Issues

Lebanese society through the eyes of the Maronite Patriarch Boulos II Meoushi: two reports of Swiss ambassadors to Beirut

Alexey Sarabyev

Religiia i obshchestvo na Vostoke, Issue III (2019), p. 328-353.

 
Preparation for publication, translation from French and German, comments by Aleksei V. Sarabiev

The archival documents of 1959 and 1960, in which two Swiss ambassadors in Beirut give a detailed assessment of the situation in the political arena and in the public environment of Lebanon, are published and commented in detail. They rely on information received from key hierarchs of the Maronite Church, particularly from the patriarch Boulos II Meushi. Both documents are distinguished by relative impartiality, rooted in the political course of Switzerland of those years; they are in their own way informative, original, demonstrate the high professional skills of their authors and lively their participation in the issues discussed with the Maronite Patriarch and the Beirut Archbishop Ignas Ziyade. Specially it outlines the information about the leading representatives of the political “beau monde” and socio-political processes, including the statements of Patriarch Boulos II about the state of the Christian communities of Lebanon and the fate of Christianity in the Middle East. In terms of the historical theme of interfaith relations in the region, these documents, containing historical details and first-hand opinions, undoubtedly represent a valuable source for specialists and a live sketch of the full-blooded life of independent Lebanon of that time.

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Keywords: Middle East Christians, social problems, interfaith relations, political elite, Maronite Church, Lebanon

Volume: 328-353

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