The Long Peace: Ottoman Lebanon, 1861-1920

Long notorious as one of the most turbulent areas of the world, Lebanon nevertheless experienced an interlude of peace between its civil war of 1860 and the beginning of the French Mandate in 1920. Engin Akarli examines the sociopolitical changes resulting from the negotiations and shifting alliances characteristic of these crucial years.

Using previously unexamined documents in Ottoman archives, Akarli challenges the prevailing view that attributes modernization in government to Western ini...