Melting Pot & Cauldron of Fire – A review of Levant by Philip Mansel

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Levant: Splendor and Catastrophe on the Mediterranean: a book describing the enigmatic history of the Levant by chronicling the vicissitudes of life over four centuries in Beirut, Alexandria and Smyrna (now the Turkish city of Izmir). The Wikipedia entry on the Levant region describes it as including “most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Cyprus, Turkey and Iraq”. This region of the world has quite distinct characteristics from the Middle East’s Gulf regions and the Maghreb region of West Africa. This unique identity however tends to get obscured in the statements and actions of those who prefer simplistic - and probably ignorant –terms such as “Arab world” or the much more annoying phrase: “Muslim world”. It is quite absurd to compare the multicultural, long established and often secular Levantine cities such as Beirut, Damascus, Alexandria and Istanbul with the more homogenous, conservative and recently founded cities of the Gulf Kingdoms.

The world we live in is not one that celebrates dual or split identities. It is considered an insult to be described as “two-faced”: a phrase we associate with traits such as insincerity and hypocrisy. We regard people or societies with “two faces” to be making an unwholesome attempt at “having it both ways”. There is even a biblical injunction assuring the “spitting out” of people who are “neither hot nor cold”. I have always found the scorn heaped on people trying to “have it both ways” to be quite silly: why should I or anyone else have it one way if we can have it two, three or even four ways! The ancient Greeks had the good sense to recognize the virtue of split personalities. Classical mythology is replete with figures such Janus: the two-faced god of beginnings and ends who looks both into the future and the past. Most of the heroes of Greek mythology have split human/god personalities and are therefore prone to perform god-like acts like slaying thousands of men but also capable of very human traits such as throwing fits over being jilted by lovers.

 I find the Levant region fascinating because it is a region that has throughout its history tried to have things both ways and to keep multiple identities. It is a region that looks both to the West and to the East; it is both ancient and modern; both Christian and Muslim; Arab and European. The author describes a region that was equal part melting pot of cultures, nationalities and religions and also equal part frighteningly combustible cauldron of fire. The Smyrna, Beirut and Alexandria of the17th, 18^th and early 19^th centuries described by the author were cities in which Turks, Greeks, Arabs and Europeans freely coexisted and were able to practice their Muslim, Jewish or Christian faiths as they wished. To understand how unique this was we should note that it was taking place at a time when Jews and Synagogues in Europe were largely still restricted to Ghettos and the Muslim population in Spain had been either forcibly converted or banished. These were multilingual commercial centers where thousands of European traders and their families lived with Turks and Arabs. Philip Mansel describes a Janus-faced region with men trotting about in European dresses adorned with Arab headgear; a society of debutant balls and Islamic marriages (Nikah) and a place with assimilated Europeans who had converted to Islam and taken on Arab names. I will not be stretching credulity by saying that 19^th century Levant gave the world a foretaste of globalization and multiculturalism. A poster child of this period was Mohammed Ali Pasha, founder of modern Egypt and patriarch of a dynasty that ruled the country 1805 to 1952. Ali Pasha was an Albanian born in Macedonia who first came to Egypt as an officer in the Ottoman Army. This is a more notable rise to the top than many ascents in our modern age that are often prefaced with the words “only in America will –“.

All these good things notwithstanding, it’s important to realize that the Levant region of yore was not some multicultural nirvana where nice people gathered to hold hands and sing Kumbaya. This rich tapestry of nations, faiths and cultures was always on the edge of being ripped apart by partisanship, latent religious prejudice and the pursuit of narrow sectarian interests. Resentment of the special privileges or capitulations granted to Europeans and of the perceived impiety of the elite by the often more pious masses has always been a sticking point. This resentment often boils over and has been the cause of significant conflicts and bloodlettings from Smyra in the early 19^th century to the long drawn out civil war in Lebanon which lasted from 1975 to 1990. These tensions were considered sufficiently serious by many western powers that they took to stationing warships off major Mediterranean ports both as a deterrent and also as a means of quickly evacuating their citizens in the event of a conflict. Intermittent social conflict was not also the only challenge faced by the Levantines; also bubbling under the surface was a somewhat rigid social hierarchy. 19^th century and early 20^th century Lebanon has been described by some as a strict hierarchy with Catholics at the top and Shia Muslims at the bottom. In Mohammad Ali’s Egypt, European and Turkish officers were significantly better paid and more highly placed than their native Egyptian counterparts. These inconveniences and prejudices could be viewed as the worrisome Mr. Jekyll side to the more alluring Dr. Hyde side of the Levant where various nationalities and faiths coexisted.

However one constant theme, especially in Egypt, is the tension between the largely secular and pro-Western elite and the poor and pious masses over which they preside. This tension has become more important in the wake of the Arab spring: which saw the ouster of secular, pro-western strongmen such as Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The hope of many western observers was that these strongmen would be replaced by secular democratic parties, alas the results of elections has given these people great pause. Islamist parties have won popular, free and fair elections in Egypt (Muslim Brotherhood) and Tunisia (Ennahda) while secular parties championed by the liberal educated elites have received sound drubbings. Turkey is also another country going through a similar transition as democratically elected parties with Islamic links have been rolling back much of the heavily pro-western regulations instituted by Kemal Ataturk. Described as the father of modern Turkey, Ataturk changed the Turkish alphabet to a Latin script; proclaimed Turkey to be a secular western country and banned the wearing of the Hijab (headscarf) by women in public. Parties campaigning on pledges to champion a bigger role for Islam have been winning elections with the wife of the current president also being known to wear the Hijab despite its official ban. While there are many challenges in the current-day Levant region, I regard the managing of the dual personalities of the region to be among the most important to get right.

In conclusion, this book validates the aphorism (attributed to US President Harry Truman) that “the only new thing in the world is the history you do not know”. Reading about the vicissitudes of life many centuries ago in these great cities, I am struck by how much of the lessons and challenges described by the author remain relevant today.