SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In the preparation of this thesis I have endeavoured to examine the history of Lebanon during the Crusader and Mamluk periods as presented by three Maronite historians who represent the Maronite historiographic tradition in the fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth centuries. The study has been made in view of the future use of the works of those historians for the reconstruction of a period in the internal history of Lebanon which has remained so far obscure and unknown. Aside from giving brief biographies of the three historians in question (Jibra'il ibn al-Qila'i, d, 1516, Istifan ad-Duwaihi, d, 1704, and Tannus ash-Shidyaq, d, 1861), and discussing at length the circumstances under which they wrote their histories and their purposes as historians, I have given detailed synopses of their historical works and analysed their histories independently. In the course of this analysis I have sought to establish historical facts which they mention or to which they allude by studying these facts and taking Into consideration any mention or allusion to them by non-Maronite historians (Moslems, non-Maronite Eastern Christian, and Western Christians) and by other Maronite historians, and the general setting of the history of the Middle East in the Crusader and Mamluk periods in which they fit. Some of those facts I have established definitely, but many others only by probability. After making an independent analysis of each of the three historians, I have tried to assess the value of their works, independently and conjointly, as sources for the history of Lebanon in the Crusader and Mamluk periods, This thesis, on the whole, has been concerned with the establishment of historical facts concerning the history of Medieval Lebanon and the exercise of judgement on the worth of Maronite historiography in so far as it deals with this history. It has been prepared as a basis for the reconstruction of the history of Lebanon in the four centuries preceding the Ottoman conquest in 1516 which, so far, have been practically completely ignored, it is hoped that the work done in this thesis will open the way to further research on the subject.