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I am happy to announce that today I received copies of my book: Lebanon and Turkey: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Realities.
No empire or a regional power has helped mold the socio-political and religious landscape of a country as the Ottoman Empire and its heir (the Republic of Turkey) have helped shape modern Lebanon, yet no contemporary study has examined Lebanon-Turkey relations back to Ottoman rule of Lebanon. As such, the understanding of this historic and contemporaneous relationship is deficient. This text fills this gap, examining patterns and shifts in Lebanon-Turkey relations within the context of regional and international politics from Ottoman rule to Turkey’s AKP-led governments.
This comprehensive account of Lebanon-Turkey relations—grounded in layers of cultural, political, demographic, economic, and sectarian complexities and changes across centuries—analyzes the developments and dynamics that have helped shape modern Lebanon and its confessional system and politics. It underscores the misconceptions and lessons learned from this long-term relationship, locating Lebanon-Turkey relations along a historical continuum.
The topics with which this book project is concerned with:
-Ties Ottoman rule over Lebanon with contemporaneous Lebanon-Turkey relations
-Examines the shifts and development of Lebanon’s demography and sects under Ottoman rule
-Investigates Ottoman rule over Lebanon against the background of European rivalry
-Analyzes the transition of feudalism based in tax farming under Ottoman rule to political sectarianism in independent Lebanon
-Probes Lebanon’s sectarian massacres in the nineteenth century, which led to foreign intervention and the development of the country’s confessional system
-Examines Lebanon’s Great Famine (1915–1918) within the context of the Great War
-Analyzes Turkey’s foreign policy approach towards Lebanon within the context of Ankara’s ideological and practical outlooks
-Scrutinizes Turkey’s Justice and Development party’s (AKP) interest in Lebanon
-Explores Turkey’s influence in Lebanon
Reviews of the Book:
This is a refreshing, lucid, and seasoned research-based analysis that is crucial to understanding a contemporary Eastern Mediterranean in the midst of roiling shifts, what some have called ‘the end of the Arab century.’ A discerning survey probing deeply post-Ottoman Lebanese-Turkish relations, this book is of special importance on many levels to scholars of the Middle East but also genocide studies and the still ‘hidden’ history of the Great Famine on Mount-Lebanon. An edifying book and deeply researched, it is written and presented with clarity and deliberation yielding illumination.
— Franck Salameh, Boston College
Well researched, chronicled, and argued, Dr. Rabil’s book stands out as a unique study, in so far as, to my knowledge, no other work has meticulously examined and scrutinized Lebanon’s relationship with Turkey since Ottoman rule. The book successfully weaves together the major developments, including the overlooked Great Famine, of this relationship that helped shape modern Lebanon and continues to highlight both the chronic failures of the country’s confessional system and the promise of better Lebanon-Turkey relations, against the backdrop of a fast-paced changing world order.
— Joseph Alagha, Haigazian University
Robert Rabil makes clear the complicated, conflicted, and tragic history of Lebanon and its relationship with its neighbors. This compelling, insightful, and courageous book helps us understand Lebanon’s tangled and contentious history with its neighbors, Turkey and Syria. Lebanon is a microcosm of the Middle East, and Robert Rabil masterfully shows how its current crisis is rooted in history.
— Robert J. Allison, Suffolk University, author of The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World 1776-1820
Professor Rabil masterfully traces Turkish Middle Eastern policy from Sultan Abdul Hamid’s Ottomanism to Davutoglu’s Neo-Ottomanism and Erdogan’s realism after the defeat of Arab popular uprisings that demonstrated the limits of Ankara’s regional ambitions. Rabil’s exceptional book educates students about the influence of Turkey in shaping Lebanon’s sectarian alignments and guides researchers to its importance in understanding the significance of transnational ideas in exacerbating Arab countries’ instability. Lebanon: From Ottoman Rule to Erdogan Regime is an essential read for those who wish to understand Turkey’s history and present to predict its future.
— Hilal Khashan, American University of Beirut
Professor Rabil does an excellent job explaining how the Ottoman Empire struggled to survive by applying a policy of mass killings, starvation, and deportations in the empire’s provinces that sought to become more autonomous. It is interesting how an empire resorts to cruel methods to keep itself from falling apart. Rabil’s study is also relevant to understanding contemporary Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. The case of the Ottoman Empire can serve as a historical paradigm to analyze powers that struggle against their own decline. A brilliant and highly enlightening book.
— Luis Fleischman, professor, Palm Beach State College and co-president, Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research
Robert Rabil ‘s Lebanon-Turkey Relations: From Ottoman Rule to Erdogan’s Regime,” is a gift for those studying the history, politics, and culture of Lebanon and its important neighbor, Turkey. In recent years Turkey’s foreign policy has become an often and serious topic of analysis for Middle Eastern scholars. This book provides an important addition to that literature. It is a unique study concentrating on Turkey’s impact on the development of Lebanon from its early history to its current involvement in the country. Through archival research, and interviews abroad Dr. Rabil provides new insights into Ottoman policies leading to the Great Famine of 1915-1918, the roots of the confessional system, the growth of Arab Nationalism, the Cold War, Lebanon’s civil war and Turkey’s recent and growing involvement in Lebanon and the region. This is a key contribution to filling the missing piece of the Lebanese – Turkish relationship’s place in today’s Middle East foreign policy puzzle. It really is a must read!
— Lenore G. Martin, Professor, Emmanuel College, Middle East Center and Weatherhead Center, Harvard University
Books can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and others, or from publisher with 25% discount, Ebook: $25.00 and paperback: $27.00.
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