Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Friday, Jun 20, 2025

Beirut: Intellectual capital of Arab world bleeds

Beirut: Intellectual capital of Arab world bleeds

The blast was the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by its elite

It happened in the middle of an unforgiving pandemic, economic meltdown and widespread anger at a political elite that is more concerned about pursuing its parochial agenda than serving the public interest, an elite whose woeful inadequacy and heedless ways were deplored by ordinary Lebanese everywhere, an elite that faced — but somehow was able to fend off — a national protest movement that had earlier called for reform.

That was Beirut on the eve of the mega nitrate explosion that rocked it on August 4, devastating large swaths of the city and leaving close to 180 dead, thousands wounded and countless homeless. The blast was — and that we know — the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by that very elite.

Yes, it happened in Beirut, once the Arab world’s most fondly regarded city and arguably its intellectual capital, since the mid-1950s a magnet to its poetes maudits, political exiles and pan-Arab intelligentsia — the Paris of the Middle East, a moniker it had long acquired.

I was there in those halcyon days, in a then laid-back city where, as a teenager I made my original leap to a maturing consciousness.

The Paris of the Middle East. The intellectual capital of the Arab world. And so it was, especially in those tortuous years that followed the shock and humiliation of the first Arab-Israeli war, the dismemberment of Palestine and the entrenchment of Zionism in the heartland of our world in 1948.

And just as in Paris, where French intellectuals, poets and philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus gathered at cafés in the Latin Quarter, across from the Sorbonne, to discuss the fate of post-war France, their Arab counterparts, like Hisham Sharabi, George Habash and Nizar Kabbani gathered at cafés in the Hamra Quarter, across from the American University of Beirut — mostly at Faisal’s, the favoured hangout of hard-core theoreticians, ideologues and advocates of Arab nationalism — to discuss Antoun Sa’adi’s Syrian Nation versus Michel Aflak’s Arab Nation, Marxism versus Nasserism, Arabism versus Regionalism. And the rest of it.

The city of culture


The city buzzed with the ideas of boots-on-the-ground, Antonio Gramsci “organic intellectuals” anxious to put in their two-cents worth. Bookstores proliferated in every neighbourhood. (One street off Martyrs Square was lined exclusively with them.) Dozens of newspapers and periodicals, in Arabic, English and French, sold off the ubiquitous news-stands.

Movie theatres were everywhere, featuring both fluff from the US, like Pillow Talk, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson, and art-house, New Wave productions from France, like Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Heck, you could even splurge on an issue of Cahier du Cinema for 2 Liras — a king’s ransom knocked off a teenager’s weekly allowance — and later, sitting at Faisal’s across from your friends, talk about the work of directors like Goddard, Truffaut and Rivette, showing yourself off as a budding cineaste.

Whichever way you looked, there was constant preoccupation with the life of the mind. It was as if ideas were not a luxury, a frivolous pursuit, but a rigorous need in one’s quotidian life.

And it was all, I say, laid-back — zestful, engaging, fun. Beirut was a city so laid-back in those days that when, on July 15, 1958, 1,700 US Marines stormed its beaches, ready for combat, weapons cocked, backed by warships in the Mediterranean — there to save incumbent President Camille Chamoun from being deposed — they encountered, well, Gee, a whole bunch of Beirutis languidly sunbathing on the beach and teenagers in swimsuits playfully offering to help them set up their equipment.

Propulsive Mediterranean rhythm


That was Beirut then, an urbane city that beat with the propulsive rhythm of the Mediterranean Sea, on whose shore it sat, and the timeless resolution of Mount Lebanon, at whose foot it lay. Beirut then was living a belle époque.

But — yes, there’s a but — Beirut, like the rest of the country it was a capital of, was overripe with anarchic compulsions, political, class and sectarian compulsions, simmering beneath the garden surface of a belle époque — as those that acted as the backdrop to Europe’s own belle époque showed in 1914 — always have a cruel, preordained equifinality to them.



In short, there had been hotness in the blood and the Lebanese people called for it on the streets. By 1975, these folks had turned on each other in an orgy of self-hate that lasted 15 years and left Lebanon’s national soul bruised and mortally wounded.

When the dreaded nitrate explosion devastated the city last week, visiting irremediable suffering on its denizens, the Lebanese people’s wounds had not yet healed and their broken spirit had not mended from the conflict. It made for a tragedy all the more crushing, not just for the Lebanese people but for all peoples in the Arab world.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
G7 Leaders Fail to Reach Consensus on Key Global Issues
Mass exodus in Tehran as millions try to flee following Trump’s evacuation order
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
Energy Infrastructure Becomes War Zone in Middle East
Iran Conducts Ballistic Missile Launches Amid Heightened Tensions with Israel
Iran Signals Openness to Nuclear Negotiations Amid Ongoing Regional Tensions
Shock Within Iran’s Leadership: Khamenei’s Failed Plan to Launch 1,000 Missiles Against Israel
UK Deploys Jets to Middle East Amid Rising Tensions
Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi Urges Overthrow of Khamenei Regime
Wreck of $17 Billion San José Galleon Identified Off Colombia After 300 Years
Iran Launches Extensive Missile Attack on Israel Following Israeli Strikes on Nuclear Sites
Israel Issues Ultimatum to Iran Over Potential Retaliation and Nuclear Facilities
Coinbase CEO Warns Bitcoin Could Supplant US Dollar Amid Mounting National Debt
Trump to Iran: Make a Deal — Sign or Die
Operation "Like a Lion": Israel Strikes Iran in Unprecedented Offensive
Israel Launches 'Operation Rising Lion' Targeting Iranian Nuclear and Military Sites
Israeli Forces Intercept Gaza-Bound Aid Vessel Carrying Greta Thunberg
IMF Warns of Severe Global Trade War Impacts on Emerging Markets
Syria to Reconnect to Global Economy After 14 Years of Isolation
Saudi Arabia Faces Uncertainty Over Succession After Mohammed bin Salman
Israel Confirms Arming Gaza Clan to Counter Hamas Influence
Majority of French Voters View Macron's Presidency as a Failure
U.S. Reduces Military Presence in Syria
Trump Demands Iran End All Uranium Enrichment in Nuclear Talks
Iran Warns Europe Against Politicizing UN Nuclear Report
Businessman Mauled by Lion at Luxury Namibian Lodge
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
EU Central Bank Pushes to Replace US Dollar with Euro as World’s Main Currency
European and Arab Ministers Convene in Madrid to Address Gaza Conflict
Head of Gaza Aid Group Resigns Amid Humanitarian Concerns
U.S. Health Secretary Ends Select COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
Trump Warns Putin Is 'Playing with Fire' Amid Escalating Ukraine Conflict
India and Pakistan Engage Trump-Linked Lobbyists to Influence U.S. Policy
U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Enhanced Security Measures
Trump Administration Cancels $100 Million in Federal Contracts with Harvard
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Failure, Mars Mission Timeline Uncertain
King Charles Affirms Canadian Sovereignty Amid U.S. Statehood Pressure
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Founder Warns Against Trusting Regime in Nuclear Talks
×