Aleksei V. Sarabiev On the issue of the «Orthodox factor» in the critical year of the Lebanese Civil War

Abstract

The beginning of the most tragic stage of the internal Lebanese Civil War itself, according to the author, occurred in 1978, when the lines of internal civil confrontation were revealed in full force. The author gives his assessment of the positions of Orthodox leaders of those years on the basis of studying the documentary evidence he collected and information provided by other researchers. Despite the obvious pragmatic orientation of the information presented in the documents, it is still possible to draw some conclusions and give a preliminary answer to the question posed in the title. The participation of Orthodox figures at various, including the highest levels of Lebanese politics provides grounds for an affirmative answer to the question of the existence of an «Orthodox factor» in it. True, it does not appear united and integral: the Orthodox, like, in general, other communities, did not act from a united position and a united front. Lebanese Orthodox Christians were an organic part of Lebanese society, and their political positions were very diverse. They were no exception in terms of the diversity of ideological attitudes — from the extreme «right», nationalist, to the «left» (Sirianism, Panarabism, Internationalism). They showed ideological solidarity to the greatest extent, while confessional solidarity was far from being in the first place for them. The Orthodox defending their rights did not mean that they singled out their community from among others either as the most worthy or as the most vulnerable; this was not a narrow confessional vision of priorities, but basically fit into the general civil understanding of the good for the country while maintaining the integrity of its society and territory. The fact that the Lebanese Orthodox belonged to a variety of parties and were adherents of a whole range of ideologies makes it possible to identify their similarities in this regard with representatives of other Lebanese faiths. This also applies to the issue of external influences, and especially Syrian influences as the most sensitive at that time. Once again the methodological question arises about the legitimacy of using the term «political confessionalism» as a scientific concept in relation to the Lebanese events of those years — when ideology still largely dominated the public consciousness of the Arabs.

Keywords:

Lebanese Orthodox, Lebanese Civil War, Orthodox activism in Lebanon, political confessionalism

For citation:

Sarabiev A.V. On the issue of the «Orthodox factor» in the critical year of the Lebanese Civil War // The Historical Reporter.  2025.  Vol. LV. P. 250–275. DOI: 10.35549/HR.2025.2025.55.004

Aleksei V. Sarabiev

D.Sc. (History), Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies of Russian

Academy of Sciences. Moscow, Russian Federation.

E-mail: alsaraby@ivran.ru

ORCID: 0000-0002-9796-2411

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