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Tombs of the Pasha and the Grave Politics of Late Ottoman Lebanon

The Late Ottoman Cemetery at Hazmieh in Beirut

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 06 January 2021

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Abstract

This article discusses a small cemetery on the outskirts of Beirut in Lebanon. The cemetery contains the tombs of two of the nineteenth-century governors of Lebanon as well as a handful of high ranking people associated with Ottoman rule in Lebanon. The cemetery is unique because it contains the graves of both Muslims and Christians as well those of men and women. The article records both the tombs themselves and their inscriptions and sets them within the context of nineteenth-century Lebanon and the Ottoman empire as a whole.

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Acknowledgements

This article was begun when I was Alfred Howell Professor of Archaeology and History at the American University of Beirut and in many ways it is a result of a collaborative effort of staff and students at AUB. In particular I would like to thank Paul Newson who came to the cemetery on a number of occasions and took professional photographs of the tombs, Hany Rashawan who helped with the transcription and translation of the Melhem Bey inscriptions, Youssef el-Khoury Salam who translated the complex inscription of the Ahmed Shiyaq tomb as well as providing a wealth of contextual information about Ahemd Shidyaq and finally John Meloy who provided consistent support for the project. Beyond AUB I was lucky to have the assistance of Mehemt Tutuncu for transcribing the inscriptions whilst Matthew Elliot helped with understanding the late Ottoman context of the tombs. Ifan Edwards turned my not very tidy drawings into excellent illustrations of the tombs. Whilst this article is a testimony to this collaborative effort all mistakes are of course my own responsibility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, SA48 7ED, UK

    Andrew Petersen

  2. American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Youssef el-Khoury

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  1. Andrew Petersen
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  2. Youssef el-Khoury
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Correspondence to Andrew Petersen.

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Andrew Petersen with additional research by Youssef el-Khoury

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

Tombstone of Bernard Lanusse (Fig. 40)

Fig. 40.
figure 40

Inscription for tomb of Bernard Lanousse

Full size image

This tombstone was found in a shop selling antique garden ornaments approximately 2 km east of the Hazmiyeh Cemetery. The tombstone comprises a rectangular block of marble (approx. 40 cm x 30 cm x 10 cm) carved with a bilingual Latin and Arabic inscription in relief.

BERNARDUSS LANUSSE

NATIONE GALLUS

ET IN LAODICEA.CONSUL

GALLUS.OBIT.DIE 13N(ovem)B(i)RS1890

AETATIS SUA (e)

ANN (o).

Translation

Bernard Lanusse

French by nation(ality)

And French consul in Latakia

He died on 13th November 1890

Aged 35

figure k

Translation

He passed away Bernar(d) Lanusse Consul of the French State

UNCLEAR Born? in the year 1865

Although there is no information on the original location of the grave it seems possible that it may originally have been in the cemetery at Hazmiyeh. It is noticeable that the date given in the Arabic part of the inscription is different from the Latin—this may either be a mistake or the Arabic date refers to some other event. Latakia is located on the coast in northwest Syria and the fact that he was described as a French national suggests that at least one of his parents may have a French. As a French Consul he will have been of local importance although he is not mentioned in histories of nineteenth-century Lebanon. It seems likely that he was related to the Lanusse who was chief secretary to the French Consulate in Beirut who played an important part in the negotiations following the 1860s massacres and the subsequent French invasion to protect the Maronites (Fawaz 1994: 78).

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Petersen, A., el-Khoury, Y. Tombs of the Pasha and the Grave Politics of Late Ottoman Lebanon. Int J Histor Archaeol 25, 375–422 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-020-00558-4

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