Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn, Professor of Ottoman History at the American University of Beirut, wrote in “Al-Hayat” newspaper in December 2017, as part of a series on the relationship between the Druze and the Ottoman Empire:
Boulos Njeim says that Greater Lebanon is simply a return to the Lebanon of Fakhr al-Din al-Ma'ni:
Fakhr al-Din established a strong and well-organized state, centered in Lebanon, which was not a Turkish province, but rather a state that had its own life, more similar to the civilized states of Western Europe than to a province of the Sublime Porte. Under the leadership of an enlightened absolute ruler, it enjoyed the greatness and splendor of the Italian Renaissance.
Regarding this Fakhr al-Din, Njeim says elsewhere:
«No two people disagree on his genius. He left immortal traces. First and foremost, they are manifested in the economic prosperity in Beirut and Lebanon, which is his own handiwork and places Beirut and Lebanon today at the forefront of the countries of the Levant. Secondly, he forged Lebanon's political unity; in fact, he created the state of Lebanon, which can play a major role in the Levant and throughout the East. It was a prosperous state that attracted attention and goodwill even in Europe. There is no doubt that he failed, but he showed the path to the Lebanese, both Druze and Maronite, who, in their unity, ensured the defense of independence. He consolidated this unity with his glorious traditions in governance. He awakened in all the inhabitants of the Mountain an awareness of their national unity. It is he who placed them in the forefront among all the inhabitants of the Levant».
Naturally, there was nothing unusual about Lebanese nationalists seeking a historical precedent for their aspired Lebanon, or looking back to a beautiful, real or alleged, time. This is the case for most nationalist movements as they allow themselves this kind of intellectual exercise. However, the strange thing about this Maronite-imagined golden age is that the hero of that era was a Druze. This happened only a few decades after the mid-19th century civil war between the Maronites and the Druze, during which thousands of Maronites and other Christians lost their lives, and tens of thousands were forced to flee the villages of their fathers and grandfathers. But could the myth of Fakhr al-Din's Lebanon and the “State of Lebanon” have an origin dating further back than the mid-19th century or the early 20th century?
When we read the Maronite Lebanese sources dating back to the 17th century and the first half of the 19th century (which are—almost—all the local sources we have), we find Al-Duwayhi citing what is quoted below, and Haydar al-Shihabi verbatim reiterated what Al-Duwayhi stated in the 19th century:
Al-Duwayhi says the following about Fakhr al-Din:
«And in the state of Prince Fakhr al-Din, the head of the Christians was raised. They built churches, rode horses with saddles, wore turbans and wrappings, wore cloaks and dropped sashes, wore silk and jewel-encrusted gemstones, and invited missionaries from the land of the Franks and took residence in Mount Lebanon because the majority of his soldiers were Christians and his lieutenants and servants were Maronites».
It is worth reaffirming here that the Maronites were very loyal supporters of the Ma'an dynasty and their successors, the Shihab dynasty. Both ruling dynasties had close ties with European Catholic powers and the Catholic Church, as the latter took a deep interest in the affairs of the Maronites. Furthermore, both ruling dynasties, the Ma'ans and the Shihabs, showed them extreme affection and patronage. In addition, the Maronites were, in fact, tasked by the Papacy since the beginning of the 17th century with supporting the Ma'anis and turning to them for protection. Therefore, Al-Duwayhi finds no objection when speaking of Fakhr al-Din's local authority in describing it as a “State”.
Perhaps we should not jump to such significant conclusions based on a single reference, which might have been mentioned in passing without concern, to Fakhr al-Din's state. But Al-Duwayhi himself says later, in “History of the Times”, upon mentioning the death of the last Ma'ani: “On the fifteenth of September (1697 AD) was the death of Prince Ahmad ibn Ma'an, and with it the Ma'ani Adili state became extinct,” and Al-Shihabi in the 19th century restores verbatim what Al-Duwayhi mentioned in the 19th century.
The Maronites, who enjoyed the patronage of the Ma'ani Emirate, became the masters of the Shihabi Emirate that succeeded it. This development is not only because the Shihabi princes converted to Christianity in the mid-18th century and entered the Maronite Church, but because the Maronites at that time had already gained the upper hand in the administration and economy of the Emirate, in addition to their demographic superiority. Therefore, it was natural, as Salibi says, that “Bashir II was a ruling prince and descendant of a family of ruling princes” in their eyes. Whereas the Druze viewed the same person as “merely a financial official in the Ottoman Empire whose commitment to collecting taxes was subject to annual renewal.” The reality of the historical legitimacy of the Shihabi Emirate is derived from the assumed Ma'ani legitimacy before it.
Al-Duwayhi was, of course, innocent of the nationalist project put forward by Njeim. His Ma'ani state was also a modest entity compared to the Greater Lebanon that Njeim believed existed historically. But this entity, despite its modesty, allowed the Maronites, as Christians who did not have the status of a self-standing millet, the best that could be obtained under the Ottoman Empire. Al-Duwayhi, in his patriarchal capacity, was concerned with the security of his religious sect, which he believed would be guaranteed if the Shihabs continued the policy of the Ma'ans in their treatment of the Maronites. Al-Duwayhi lived the first seven years of the Shihabi Emirate, and it was important for him to convey this understanding of Ottoman legitimacy and accept it, which he was able, through his use of history, to impart to the Ma'ani and Shihabi Emirate, and to non-Maronites, primarily to the Druze and Muslims in the neighboring regions.
If we judge the matter according to the Lebanese nationalist narrative current today, we find that Al-Duwayhi indeed succeeded brilliantly. Regardless of Salibi's recent book on Lebanon, and what has been put forward above as an alternative point of view about the Ma'ans, what Al-Duwayhi argued remains one of the fundamental ideas in academic works, as well as in school textbooks.
