M īkh a¯ ' īl Mish a¯ qa - The First Historian of Modern Syria
Titel:
M īkh a¯ ' īl Mish a¯ qa - The First Historian of Modern Syria
Auteur:
Zachs, Fruma
Verschenen in:
British journal of Middle Eastern studies
Paginering:
Jaargang 28 (2001) nr. 1 pagina's 67-87
Jaar:
2001-05-01
Inhoud:
This article enlarges on the life and ideas of M īkh a¯ ' īl Mish a¯ qa, a nineteenth-century 'Syrian' Christian intellectual, author of the much-quoted book al-Jaw a¯ b 'al a¯ Iqtir a¯ h al-Ahb a¯ b . It further interprets his book and discusses its importance to Syrian historiography, showing that Mish a¯ qa was perhaps one of the first historians to write the nineteenth-century history of Syria within which Mount Lebanon is seen as an integral region - i.e. he identifies the region of Syria as a single territorial entity. As for Mish a¯ qa's style of writing, I shall show that his book is not a chronicle, as were those of earlier and contemporary writers, but that it is written as a 'proper history'. The last part of the article offers the thesis that M īkh a¯ ' īl Dimashq ī, an unknown 'historian' of the same decade, who wrote the book, Ta'r īkh Haw a¯ dith Jarat bi'l Sh a¯ m wa-Saw a¯ hil Barr al-Sh a¯ m wa'l-Jabal , was probably M īkh a¯ ' īl Mish a¯ qa.
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