HST230 History of Lebanon—from Antelias Man to the Ottoman Conquest (1516)

[3–0, 3 cr.]

This course surveys the history of Lebanon from prehistoric times through the Phoenician and Roman periods and on to the Middle Ages and the Crusades, ending with the Ottoman conquest at Marj Dabiq in 1516. The emphasis is on those features that define the peoples of Mount Lebanon and the Mediterrane­an coastal settlements throughout this span of time, and how the foundations for the later emergence of a distinct Lebanese polity and culture were laid. Among the themes explored by the course are the pre-Christian era, the coming of Christianity, the immigration into the Lebanese mountains of a variety of peoples including the early Maronites, the coming of Islam, the arrival of the Druze, rivalries and precarious balances, external factors and the economic viability or lack thereof of the mountain.