From the Grand Serail to the Great Revolt: Constitutionalism and Revolution in Lebanon, 1925-27

Through rigorous archival and other research into often untapped Arabic, French, and English sources in Lebanon and France, my research aims to address the tension between the rational-legal discourse of High Politics during the French mandate over Lebanon and the seemingly chaotic circumstances of popular unrest. I examine this issue in a specific historical context which I believe has wider significance – the drafting of the 1926 Lebanese constitution and the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925-1927. Although, they take place simultaneously, one ushering the other, the literature pertaining to these formative years almost exclusively discusses them as isolated events. The constitution and the revolt are steeped in the circumstances of colonialism. While the constitution of 1926 embodies submission to the French colonial order, the Great Syrian Revolt, demonstrates the popular resistance it spurred. My dissertation aims to re-connect the facts of revolution and constitutionalism in Lebanon. It investigates the context of the drafting of the constitution and attempts to elucidate the impetus behind (1). the constitutional prescription for a sectarian system of government and (2). the popular motives for the simultaneous outbreak of revolution. While the constitution was drafted and promulgated in urban Beirut, the violence of the Great Syrian Revolt remained on the peripheries of the nation, and especially at its borders. Accordingly, I take the northern Bekaa as a case study to investigate the circumstances of revolution in the rural periphery and understand how it connected with the urban center of power in Beirut. I use a gendered narrative to analyze these events. In particular, I explore different ideals of masculinity and femininity to explain different modes of behavior that make sense of the revolution in the countryside and the drafting of the constitution in the city.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Humanities

Grantor

Rice University

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Farah, Cyma Sami

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Makdisi, Ussama

• Lebanese Constitution
• Great Syrian Revolt
• Women

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1911/114899

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.rice.edu:1911/114899