Phoenicianism

The Phönizianismus (French Phénicianisme ) is a term and a concept that emphasizes the separate identity of the Lebanese and Lebanon and emphasizes the independence of Syria and the Arabs.

The followers of Phönizianismus argue that the Lebanese are not Arabs, because they have their own language and culture. You see, the Lebanese to be descendants of the Phoenicians and call their language Lebanese.

History of the term

The term " Phönizianismus " goes back to the intellectuals and politicians Michel Chiha and Youssef Al Sauda. The emergence of the concept must be the division of the French protectorate area in a Syrian and a Lebanese state are considered in the 1920s in the context of the Lebanese state was founded and. The Phönizianismus served to the new state and its residents to gain its own identity. The opposite concept is referred to by the term Greater Syria, in the several States of the Middle East are to form a common state. This term was created by Henri Lammens end of the 19th century and politicized by Antun Saada in the 1930s.

Criticism of the Phönizianismus

Critics of Phönizianismus refer to an Arab from the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Lebanese position. Since the Phoenician language became extinct a long time ago, their impact on the modern Lebanese dialect of Arabic is immaterial. In contrast, today, the influence of the Aramaic language in the Lebanese dialect very clear. For a direct ancestry of some currently living in Lebanon people by the Phoenicians there is research (see The Genographic Project).