to the two major political groups that divided Lebanese society, naming them the "Arab-Muslim" and the "Phoenician-Christian" camps. He began this fourth principle by demonstrating that he did not view the Syrian nation as one pure racial stock but rather as an amalgam of races, ethnicities and peoples that had lived in the Syrian land throughout history, left their ethnic imprint, and added another component to the Syrian identity, Thus he stated that the Syrian nation:

"constitutes the final outcome of a long history comprised of all nations that have settled in these countries and mingled therein, from the Late Stone Age, prior to the Chaldeans and Canaanites, down to the Amorites, Arameans, Assyrians, Hittites, and Akkadians, all of whom eventually became one nation. Thus, we see that the principle of Syrian nationality is not based upon common descent but upon the social and natural unity of a mixture of stock." (10)

The Phoenicians, for Sa'adeh, were one more group of people who inhabited Syria and assisted in the composition of the Syrian nation, Syria, for him, was not more Phoenician than it was Chaldean or Aramean, although, as we shall see below, in other writings he did attribute to the ancient Phoenicians much credit for their contribution to humanity. Interestingly, referring to the Arabs in Syria, Sa'adeh clearly stated that:

"This (fourth) principle does not absolutely rule out that the Syrian nation is one of the nations of the Arab world, or one of the Arab nations. Similarly, the existence of the Syrian nation as an Arab nation does not rule out that Syria is a full-fledged nation with rights to absolute self-rule for itself and its watan, and consequently, has a self-existing national cause, independent of any other cause." (11)

Neglecting this fundamental principle, explained Sa'adeh, was the reason for the religious rivalries that had divided Syria between Arab-Muslim inclinations and Christian-Phoenician propensities, that had torn apart the unity of the nation and that had broken up its strength. Implementing this principle would save Syria from the racial arrogance that characterized Syrian communal life today. The Syrians who felt they are Arameans, Phoenicians, Arabs or Crusaders, could hold on to their belief's as long as they followed this principle or national, social and egalitarian unity of rights and duties indistinguishable from blood or genealogical differences. This principle, Sa'adeh concluded, offers a synthesis between the thesis of Phoenician chauvinism and the antithesis of Arab chauvinism, or vice versa. It allows us to think about one Syrian nation, united in its history and geography. (12)

Similarly to Zurayk and Rabbath, Sa'adeh also divided Lebanon into two camps, Phoenician and Arab. He knew well that Phoenicianism was directly related to the Christian, Western-oriented camp in Lebanon and, there fore, he could not agree with the arguments supporting the existence of a modern Phoenician nation in the image of Greater Lebanon. His ardent secular would-view on the one hand, and the firm identification of Phoenicianism in the 1930's with the Francophone Beiruti milieu, on the other hand, alienated Sa'adeh from the social group that advocated the Francophone Phoenician idea. Sa'adeh strongly disliked the Maronite hegemony in Lebanon for social and ideological reasons.(13) Ideologically, he could not agree with the correlation the Maronites made between religion and national sentiments. Socio-politically, the Maronite's Francophone tendencies and their hegemony in Lebanon in general and in Beirut in particular was disturbing for Sa'adeh. As a returning immigrant he was an outsider in Beirut without concrete contacts to any Beiruti power-base. He was not part of the Francophone circles, nor was he a member of the wealthy Greek Orthodox families that dominated the financial life in the city. He found part-time work in AUB as a German teacher - a marginal position that enable him to meet students to teach his ideology - but it did not introduce him to any socio-political power in the city.

As part of Sa'adeh's attempt to appropriate the Phoenicians into his ideology he often referred to the ancient Phoenician-Syrians in his nationalistic writing, almost always using parentheses for the word "Phoenician" next to the synonymous term "Canaanite." As noted in the introduction the ancient Phoenicians did call themselves Canaanites, but the latter term was more inclusive than the term Phoenician, for it included the entire land of Canaan, which roughly corresponded with Sa'adeh's definition of geographical Syria. In his most famous nationalistic treatise, Nushu' al-Umam (The Evolution of Nations), Sa'adeh granted the Canaanites with no less than the discovery of nationalist sentiments.(14) They were the first people who practiced patriotism (mahabbat al-watan) and social cohesion in accordance with national sentiment. Moreover, the Canaanite-Phoenicians, he claimed, brought into being the civil state that later served as a model for the Greeks and the Romans. The Phoenicians, wrote Sa'adeh, also founded other forms of government such as the electoral monarchy and the democratic state. Thus, while the neo-Phoenicians in Lebanon bestowed on their ancestors, the ancient Phoenicians, the civilizing role of the ancient world: Sa'adeh granted the Syrians, as a whole, the same attributes. "It was they (the Syrians)," he wrote "who civilized the Greeks and laid the foundations of Mediterranean civilization to which the Greeks later joined."(15)

The ancient Phoenicians, so it seems, were a desired commodity not only for the Lebanese national movement, Syrianism a la Sa'adeh was just as eager to incorporate them into its own national narrative. Yet, if for Lebanese nationalist such as Corm, Aql and al-Saouda, Phoenicianism was the national identity of Lebanon: as for Sa'adeh, the Phoenician past was one facet, albeit glorious, of a lengthy historical experience of the entire Syrian terrain. In a way, it was another variant of Phoenicianism, out of several, that existed in Lebanon in the 1930s and 1940s. It clarifies why 'Aql and Labki found the ideology of the PPS so appealing at first, and why the poet Adonis was also attracted to the PPS. It also helps explain why Sa'adeh's ideology posed such a threat to the Lebanese national movement. It was the major secular ideological alternative to Lebanese nationalism that provided a whole worldview, from its perception of history to its understanding of contemporary national conduct. Moreover, it came from within the Lebanese society and was based on existing political currents among many intellectuals who believed that the objectives for which Greater Lebanon was established could actually be best met through the formation of a large secular Syrian nation. If we strip Sa'adeh's ideology from its vociferous nature and fascist tendencies (sic), we would find, at the core, that it was not too far from the Lebanist idea, as conceived in the first decade of the twentieth century by liberal lay Lebanese such as Bulus Nujayam and Philip and Farid al-Khazin, who sought to solve the problem of Lebanon by expanding its borders, but in a context of a Syrian federation.

References and Notes

(1) Lammens, La Syrie et son importance geographique (Lourain. 1904).

(2) Lammens was, of course, Belgian, but for all matters of convenience and in practice he was part of this group of French scholars. Nujayam, in his book La Question du Liban, p. xi, p. 1, provides lengthy lists of primarily French scholars who established this theory.

(3)According to Jamil Sawaya, one of the founders of the PPS and a friend of Sa'adeh, Sa'id Aql wrote the party's anthem set to the tune of Deutschland Deutschland, iber alles: see Kemal H. Karpat (ed.). Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (New York. 1969). P. 100 Sa'adeh himself referred to Aql on in al-Sira al-Fikri fi al-Adab al-Suri (The Intellectual Crisis in Syrian Literature), 2nd edition (Beirut, 1947), pp. 60-63. He criticized Bint Yaftah, the first long tragedy Aql had written, as not Syrian enough. It seems that Aql himself tried to erase this part of his biography. He did not republish Bint Yaftah which he wrote when he was a member of the PPS. See: Yusuf al-Sumalily, al-Shi'r-Lubnany, itijahat wa-madhahib (Lebanese Poetry, Directions and Schools), (Beirut. 1980), p. 124

(4) AD Nantes, carton 457, Meyrier to MAE, au sujet de PPS, July 10, 1936. Labaki is mentioned as the Ministre de la propgande of the PPS: carton 943, Salah Labaki to the Haut Comissaire, March 2, 1936. In this letter Labaki calls on the High Commissioner to include Lebanon in a larger Syrian framework, because the Lebanese are tired of religious divisions. The majority of Lebanese would like to be back to "la mere patrie" - Syria.

(5) See the minutes of the Conference and the closing statement in Hassan Halaq, Mu'tamar al-Sahil wa-al-Aqdiya al-Arab'a, especially pp. 46, 54, 68-70.

(6) It should be recalled that both 'Aql and Labaki were Phoenician, non-Beiruti, Arabophones, two factors that made their cooperation with Sa'adeh easier. Although Sa'adeh did not consider language an essential ingredient in national consciousness, Arabic for him was the language the Syrians should speak. He hated the French and disliked the Lebanese Francophiles, viewing them as collaborators with the colonizing power. See in Sa'adeh, A'da al-Arab A'da Lubnan (The Enemies of the Arabs, the Enemies of Lebanon.) (Beirut. 1954). P. 120, p. 171, p. 173.

(7) Ibid, pp. 55-56

(8) Sa'adeh, Kitab al-Ta'alim al-Suriyya al-Qawmiyya al-Ijtima'iyya, (Beirut. 1947).

(9) Ibid, p. 17.

(10) Kitab al-Ta'alim. p. 18. Translated by Karpat. Political and Social Thought, p. 60

(11) Kitab al-Ta'alim. p. 23, Scholars who wrote about Sa'adeh's ideology exaggerated their analysis of Sa'adeh's dislike of the Arabs. It is true that he rejected the pan-Arab movement, but it is just as true that he recognized the role and importance of Arab culture in the composition of the Syrian nation.

(12) al-Ta'alim p. 23-24

(13) Bassam Tibi, Arab Nationalism, London: MacMillan, 1981, p. 196.

(14) Ibid.

(15) Karpat, Political and Social Thought. P. 61.