Ḥubb al-waṭan (Love for the nation): Bustani’s career

In the 1860s, Bustani’s career took a significant turn. From this point forward, he devoted himself largely to secular activities, such as founding the National School, starting up three periodicals, and publishing numerous works of non-fiction. Al-though his later work no longer directly involved the mission, the Americans had an unmistakable influence on Bustani’s career and way of thinking. During his lifetime, Bustani’s greatest fame came from his accomplishments as a journalist and ency-clopedist. His two-volume dictionary Muhit al-Muhit (The Breadth of the Ocean), published in 1869/70, and the bimonthly journal al-Jinan (The Gardens),¹⁴⁶ which began in 1870, are among his life’s most important milestones. These projects got their start much earlier than has previously been depicted. As mentioned in chapter II, section 1.8, Bustani’s correspondence with his mentor Eli Smith in 1855 reveals his intent to publish a dictionary for schools, “modeled after the format of foreign dictionaries.”¹⁴⁷ Bustani (and presumably the entire team responsible for the Bible

140 Makarius, “al-Maʿarif fi Suriyya,” 390. Jessup confirmed that the school closed after fifteen years. See Jessup, Fifty-Three Years in Syria, vol. 2, 484. Jens Hanssen’s observation that there were more than three hundred students at the Madrasa Wataniyya in 1910 appears to be incor-rect. See Hanssen, “The Birth of an Education Quarter,” 147.

141 Sarruf and Nimr, “al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 5.

142 Jessup, “Muallim Butrus el-Bistany,” 275.

143 See the letter of thanks from Muhammad Ruʾuf Pasha, the governor of Beirut, to Bustani in al-Jinan 2 (1871), 17, cited in: Khuri, Rajul Sabiq li-‘Asrihi, 65.

144 Bustani, “al-Madrasa al-Wataniyya,” 628; Jandora, “Buṭrus al-Bustānī,” 154.

145 Sarruf and Nimr, “al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 5.

146 In the first issue, Bustani wrote that the journal would be like a garden in paradise, with deli-cious fruits and much to see and hear. Cited in Tarrazi, Tarikh al-Sihafa al-ʿArabiyya, 45. Daya has pointed to the similarity between the title of the journal and Bustani’s last name, which also means “garden.” The same is true of his later two periodicals, al-Janna and al-Junayna (see below). See Daya, “al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani 125 ʿAman ʿala Wafatihi.”

147 Bustani to Smith (Souq al-Gharb, July 18, 1855): ABC 50, Box 3, (HHL). After Bustani’s death, Yaʿqub Sarruf and Faris Nimr recalled that he had already begun to work on the diction-ary during the Bible translation (“al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 2). Glaß, “Butrus

translation) recognized that the use of classical dictionaries was too difficult for most readers. In an 1859 speech, Bustani said that having dictionaries that were simpler and easier to use was essential, so that Arabs could learn their own language correctly.¹⁴⁸ Contemporary readers’ inability to understand classical literature be-cause of the difficult vocabulary had already been a topic of discussion in the Syrian Society for Arts and Sciences (1847–1852).¹⁴⁹ In his 1855 letter to Smith, Bustani wrote that he had already drafted a outline, which Smith was supposed to look over.

There was also a contract with the American press, according to which the proceeds were to be evenly divided.¹⁵⁰ Cooperation on this project with the mission seems to have fallen apart after Smith’s death. In 1869, Bustani published the first volume of Muhit al-Muhit with the American Mission Press; the second volume appeared with own press, the Matbaʻat al-Maʻarif (Press of Knowledge).¹⁵¹ In the introduction to the first edition, Bustani described his work as “a small service from a lover of the fatherland (muḥibb lil-waṭan) whose highest ambitions and aims are to witness the progress of his compatriots in learning and civilization through the medium of their noble language.”¹⁵² Bustani received a monetary prize for the publication, as well as an honorary medal that he wore in his most famous portrait (see above).¹⁵³

The idea for a periodical that would feature a wide range of informative articles also did not emerge only at the end of the 1860s. According to a letter that Smith wrote to Bustani in March 1855, both men were planning to publish a journal to-gether, and Smith hoped to acquire English-language articles for the journal while in the United States.¹⁵⁴ Because of the events surrounding Bustani’s candidacy for pastoral office at the Beirut Church, however, Smith suggested putting off the project until later. Under the helm of Bustani and his son Salim, the first issue of al-Jinan appeared in January 1870. The encyclopedic journal¹⁵⁵ was “illustrated

al-Bustani (1819–1883),” 11: “[Bustani] did not arrange the lemmata by rhyme, as in classical Arabic lexicography, but rather placing root words in alphabetical order. He also arranged all of the word forms that belonged to a root within one key word.”

148 Bustani, Khutba fi Adab al-ʿArab, 23.

149 Van Dyck, “Fi Ladhat al-ʿIlm wa Fawaʾidihi,” in: Khuri, Al-Jamʿiyya al-Suriyya li l-ʿUlum wa l-Funun, 31: “How many natives enjoy reading maqama [Arabic poetry] by al-Hariri, or the diwan by al-Mutanabbi, or other diwans and volumes of poetry? I think that most would put these [works] down after only a short time, because of the many words they do not understand.”

150 Bustani to Smith (Souq al-Gharb, July 18, 1855): ABC 50, Box 3, (HHL); Tibawi, “The Ameri-can Missionaries in Beirut and Butrus al-Bustani,” 172–73.

151 Bustani founded the press in 1867, together with Khalil Sarkis. See Tibawi, American Interests in Syria, 166.

152 Muhit al-Muhit, vol. 1, 848, translated and cited by Tibawi, “The American Missionaries in Beirut and Butrus al-Bustani,” 172–73.

153 Zaydan, Tarajim Mashahir al-Sharq fī l-Qarn at-Tasiʿ Ashar, 27; Tibawi, “The American Mis-sionaries in Beirut and Butrus al-Bustani,” 173.

154 Smith to Bustani (Beirut, March 1855): ABC 60 (105), (HHL).

155 Bustani himself used the word jarīda (newspaper) to describe al-Jinan in its first issue, as the term majalla (journal) was not widely used before 1884. Publishers like Khalil al-Khuri (Hadi-qat al-Akhbar) also borrowed the term jurnāl from European languages. See Daya, “al-Muʿal-lim Butrus al-Bustani 125 ʿAman ʿala Wafatihi.” On the significance of majalla, see Glaß, Der Muqtaṭaf und seine Öffentlichkeit, vol. 1, 8.

by wood-cuts made by a native artist, and [had] a circulation of about 1500.”¹⁵⁶ Through the missionaries, Bustani had already experienced printing’s impressive potential, which he now could act upon himself.¹⁵⁷ Salim al-Bustani also published the newspaper al-Janna (The Garden), which appeared twice a week.¹⁵⁸ Together with Butrus’s cousin Sulayman, Salim additionally published the financial paper al-Junayna (The Garden), which appeared four times a week.¹⁵⁹ The expansion of imports and exports created demand for up-to-date information about politics and trade.¹⁶⁰

Al-Jinan modeled itself after European journals that likewise covered scien-tific, cultural, historic, economic, and commercial topics. In Europe, the use of this knowledge had already borne fruit, as Bustani wrote in the first issue of al-Jinan.¹⁶¹ Many articles about Europe or America were translations from Western periodicals, a practice that was also typical of the Syria Mission’s Arabic-language publica-tions.¹⁶² Although only a few articles were penned by Bustani himself, J^ohn W. J^an

-dora has noted in his analysis of the journal that Bustani took care “that the articles and editorials of al-Jinān were consistent with – or, at least, not contrary to – his own social philosophy.”¹⁶³ In this project, as with many others, Bustani encouraged the collaboration of his colleagues and supported their own efforts in return.¹⁶⁴

156 Jessup, The Women of the Arabs, 136.

157 Jandora, “Buṭrus al-Bustānī,” 146.

158 Glaß (“Von Mirʾāt al-Aḥwāl zu Ṯamarāt al-Funūn,” 41) cites a colorful report by Alfred von Kremer (“Ein Jahr in Beirut,” Das Ausland 7 (February 12, 1872), 151: “It is remarkable how quickly another, somewhat more independent, paper has been able to attain a wide readership.

This is Bistany’s newspaper, which is called ‘Dschenne,’ or ‘The Garden.’ It is well edited, with telegrams, feature articles, and plenty of letters; it seldom goes so far as to weakly criticize government rules. … If you stroll through Beirut’s narrow, crowded bazaars, it’s quite surpris-ing to see all of the Arab merchants in their booths, Dschenne in hand, readsurpris-ing attentively.”

159 More on these journals in: Jessup, The Women of the Arabs, 136; Ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East, 34–36; Glaß, Der Muqtaṭaf und seine Öffentlichkeit, vol. 1, 135–39.

160 Sarruf and Nimr, “al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 6.

161 Al-Jinan 1 (1870): 1, cited in: Ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East, 34. The populariza-tion of science and literature in the nineteenth century led to a wide array of periodicals like the Illustrirte deutsche Monatshefte and the Grenzbote. See M. Nissen, “Wissenschaft für gebildete Kreise: Zum Entstehungskontext der Historischen Zeitschrift,” in: Stöckel, Das Medium Wis-senschaftszeitschrift, 30–31.

162 Ayalon, The Press in the Arab Middle East, 34: “Summaries of current events in Europe, chap-ters from its history, and translations from the European press and its literature were presented along with Arab literary and historical pieces.” See also the descriptions of Majmuʿ Fawaʾid and al-Nashra in chapter II, sections 1.5 and 2.5.

163 Jandora, “Buṭrus al-Bustānī,” 148.

164 Ibid., 148 and 194: Contributors to al-Jinan included Cornelius Van Dyck, Ibrahim al-Yaziji (son of Nasif al-Yaziji), as well as Luwis Sabunji (teacher at the SPC and editor of the journals al-Nahla and al-Najah). See Tibawi, “The Genesis and Early History of the Syrian Protestant College,” 277; and Holt, “Narrative and Reading Public in 1870s Beirut,” 63.

The title page of every al-Jinan issue bore a motto taken from an Islamic ha-dith: ḥubb al-waṭan¹⁶⁵ min al-īmān¹⁶⁶ (Love for the nation is an article of faith).¹⁶⁷ It was an extension of the idea that had previously inspired the Madrasa Wataniyya, as well the eleven Nafir Suriyya (The Syrian Clarion) pamphlets that Bustani had written in 1860.¹⁶⁸ Confessional feuding had reached a peak during the civil war of 1860, leading Bustani to believe that religious conflicts were the product of igno-rance and intoleigno-rance, and that these could only be countered through knowledge and enlightenment.¹⁶⁹ This was the decisive moment for Bustani’s pivot towards secularism. He continued to advocate for education, a hallmark of Protestantism and the mission, which had also become a rallying point for many Syrian intellectuals.

But religious education that sought to uphold divisions between faith communities would not solve the problems in Ottoman Syria. Peace in the region would come only through the conviction that Syrians were members of one nation, regardless of the religion they practiced. Bustani addressed his eleven pamphlets from 1860 and 1861 “to the sons of the homeland,” signing them each with muḥibb al-waṭan (he who loves the homeland). The pamphlets’ author remained anonymous, pre-senting himself as a secularly oriented patriot¹⁷⁰, not as a member of the Protestant community. “Syria, known as Barr al-Sham or ʿArabistan, is our fatherland,”¹⁷¹ wrote Bustani. Members of this homeland ought to strive to build a civilized so-ciety¹⁷² and fight for the common good.¹⁷³ Three conditions were essential to this vision: (1.) True religion, representing tolerance, peace, and brotherhood,¹⁷⁴ (2.) Political rules “which care … for the good of the people and their welfare, success, wealth, knowledge, and civilization,”¹⁷⁵ and (3.) Sources of knowledge “such as schools, printing presses, journals, and commerce, which get people closer like one

165 Waṭan originally meant “place of residence.” Influenced by European ideas of nation and na-tionality, the term increasingly came to mean “homeland” or “fatherland,” inspiring a sense of social belonging, and exercising a formative moral and political influence. See Philipp, Ğurğī Zaidān, 87.

166 Cited in Tarrazi, Tarikh al-Sihafa al-ʿArabiyya, 45.

167 Nafir Suriyya 4 (October 25, 1860): “In fact, was it not stated in the Hadith that the love of fa-therland is an article of faith?” (TA)

168 For a linguistic analysis of the pamphlets, see Jandora, “Buṭrus al-Bustānī,” 76–97; and S. P.

Sheehi, “Inscribing the Arab Self: Buṭrus al-Bustānī and Paradigms of Subjective Reform,”

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 27, no. 1 (2000): 7–24.

169 Antonius, The Arab Awakening, 50.

170 Makdisi, Artillery of Heaven, 207.

171 Nafir Suriyya 4 (October 25, 1860). (TA)

172 Here, the word used for civilization is tamaddun, which is derived from madina (city) “and now means achieving internal and external refinement and acquiring knowledge, manners, and virtues” (Zachs, The Making of a Syrian Identity, 71). See also Nafir Suriyya 11 (April 22, 1861). There are numerous discussions of this term in the journal al-Jinan (vol. 3, no. 6 [1872]:

201–4; vol. 2, no. 13 [1871]: 447–52).

173 Nafir Suriyya 5 (November 1, 1860): “Should you not revive that old amiability and roll up your sleeves to face these problems, compensate for the damage, and work together for the good of this land, knowing that you are not enemies but friends?” (TA)

174 Bustani did not specify a particular confession. His conception of religion appeared to be univer-sal; a true religion was one that supported the rules of a civil society and remained loyal to God.

175 Nafir Suriyya 11 (April 22, 1861). (TA)

family.”¹⁷⁶ Brotherhood and justice were paramount for creating a shared national identity. People had to learn that they were united by faith, and they could not seek vengeance on an entire group if certain individuals within that group committed a crime.¹⁷⁷ Finally, Bustani argued on behalf of a secular state, in which religious and political authority were clearly separated: “For religion is inherently concerned with inner or personal matters, unchanged through time and place, while politics is concerned with external matters, changeable through time and place.”¹⁷⁸

The eleven pamphlets were not only read in Ottoman Syria, but also in Egypt, Greece, Iraq, along the Bosporus, as well as in Persian-speaking territories.¹⁷⁹ Nafir Suriyya was not a call for readers to orient themselves entirely towards Western secu lar civilization. Rather, Bustani wanted them to take a more critical look at Eu-rope and themselves. Although EuEu-rope was more civilized than the Levant, “most of its civilized people seek their own interest more than the development of their people in terms of knowledge and manners.”¹⁸⁰ Outwardly adopting a European habitus was not enough to build a civil society in a different cultural context:¹⁸¹

Although we think that it is useful and rational to learn from others and that most of the benefits of civilization are the product of the West and that most Europeans deserve utmost respect, we cannot assert that every product is useful in itself and fit for the success of people of the East and for their environment. . .¹⁸²

For Bustani, self-determination and resistance against foreign control were prin-ciples worth emulating. Once again, it was evident that he had been formatively influenced by the missionaries’ world of thought, but he did not embrace their ideas uncritically. Bustani explicitly called upon his fellow Syrians to assume the sense of responsibility – without regard to hierarchy or religious fanaticism – that the Syria Mission had denied to its native helpers.¹⁸³ What the missionaries saw as part of the inferior and flawed mentality of the Arabs, Bustani was able to transform into posi-tive self-criti cism.¹⁸⁴ The Americans did, however, always treat the Ottoman

gov-176 Ibid. (TA)

177 Nafir Suriyya 7 (November 19, 1860).

178 Nafir Suriyya 10 (February 23, 1861). (TA)

179 Sarruf and Nimr, “al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 3.

180 Nafir Suriyya 11 (April 22, 1861). (TA)

181 Ibid.: “Since every strange and new thing becomes popular and since we are living in the age of Europe and European taste and habits are overshadowing those of the East, we fear that most of the people of our land, who are among the most to be drawn to imitation, might settle for imitating European habits, clothing, and traits, thinking that this is enough to be considered civilized and superior to the rest of their people, oblivious to the fact that such an imitation distances them from their own people and turns them into unworthy imitators in the eyes of foreigners.” (TA)

182 Ibid. (TA)

183 Makdisi, Artillery of Heaven, 198.

184 Nafir Suriyya 5 (November 1, 1860): “O sons of the fatherland, what excuse for our acts could we give the foreigners but being stupid and uncivilized and allowing our emotions to take prec-edence over our mind? Their taking place under extraordinary circumstances might be accepted as an excuse. What can be expected from a land whose people are formed of clans with different origins, mentalities, goals, and interests? Most of them do not care about the common good of this region and a good number does not consider it to be their fatherland.” (TA)

ernment and its local administrators with respect. According to Jessup, it was the task of every missionary to “steer clear of all these rational and sectarian political jealousies and try to teach loyalty to the ‘power that be,’ the common brotherhood of man, and offer to all a common saviour.”¹⁸⁵ Parallels to ideas in Nafir Suriyya are readily apparent.

Bustani was steadfastly loyal to the Ottoman government. Nearly all of his pub-lications after 1859 included a message of thanks to the sultan and other members of the government.¹⁸⁶ “He was obviously seeking official favour and patronage,”

tibaWi has noted.¹⁸⁷ In light of the censorship requirements that were problematic for the missionaries as well, Bustani’s gesture appears to have been a helpful one.

For his publications, Bustani depended not only upon the permission of the respon-sible authorities, but also their financial support. The Daʾirat al-Maʿarif¹⁸⁸– Ency-clopédie arabe, which he published between 1875 and 1882, depended upon the financial assistance of the Egyptian khedive Ismaʾil, as Bustani had enjoyed a wide following in Egypt since Nafir Suriyya.¹⁸⁹ Ismaʾil ensured that hundreds of copies of the lexicon were sold in Egypt, and he also supplied its editor with reference works from Bulaaq.¹⁹⁰ Stricter censorship of the press under the reign of Sultan Ab-dülhamid II (1876–1909) resulted in a ban on the import of encyclopedias with arti-cles that criticized the Ottoman government. As a consequence, encyclopedias were frequently brought into the country with pages cut out.¹⁹¹ With his project, Bustani sought to build bridges in both a social and political sense. His encyclopedia was intended for the broadest possible reading public¹⁹² (kitāb ʿumūmī li-kull al-milal

See also Shaw, “Butrus al-Bustani and the American Missionaries,” 76–77: Bustani fully agreed with the missionaries’ assessment of Syria’s cultural deterioration (inḥiṭāṭ), applying this criticism to his own message in Nafir Suriyya.

185 Jessup, Fifty-Three Years in Syria, vol. 2, 593.

186 See, for example, his 1859 speech Khutba fi Adab al-ʿArab (appendix I). See also Tibawi, “The American Missionaries in Beirut and Butrus al-Bustani,” 166; and Nafir Suriyya 2 (October 8, 1860): “Sultan ʿAbd al-Majid … in the firman he issued … ordering to take all measures to eradicate corruption, put an end to these events, and restore security, also demonstrates that he considers this matter to be of utmost importance and that he cares for the good of his people and sympathizes with them.” (TA) See also Tibawi, “The American Missionaries in Beirut and Butrus al-Bustani,” 170: Bustani ended his 1862 grammar book Kitab Miftah al-Misbah (ap-pendix I) with the words: “the Caliphate of His Majesty of the two seas, Sultan ʿAbdul-ʿAziz

… May God establish his state with glory and prosperity, and perpetuate his power and vic-tory.”

187 Tibawi, “The American Missionaries in Beirut and Butrus al-Bustani,” 166.

188 The full title is Kitab Daʾirat al-Maʿarif wa Huwa Qamus ʿIlm li-kull Fann wa Matlab (The Circle of Knowledge, a Lexicon of Knowledge about every Art and Cause). For more on the encyclopedia, see Glaß, “Butrus al-Bustani (1819–1883).”

189 Sarruf and Nimr, “al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 3.

189 Sarruf and Nimr, “al-Marhum al-Muʿallim Butrus al-Bustani,” 3.

Im Dokument The Mission of the American Board in Syria (Seite 188-195)