Book description
Levant is a book of cities. It describes the role of Smyrna, Alexandria
and Beirut as windows on the world, escapes from nationality and
tradition, centres of wealth, pleasure and freedom. By their mix of
races and religions, they challenge stereotypes. France and Britain
liberated the area through their schools, while conquering it through
arms. They were not only manipulators but manipulated, often invited in
by local factions. Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut were both pacifiers and
stimulants of nationalism. Nasser was born in Alexandria, Smyrna and
Beirut became centres of Turkish and Arab nationalism. Using unpublished
family papers Philip Mansel describes their colourful, contradictory
history, from the beginning of the French alliance with the Ottoman
Empire in the sixteenth century to their decline in the mid twentieth
century. Smyrna was burnt; Alexandria Egyptianised; Beirut lacerated by
civil war. Levant is the first history in English of these cities in the
modern age. Levant is also a challenge from history. It is about
ourselves; it shows how Muslims, Christians and Jews live together in
cities. Levantine compromises, putting deals befor ideals, pragmatism
before ideology, made these cities work, until states reclaimed them for
nationalism. Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut have a message for today. The
new Levantine cities of the twenty-first century, with comparable mixes
of races and religions, are London, Paris and New York.
