Mount Lebanon. A Ten Year's Residence from 1842 to 1852 describing the Manners, Customs, and Religion of its Inhabitants with a Full & Correct Account of the Druse Religion and containing Historical Records of the Mountain Tribes from Personal Intercourse with their Chiefs and other Authentic Sources.

CHURCHILL, Charles Henry.

Edité par London: Saunders and Otley, 1853

A propos de cet article

Second edition, published in the same year as the first, a desirable copy in the original cloth. Churchill, British consul at Damascus and author of several influential regional studies - including a major biography of Abd-el-Kader - compiled this work from a range of sources, notably a Maronite chronology. As Blackmer observes, it is "not an account of Churchill's stay in the Lebanon but an amalgamation of information … An important work, rare". Churchill (1807-1867) descended from General Charles Churchill, brother of the first Duke of Marlborough, through the latter's natural son. His father, Charles Henry, entered the East India Company's service in Madras, but the younger Churchill returned to the military, serving with the 60th in Portugal and later with De Lacy Evans's Anglo-Spanish Legion in the Carlist Wars. His aptitude for irregular service led to his secondment to the British Expeditionary Force to Syria in 1840, marking the start of his long association with the region. Arriving too late for the main fighting, he served in the Palestinian phase of operations and in 1841 was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General in Damascus. Within months he had left the army to act briefly as vice-consul. His Syrian career had begun. Churchill quickly clashed with Damascus's governor, Najib Pasha, whom he denounced as corrupt. Najib retaliated with allegations of sexual misconduct and political intrigue; an inquiry cleared Churchill, but he soon resigned and settled in Lebanon as a country gentleman. A £10,000 inheritance provided a financial base, which he augmented through wide-ranging commercial ventures in real estate, silk, and livestock. His home at Bhourra, 15 miles from Beirut on the Beirut-Damascus road, was well placed for such trade. These activities, combined with his forceful personality - "a love of intrigue, ill-controlled temper and imperious manner" - repeatedly brought him into conflict with British and Ottoman authorities. He led an armed attack during a property dispute in 1857 and stood trial for provoking a riot. Yet he established himself as a figure of consequence, marrying into the powerful Shehab family. His relations with their rivals, the Druze sheikhs, were even more unusual: he was reputed to be their "confidential adviser and military counsellor" and was implicated by some contemporaries in planning the attack on Zahle, though he later severed ties when the Druze turned to mass violence against Christian communities. He composed the present history to fill what he saw as a major gap in the literature. Much of his material derived from the History of Emir Haidar, a work linked to his Shehab relations, and his command of Arabic appears to have been strong. Though not the product of a "scientific historian", the book remains a valuable source on the history and people of Lebanon. Churchill died intestate, and much of what is known of his life survives through litigation over his estate. He was buried in Beirut, his headstone still standing among those of his contemporaries. He might, however, have preferred to be remembered by the Arabic inscription on the marble slab affixed to the bridge he built at Bhoura: "Churchill Bek built this bridge so that people might cross safely. When he bought this area it was a wilderness, and he made of it a paradise. He was nobleman of noble line, relative of a great English General, and his name was Marlborough." Atabey 247 for a mixed set of second and third editions; Blackmer 353, Quaritch third edition. 3 vols, octavo. Portrait frontispiece lithographed on India paper mounted, and one single-tint lithographic view to each, folding engraved map to vol. I, all half-titles present. Errata slip present at the Preface to vol. I Original purplish brown cloth, title gilt to the spines, elaborately panelled in blind on the sides, cream surface-paper endpapers. Ownership inscription of Evelyn, Countess of Carnarvon, née Stanhope, kinswoman of Lady Hester Stanhope, the "Queen.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Mount Lebanon. A Ten Year's Residence from 1842 to 1852 describing the Manners, Customs, and Religion of its Inhabitants with a Full & Correct Account of the Druse Religion and containing Historical Records of the Mountain Tribes from Personal Intercourse with their Chiefs and other Authentic Sources.
• Éditeur: London: Saunders and Otley, 1853