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Document Details : Title: Some Socio-Economic Observations on the Relationships between the Mountain and the Coast in Early 17th Centuries Author(s): RAHME, Joseph G. Rahme Journal: ARAM Periodical Volume: 10 Issue: 1-2 Date: 1998 Pages: 419-430 DOI: 10.2143/ARAM.10.1.2002151 Abstract : This study explores certain socio-economic relationships between the countryside and the urban coast, specifically, between mountainous, rural Mount-Lebanon and its major coastal city, Tripoli, during the early seventeenth century. This relationship between the urban coast and the rural mountain is a complex one. It can be characterized as being, on the one hand, symbiotic, and, on the other, conflictual and parasitic. For earlier scholars, the exploitative and conflictual dimensions had defined and characterized it. Among the most prominent and well-known upholders of this thesis are Weulersse, Gibb and Bowen, and Xavier de Planhol. This thesis has been critiqued and re-evaluated by a new generation of scholars who have questioned its historical accuracy. They have highlighted the symbiotic links between city and countryside without losing sight of the city’s exploitative relationship with it. Among them are: André Raymond’s and Kenneth Cuno’s works on Egypt; Abdul Karim Rafeq’s, Antoine Abdel Nour’s, and Adnan Bakhit’s detailed and synthetic studies on Syria. These scholars and many others not mentioned have focused primarily on the socio-economic history of Syria and Egypt, including the relations that have bound the countryside to the city. |
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