‘I’m not Arab, I’m Phoenician’­ a common phrase, but flawed concept

dailystar.com.lb ^ | 09/02/04 | Peter Speetjens

[Destro]

DS 09/02/04

‘I’m not Arab, I’m Phoenician’ ­ a common phrase, but flawed concept

It isn’t always easy to live in the postmodern era. No absolute truths or morals to hang on to. The world is what you make of it and anything goes seem to be life’s only principles. Consequently, your identity is not something that befalls upon you by birth, but something you are free to choose and construct, which can lead to rather bizarre results.

Let’s take as an example a young man I know. Born and bred in his beloved London, he has a British passport, only speaks English, has a good sense of humor, enjoys watching football, drinking beer, making fun of the French, and yet he insists he is not English or British. He is, he claims, half Irish, half Jewish. Why? His mother was born in Dublin, his father fled Germany during World War II. Now, surely both factors play an important role in his life and shape his identity, but to completely deny at least being partly British is just odd. Especially knowing that according to the Jewish faith he is not a Jew, while on top of that, he is a deeply convinced atheist. The reason for his self-chosen identity cocktail is political, as he does not want to be associated with Britain’s colonial past.

As anyone else, the Lebanese are free to choose and define their identity. Most people will just state their nationality. Others may add religion, political preferences, city of birth or other countries they lived in. In certain Lebanese circles, however you still hear the following variation: “I’m not Arab, I’m Phoenician.”

It’s an interesting concept that came to life in the late 19th century, when (certain) Lebanese, following the European intellectual fashion of the time, descended into the realms of history in search of a common ancestor on which to construct a nation state based on the principle of one people, one land, one country.

Thriving on a bit of history and lot of legend, it triggers images of a glorious past, in which the Phoenicians acted as the undisputed masters of the Mediterranean. And there’s nothing wrong with a bit of pride of the good old days, especially in times of hardship. However, the statement is often more than but an expression of innocent romanticism.

Confront the person making the remark with a bit of skepticism and be prepared for a heated reaction, in which the emphasis in the sentence will swiftly shift toward the “not being Arab” part. In other words, “I’m Phoenician” not only serves to give oneself a positive self-image, different yet equal to the other, but aims to set oneself apart from the other, who is (but) an Arab.

For that reason it’s important to have a closer look at the statement, “I’m Phoenician,” for it triggers several problems. First of all, it somehow implies the existence of a nation-state called Phoenicia. Fact is, however, that there never was such a thing. The Phoenicians lived in a loosely connected network of city states, which often ­ but not always ­ cooperated and which at times were autonomous, but more often paid tribute to the dominant empires in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Secondly, the word Phoenician is Greek. The term is first found in Homer, who uses it refer to the people living in the Levant from Southern Palestine to Northern Syria, with Lebanon at its core. The word’s root means “red” and was probably a reference to the red-purple dye the Phoenicians made from shellfish. “The Greek used the term Phoenicians for a specific time frame,” said Helen Sadr, professor of archeology at the American University of Beirut, “which is roughly the first millennium BC. It would be scientifically unsound to use the term before or after. A second problem with the word ‘Phoenicians’ is that the people never identified themselves as such. In the written sources we have, they refer to themselves as the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon and Byblos.”

Putting linguistics aside, the question still remains: Who were the people the term referred to?

For a long time, the common theory was ­ and popular belief still is ­ that nomads from the Saudi peninsula or the Sinai invaded and settled in the Levant. Around 1,200 BC, following the so-called invasion of the Sea People, the two mixed and thus the notion arose that Phoenicians are a kind of noble European Bedouin of the sea.

Nice story, yet more fiction than fact. “First of all, there’s no proof of an early invasion from either the Arab peninsula or the Sinai,” Sadr said. “Of course, there has always been a certain interaction and fusion between people in the region, but the whole concept of invasion is but a projection of the 7th-century Arab invasion onto earlier times. One shouldn’t forget that the camel was only domesticated around 1,000 BC.” “Secondly,” she said, “there’s no evidence of an invasion of the Sea People. There were raids, Ugarit was destroyed and some cities were established in Palestine, but no major disruptions occurred in the cities of Tyre, Sidon and Byblos. The little we know for sure about the Phoenicians is that they were Semitic people from the region.”

A kind of Lebanese avant-la-lettre? Not quite. Sabatino Moscati, professor of archeology at the University of Rome and author of a series of books on Phoenicians, emphasizes in the essay, Who Were The Phoenicians: “In the system of city states that characterized the region, there were no major differences between the centers that would become Phoenician (yet already existed) and the ones that would not. The coast did not differ from the hinterland. We’re facing a Syro-Palestinian civilization, rather than a Phoenician one.”

Another term often used is the Canaan culture, which from at least 3,000 BC existed in what is today Western Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Moscati stresses that to understand the Phoenicians it is essential to know this common “pre-history.” On the other hand however, he adds, that “one cannot underestimate the profound changes that took place around 1,200 BC.”

Without going into details, around that time the region went through a deep crisis. Because of external (the raids of the Sea People) and internal (political, economical) factors the empires of Egypt in the south and the Hittites in the north were in decline, which did not cause major invasions, but allowed local Semite people such as the Amorites, Hebrews and Canaanites to take fate into their own hands.

It was in this time that coastal Canaanites increasingly took the route to sea. The reason was probably economic. Because the rise of the Amorites in Syria, their traditional trade routes eastward were cut off, while their other main market, Egypt, was in shambles. By sailing westward the Canaanites found new markets and in the course of the 1st Millennium BC they took their place among the world’s greatest explorers and civilizations as ­ Phoenicians.

As quickly as they rose, so they disappeared some thousand years after, when Alexander the Great took Tyre and the Romans destroyed Carthage. It meant the end of the Phoenicians.

As it is impossible to separate Phoenicians from the region they were born in, so one cannot just create a link with people living today. After the fall of Tyre, the Levant was ruled by Greek, Romans, and Byzantines for about 1,000 years, followed by Arabs, Crusaders, Turks and French. All of them left their traces on and mixed with the “indigenous” population.

More importantly, identity is not just genetically determined. It’s also the culture you live in, the language you speak. As the half Irish, half Jewish atheist mentioned above is at least partly British, so Lebanon’s Phoenicians are at least partly Arabic. To deny that completely, is but a political choice, and a potentially dangerous one. The past has given us ample examples in which historically based mythology, and an emphasis on the difference between people, was but a justification for inequality, hatred and even murder. Cherish the differences, but let’s not forget that we are all first of all and foremost, human beings.

Peter Speetjens is a freelance writer based in Lebanon

[elli1]

I think a royal purple, the color reserved for kings, was made from some variety of cave-dwelling snails.

[livius]

One of the major conflicts within Islam itself is between Arabs and non-Arabs. The latter are usually despised by the former and sometimes treated little better than non-Muslims in places where the Arabs are in power. So I think there are internal reasons for the Lebanese wishing to disassociate themselves from the Arabs. This is especially true now that almost all Christians have been driven out and Lebanon is mostly Muslim.

[curmudgeonII]

For that reason it’s important to have a closer look at the statement, “I’m Phoenician,” for it triggers several problems. First of all, it somehow implies the existence of a nation-state called Phoenicia. Fact is, however, that there never was such a thing. The Phoenicians lived in a loosely connected network of city states, which often ­ but not always ­ cooperated and which at times were autonomous, but more often paid tribute to the dominant empires in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Using this argument you wouldn't be able to call the Athenians and Spartans of classical times Greek for the same reasons.

[Destro]

It just indicates a split personality among nationalists that want to idenfify themselves as "Arabs" over those semetic peoples that don't like belonging or be identified to the culture. Sort of like Bulgarian Slavs calling themselves "Macedonian" or Albanians calling themselves "Illyrians".

[Graymatter]

And the Greeks called it a wine-dark sea, too. Were they color-blind? :)

I've heard they called them "red" for their sunburns, not for their dye. Probably in fact it was neither.

[phoenixis]

"More importantly, identity is not just genetically
determined. It’s also the culture you live in, the language
you speak...
The past has given us ample examples in which historically based mythology, and an emphasis on the difference between people, was but a justification for inequality, hatred and even murder. "

So should Americans call themselves Brits because they speak English, or should Argentinians say "we're Spanish"
because they speak Spanish. This idea is totally flawed and
passe. It is even extremely reckless because it brings us
back to times long gone when some mustachioed guy used to
annex countries to Germany only because some people in those countries used to speak German language.

1)Arabic language was imposed under Islamic rule in Lebanon.
2)Most Lebanese Christians are not arabs. Their sects are Greek Orthodox , Maronites , Greek Catholics, Chaldeans,etc.Their physical features and culture are different than the arabs in the surrounding countries.
3) It's true that Christians are leaving the country.But the percentage of Christians in the country is still around 30 to 40 percent.

[SunkenCiv]

Was Hannibal Black?
RichardPoe.com | August 23, 2002 | Richard Poe
Posted on 08/24/2002 12:50:03 PM PDT by Richard Poe
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/738715/posts

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/738715/posts
http://web.archive.org/web/20021021115118/http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/738715/posts
http://web.archive.org/web/20021220140802/http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/738715/posts
http://web.archive.org/web/20030304140118/http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/738715/posts
http://web.archive.org/web/20040630043504/http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/738715/posts

http://www.newsmax.com/commentarchive.shtml?a=2002/8/24/134540

http://www.richardpoe.com/column.cgi?story=112

[SunkenCiv]

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