A House of Many Mansions by Kamal Salibi

It should be read as an idea, an expression of Arabism. This should not be read as a book on Lebanon's history, because it is not one. Enormous parts of this book are simply false, mythological, or completely lack evidence. In both this and his other works, Salibi works backwards from this conclusion and attempts to justify it. Rather than seeing this as just a linguistic quirk created by the Arab conquests over a thousand years ago, this school believed that all Arabs are inherently the same people spread out over a large area.

Salibi belonged to a school of writers who were heavily influenced by a sense of shared Arab identity. The rating here does not reflect any flaws in the writing style of the book or mean that it's worthless garbage. It's well-written and translated, and it is a valuable piece of Arabist literature. This book also gives a masterly account of how the imagined communities that underlie modern nationalism are created and will be of interest to students of international affairs as well as Near Eastern scholars. In so doing, he illuminates important facets of his country's present and future. Salibi offers a major reinterpretation of Lebanese history and provides remarkable insights into the dynamic of Lebanon's recent conflict. He shows that Lebanon cannot afford this divisiveness, that in order to develop and maintain a sense of political unity, it is necesary to distinuish fact from fiction and then build on what is real in the common experience of both groups. How can this be? In the light of modern scholarship, a famous Lebanese writer and scholar examines the historical myths on which his country's warring communities have based their conflicting visions of the Lebanese nation. But paradoxically the faction-ridden Lebanese, both Christians and Muslims, have never shown a keener consciousness of common identity. Today Lebanon is one of the world's most divided countries.

A House of Many Mansions by Kamal Salibi