Byblos through the ages Jidejian Start article about treasure
- Until the middle of the 19th century all knoweledge about Phoenician was known from the OT and the works of Greek and Roman authors. [2]
- 29 Houses built over ancient Byblos were a hinderence [3] [5]
- Bust of Osorkon [4]
- At the time of MONTET's excavation, 29 houses, and gardens occupied the site... Flagstones he uncovered belonged to a Roman temple buit on top of the temple of Baalat Gebal, believed he discovered two separate temples that he names the "Egyptian temple", and the "Syrian Temple" [5] IN FACT ONE TEMPLE< THAT OF BAALAT GEBAL. Dunand renamed them temple 1 and 2
- Publications about Byblos : 1899 Jules Rouvier lecture about the history of Byblos - John Kendrick's Phoenician - George Rawlinson History of Phoenicia [6]
- FC Mover's Die Phonizier [6]
- George Francis Hill in his intro to Catalogue of the Greek coins of Phoenicia. G Conteneau La Civilisation Phenicienne 1926 [6]
——
- Lucian of Samosata -125AD- De DEA Syria (7
- Nassiri Zkhosrau 1047 AD (7
- Benjamin de Tudèle (7
- 16 onward temple of baalat.
- montet Jar
- 26 onward Royal Necropolis
- 26 tomb 1 human and animal remains 1 man and several animal remains which may have served as food offerings to the deceased.
- 27 tomb 1 silver sandals. Silver teapot with strainer. Several bronze tridents
- 27 silver teapot with a lotus flower
- 27 tomb 2 scimitar inscribed with text.
- 28 tomb IV was violated but montet thought it was intact
- 28 tomb 3 contained 2 sq
- 28 montet theory that tomb 4 occupant was Egyptian is now discounted
- 28-29 recovered treasures. LeClerq and Jerusalem
- 30 change the graffiti translation
- 31 comparison of Ahiram sarcophagus with art from zinkirli
- 33 dating of Ahiram sarcophagus
- 35 T of obelisks
Burj Bird edit
- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Eshmun_Temple&curid=22001381&action=history
- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Peer_review/Eshmun_Temple/archive1&curid=25360236&action=history
http://www.iloubnan.info/artetculture/reportage/id/220/article/679
Emilie Nasrallah : « La liberté ne se donne pas mais elle se prend »
par Edgar Davidian | Le 14 mars 2007
A Beyrouth, à l’ombre de la très huppée rue Verdun, bruyante et aux artères latérales aujourd’hui fermées pour des besoins sécuritaires et des travaux de restauration de voirie publique, vit Emilie Nasrallah. Une dame de soixante-quinze ans, grand-mère comblée, qui entretient encore un vibrant mariage d’amour avec la littérature. Une grande dame du monde des lettres arabes dont les livres (plus d’une trentaine) couvrent presque un demi siècle de combat et d’inspiration, où s’inscrivent émotion, soif de savoir et désir de vivre : vivre intensément, dans la liberté, tout en sauvegardant les valeurs d’un conservatisme constructif, débarrassé des diktats obsolètes, absurdes et aveugles. Les yeux pétillants derrière des lunettes de myopie, droite et mince, d’une incroyable jeunesse d’allure et d’esprit, Emilie Nasrallah a l’élégance discrète. La voix feutrée et presque fluette, la coiffure sage, une bague en or surmontée de pierres vertes à l’auriculaire, l’auteur de Touyour Ayloul (Les Oiseaux de septembre) est l’incarnation de la simplicité, du calme et du rayonnement d’un certain bonheur.
Fraîchement rentrée d’un périple à l’étranger où elle vient d’être invitée pour un colloque littéraire à Oldenbourg (Allemagne), Emilie Nasrallah parle, avec franchise et sincérité, de son oeuvre considérable où se sont surtout succédés romans, nouvelles et récits pour enfants. Avec une remarquable absence à son tableau de chasse : celle de l’écriture théâtrale. Pourquoi ce « vide », ce désintérêt ? « Malgré mon goût pour les dialogues dans la plupart de mes livres, je n’ai pas été tentée par l’expérience dramaturgique » confie-t-elle, sans aller plus loin dans son explication.
emigration edit
Flight Against Time (Charlottetown, 1987), by Emily Nasrallah, a well-known Lebanese novelist with relatives in the Maritimes, is a moving and realistic account of an elderly couple who join their children on Prince Edward Island; this book is highly recommended for the way in which it personalizes the horrors and dislocations of the recent civil war.
http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca/Encyclopedia/A-Z/l4/11
Expérience de l’émigration Née en 1931 à Kfeir au Liban Sud, entre Hasbaya et Rachaya el Wadi, Emilie Nasrallah a puisé dans les sources vives de son environnement pour écrire. Une enfant du sud qui a vu tout un village se vider, émigrer. Sans parler de ses propres frères qui s’envolent vers des horizons plus cléments. Cela laisse forcément des traces. Un village où l’enseignement s’arrête brusquement au primaire, comme une route devant une falaise vertigineuse… Pour les incurables amoureux du savoir, cela déroute, frustre et marque. « C’est par soif de connaissance que j’ai continué mes études à Choueifat avant de fréquenter l’Université Américaine, dit Emilie Nasrallah. Je « dévorais » littéralement les études. En trois mois, je me suis appliquée pour parler anglais. Et le cruel manque de bibliothèque au village fut largement compensé à Choueifat ! C’est ainsi que j’ai débarqué dans le monde fabuleux de la lecture. Et c’est dans l’émerveillement que j ai découvert Gebran, Abboud, Rihani, Nouaimé, Al Charkaoui, Naguib Mahfouz… Mais le premier livre à ma portée fut la Bible ».
Publié en 1962, objet de plusieurs traductions et treize fois réédité, enseigné aux écoles et dans les facultés, Touyour Ayloul est un livre culte et un classique de la littérature libanaise. Comment expliquer ce phénoménal succès quand on sait l’indifférence des lecteurs arabes ? « Sans nul doute, suggère Emilie Nasrallah, parce que j’ai exprimé une vérité. Celle de mon expérience personnelle vis-à-vis de l’émigration. J’ai levé le voile sur le village libanais, cette poche cachée de la patrie dans ses problèmes de survie socio-culturels. Emigrer c’était - et c’est toujours mais à une échelle différente - à la fois un grand problème et une solution pour les gens du rif. L’émigration n’est pas toujours une histoire triste car il y aussi la face positive de la médaille : la consolante victoire des “success stories”… J’ai toujours écrit avec trois thèmes, des constantes qui ont fait la trame de fond de la plupart de mes livres : l’émigration, la condition de la femme dans l’environnement arabe et la guerre Je me suis battue pour être à Beyrouth. J’ai affronté les qu’en dira-t-on de cette époque où les jeunes filles ne quittaient pas impunément leur village natal. La liberté ne se donne pas mais elle se prend. A chacun sa formule ! Disons que je n’aime pas briser totalement ce qui est traditionnel et je ne veux pas m’éblouir de l’Occident. Tout en marchant de l’avant, je ne détruis pas les ponts derrière moi. Ceci se reflète en toute transparence dans mon écriture ».
"Je me sens du côté des persécutés" Pour l’enfance, un rayon à part. Des livres qui ont obtenu les faveurs du public arabe et international et celles de la critique. Un succès retentissant dans le monde des petits qui ne s’est pas démenti depuis plusieurs années. Yawmiyat herr (Journal d’un chat) est non seulement le livre de prédilection des très jeunes Libanais en quête de lecture mais aussi des jeunes Thaïlandais, après avoir été traduit et vendu à plus de 35 000 exemplaires !
« Les gens aiment mon écriture parce que je suis en permanence en contact et dialogue avec mon environnement, explique Emilie Nasrallah. Je n’écris pas pour être traduite ou me hisser au hit des ventes…Le plus important c’est de dialoguer avec les gens de mon pays. Par souci de clarté, j’aime simplifier la langue. Mes livres se lisent à plus d’un niveau, surtout que j’emploie le langage usuel de tous les jours. A chaque histoire, nouvelle, roman, je recours à un style différent. Il ne faut surtout pas confondre simplicité et facilité. En art, la simplicité est peut-être la chose la plus difficile ».
Amour de la nature, description détaillée des personnages croqués sur le vif (« mais la littérature est-elle fiction ou réalité ? » s’interroge Emilie Nasrallah), analyse des situations sociales les plus variées, ravages de la guerre et folie des hommes, rêves de réussite, de paix et d’amour, c’est tout cela le monde coloré et plein d’émotion de l’auteur de Telka al zoukrayat (Ces souvenirs-là). « Je suis étonnée par la force et la vitalité du Liban, ce creuset d’expérimentations, tant il a un pouvoir tenace de renouvellement et de renaissance, enchaîne Emilie Nasrallah. Ce n’est pas pour rien qu’on le surnomme le Phénix… Je dois convenir que tout m’a été source d’inspiration sur cette terre, des petits bonheurs quotidiens aux horreurs de la guerre. J’ai toujours été frappée par le sens de la justice. Des petites aux grandes choses. D’emblée, c’est plus fort que moi, je me sens du côté des persécutés. Aujourd’hui, comme toujours, ma prière est de pouvoir persévérer dans mon histoire de l’écriture. Il y a encore beaucoup d’histoires dans ma vie que je n’ai pas écrit. Il y a beaucoup de personnages à évoquer. Notamment mon oncle de New-York, Ayoub Abi Nasr… » Emilie Nasrallah n’a pas fini d’interroger la plume et encore moins la vie, la sagesse, les acquis de l’expérience et les innombrables sources du savoir. Son message est simple : « encourager les jeunes à lire. Le livre est le fondement même de la connaissance et rien ne le remplace ».
Emily and beirut edit
Témoignage d'Emilie Nasrallah: Beyrouth, ma mère adoptive
Emily foresaw the civil war edit
Next, in “Fragments, Borders, and Identities in the Lebanese Civil War Novel,” Sabri Hafez, professor of literature at the London School of Oriental and African Studies presented the characteristics of the civil war novel noting the new literary styles that reflected chaos and absurdity, as well as the mood of foreboding found in the pre-war novels of Yusuf Awwad and Emilie Nasrallah, both of whom anticipated the civil war in their works.
war edit
http://www.lcps-lebanon.org/pub/breview/br4/kassabpt2.html And yet, because of this very traumatic character of the war experiences, the Beirutis feel the urgent need to talk about them and to express their shock, pain, and exasperation. They remain torn between the wish to forget their war experiences and the need to communicate them to others. It is interesting to hear them conversing at social gatherings. No matter how hard Beirutis try to discuss other issues and topics, the events of the war dominate their conversations. Often one hears: “Well, now that we have finally managed to get together, let us not talk about bombs and shells, but rather about happier things.” The proposal is, of course, favorably received. But soon the Beirutis find themselves talking about war again. They try to stop perpetuating the reality of the war in their conversation, but find it difficult to do so. They need to express and liberate themselves from the traumatic burden, and yet they are confronted with an anemia of words, and are thrown into the mute frustration of the unspeakable. In an interview, the Lebanese writer Emilie Nasrallah says:
What can I tell you about the war? Maybe it has a beginning and no end. One has always the feeling that what one says is not what one wants to say. We have too many words in us which struggle to come out. The events exceed our language possibilities. (Osman 1985: 62)
And, concerning her writing activity, she adds:
Many times I tried to flee from the war so that I wouldn’t keep writing about the tragedy all the time; but we are forced to do so because the war haunts us. It sucks our blood and the light of our eyes and deprives us of the basis of our existence. How can we free ourselves from it? (ibid: 60)
freeedom edit
“la liberté ne se donne pas, elle se prend” http://casadei.blog.lemonde.fr/2007/03/02/lile-aux-deux-tresors/
feminism edit
Emily Nasrallah’s writing was less political, but still drew heavily on feminist themes, particularly as they related to the twentieth-century Arab woman. Her novels examine the marked contrast between Lebanese village and city living with evocative, lyrical, but altogether unsentimental descriptions of rural and urban life.
http://popstaging.greenwood.com/document.aspx?id=GR3274-2543
Daily star edit
A writer who has seen the world, but prefers her village
Her books deal with the way women from traditional backgrounds live their lives
By Christina Foerch Special to The Daily Star
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
"I'm not a feminist writer," claims Emily Nasrallah. And yet, the main characters of her novels and short stories are women, mainly the ones from Lebanese villages. And one of her main themes is the condition of women.
It all started with her first novel,"Birds of September," published in 1962, which deals with the theme of emigration - and with the women who are left behind by their fathers, brothers, sons and lovers, searching for a better future outside Lebanon . The novel won her three literature awards and now goes into its 10th edition - the subject is still appealing to many Lebanese as well as to readers abroad. "Birds of September" has been translated into many other languages as well.
Feminist or not, Nasrallah has been a pioneer in many fields. Born in a traditional village in Southern Lebanon , she was one of the first girls to go to university. In 1958, she received her B. A. in education. After having completed her degree, she started to work as a journalist and was one of the first female journalists in Lebanon . When asked if the condition of women in Lebanon has changed, she replies with a very convinced "yes, of course!" Looking at her own career and comparing it to nowadays, Lebanon is proof of change, of which the Lebanese author has been part. Nasrallah mentions that especially in professions of communication art, women are now in the majority. That's a fact.
But this doesn't mean that life as a female writer, lecturer, journalist and women activist has always been easy for her, nor does it mean that women now possess all their rights. "The title 'woman' makes some people afraid," she admits. During her career as a journalist, Nasrallah published six volumes about women pioneers - and some were banned in Arab countries.
In her literature, women are often victims of village traditions and social or political circumstances. For example, in the novel "The Bondaged," a woman is promised in marriage to the village godfather by her poor parents when still a child. The future husband helps her to go to Beirut to get a higher education, yet the girl has to promise to marry him after she completes her studies. Although the girl falls in love with a student, she can't break her promise, goes back to her home village and marries the godfather.
In many of Nasrallah's novels and short stories, women struggle with their living conditions. They partially manage to set themselves free - but never reach complete freedom and self-determination. Yet, in all of Nasrallah's works, the women's decisions are respected. Through her literature, Nasrallah fights for the dignity of women, for their freedom of choice to live according to their abilities.
Although the Lebanese writer was the only woman of her generation from her home village to acquire a higher education, she still draws inspiration from her former schoolmates - all simple village women who have rarely traveled as far as Beirut . "These women have maintained an original language and worldview," Nasrallah explains, "which is not spoiled by outside influences."
According to the episodes in which her writings take place, she likes to play with this original language, using proverbs and metaphors still used by elderly villagers. In this way, Nasrallah has somehow also become a guardian of Lebanese rural culture, because television and the internet threatens this original language and culture, which is about to disappear forever.
Being an exception to her generation's girls, Nasrallah asks herself: "Why should a village girl have to look over her horizon?"
The one who opened the doors to the big, magic outside world for her was her uncle, a former immigrant to the United States and a friend of Khalil Gibran. He came back from New York to live with his relatives in the mountain village. "My uncle took care of me and encouraged me to write," she recalls. "He also used to tell me about the life of girls in New York ." Her uncle was Nasrallah's "source of revolution," as she puts it. Thanks to him and his brothers, who paid for her high school fees, Nasrallah could leave to learn and become what she is now - an acclaimed writer.
The former village girl doesn't draw her inspiration just from Lebanese village life. Her three main themes, the condition of women, emigration and war, were subjects which she had to deal with in her own life.
On the condition of women, Nasrallah personally knows what it means to struggle to get education and recognition as a professional in Lebanon of the 1950s and early 1960s. She also experienced a certain alienation from her village roots - a topic she dealt with in literature, too.
Emigration, then, is another big theme which personally affected her and made her suffer - her brothers and sisters all left Lebanon and emigrated to Canada . "My pain drove me to write," she admits. In the novel "Sleeping Amber" (1995), for example, Nasrallah describes the sufferings of the grandparents left behind by younger family members who emigrate to Western countries.
During the last years, the writer visited her relatives in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and during her stays, she noticed another form of alienation of immigrants from their roots. The names used for second and third generation Canadians are not Lebanese or Arab anymore, but English. In her novel "Flight against Time", Nasrallah draws on her experiences on her parents' visit to Canada - and the difficulties the elderly faced when they couldn't pronounce their grandchildren's names. "This, for me, means definite emigration and alienation - there is no way back."
Nasrallah has never considered emigrating herself, even not during the difficult years of war. "I don't like emigration," she states simply. Alienation from her mother tongue could possibly have meant giving up her career as a writer, and this is something she has always managed to avoid. Now a grandmother, she is still an active writer who sticks to her principles. "As a writer, you never retire," she says simply.
Her role as mother and grandmother has driven her to focus on the relatively new domain of children's books. It came with the desire to tell stories to her own children and grandchildren. Some works have even become something of a family enterprise, since they were illustrated by her daughter, who is an architect.
For the latest children's book, "On a Snow Carpet," the author traveled far - to Baffin Island in Northern Canada . The Canadian Pen Club invited a group of international writers to visit the Inuit, the native peoples of the Arctic , and to learn about their traditions of oral history. The foreigners were given a short briefing about Inuit culture, then they were dropped. A young hunter was her host, and an elderly lady told her traditional stories in Inuktituk. "The people were very warm and nice, and I was amazed by the simplicity of their lifestyle and the scarcity of things - there were no fruits or vegetables," she recalls. "I wrote the children's book with all my love and respect for the Inuit."
During this trip, Nasrallah met a young Inuit lady who had left her home village in the North and gone to live in Toronto . She had joined the group to search for her own identity and told Nasrallah how difficult she found her situation, knowing that the Inuit background wasn't hers anymore. The Lebanese author said that she could understand the young woman very well, saying that her own experience of leaving her home and getting established somewhere else was similar to the young Inuit woman's experience.
"It's also similar to what (main character) Mona experienced in 'Birds of September.' When she goes back to her village, she is not welcome anymore," Nasrallah explains.
Feelings are universal - and Nasrallah writes about these universal experiences and sentiments. Maybe this is the secret to her success as an author. "Human experiences are similar everywhere in the world," she says. And literature can express and communicate them across all boundaries.
http://www.womenfreedomforum.org/news-en/othernews/emilynasrallah.htm
++++++++++
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=524173 http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-478/_nr-954/i.html http://thisisbeirut.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/beit-beirut/ http://liveachrafieh.com/en/highlight_articles/yellow-house-will-become-museum http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=28346