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'Levant' is a book of cities. It describes the role of Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut as windows on the world, escapes from nationality and tradition, centres of wealth, pleasure and freedom. By their mix of races and religions, they challenge stereotypes.
- Sales Rank: #546124 in Books
- Published on: 2012-05-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.26" h x 1.03" w x 6.18" l, 1.55 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 480 pages
Review
"I could scarcely put down this magnificent book, with its galloping narrative, its worldly analysis, sparkling anecdotes and its unforgettable cast of the decadent, the cosmopolitan, and the cruel."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, Financial Times (Simon Sebag Montefiore Financial Times)
"[A] highly enjoyable and intricately-worked account of three great Mediterranean ports."—The Economist (The Economist)
"This is a rich piece of historical storytelling that will satisfy scholars, travelers, readers of travel literature, and everyone in between, Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in this complicated region of the world."—Veronica Arellano, Library Journal (Veronica Arellano Library Journal)
“This book is a labour of love and finely tuned scholarship, ornamented with such telling social detail and intimate knowledge of the urban and social landscapes that it brings 300 years of history to entertaining life…”—Barnaby Rogerson, Times Literary Supplement (Barnaby Rogerson Times Literary Supplement)
“Levant is an eminently readable and authoritative work that speaks directly to present-day anxieties, both about the nature of today’s western multicultural cities, and about current tensions between nations and religions.”-- Roderick Beaton, King's College London (Roderick Beaton)
"An extraordinary achievement. Passionate but impartial, animated, sensual and scholarly. "--Barnaby Rogerson, auhor of The Last Crusaders
(Barnaby Rogerson)
“This book is a labour of love and finely tuned scholarship, ornamented with such telling social detail and intimate knowledge of the urban and social landscapes that it brings 300 years of history to entertaining life…Philip Mansel slowly makes the reader aware that the grand theme of his history is a slow unfolding tragedy which remains absolutely relevant to today’s multicultural societies, engaged as they are in the delicate balancing act between political unity and cosmopolitan diversity…not only an entertainment and a historical education but also something of a political warning…”—Barnaby Rogerson, Times Literary Supplement (Barnaby Rogerson Times Literary Supplement)
“Philip Mansel's Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe in the Mediterranean is a remarkable, highly unusual and very readable social history of the ports of Smyrna, Beirut and Alexandria during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire.”—Lev Myshkin, Global Dispatches (Lev Myshkin Global Dispatches)
"The strengths of the book are colossal. Philip Mansel’s knowledge of the history and culture of these places is encyclopedic; he has walked their streets, met the scions of their famous families and penetrated their private archives. His eye for detail is sharp; telling anecdotes are culled from memoirs of all kinds, and the sights and smells of each city are vividly conjured up."—Noel Malcolm, Telegraph (Noel Malcolm Telegraph)
"Philip Mansel’s impressive return to the eastern Mediterranean. . . . Mansel has given the Levantine world its chronicle, and restored its weight in history."—Jason Goodwin, Spectator (Spectator Jason Goodwin)
"A masterly work."—Moris Farhi, Independent (Moris Farhi Independent)
About the Author
Philip Mansel is a historian of France and the Ottoman Empire. His publications include histories of Constantinople and nineteenth-century Paris, as well as biographies of Louis XVIII and the Prince de Ligne.
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Great read on the Levant
By D. Squires
If you are interested in the history of the Levant since about the 1700s, told through the history and more broadly story of its 3 great cities, Alexandria, Beirut, and Symrna, then this is the book for you. Packed with facts and anecdotes, the author presents a sweeping narrative. Any easy and enjoyable read by an incredibly knowledgeable author, the book unites all into a broad and thoughtful perspective. I've lived in the area and read a fair amount, but I learned much that I didn't even know I didn't know and filled in gaps of knowledge and analysis.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Title Does Not Disappoint- There Is Definitely Splendor and Catastrophe In Rich Detail
By lmlm000
In Levant, the author Phillip Mansel looks at three cities: Smyrna (now Izmir), Alexandria, and Beirut and how they came to represent the collision between the western world and the Islamic one, from the eighteenth century up to the twentieth. The three cities, all locations with long, ancient histories gained new economic and cultural life with the advent of European colonial expansion. European forces, hoping to gain a monopoly on trade in these crucial ports, pushed the moribund Ottoman Empire to grant the outsiders valuable economic rights to do business in the region. What followed was three hundred years of intermingling between a variety of different cultures. Many times this clash of cultures led to violence such as murders and riots. But often, this clash also led to unprecedented economic prosperity and an explosion of art, music, and architecture. Mansel looks beyond history dates and events to provide anecdotal stories of these cities and the people who lived in them.
The strength of the book is Mansel's narrative. It keeps the book moving at a comfortable pace, and provides insightful stories of the people of the cities of Smyrna, Alexandria, and Beirut. The book never spends too much time on one point or digresses on tangents. The author refuses to get bogged down in the national politics that all to often impacted city life, he provides a useful explanation but always ties it in back to the subject city.
The organization of the book takes some getting used to as Mansel would frequently spend three chapters on one city only to then switch to another city (chapters 2-3 and 10-12 deals with Smyrna; chapters 4-5, 7-8, 13-14 focus on Alexandria; chapters 6, 9, 15-17 features Beirut). This can be jarring as it forces the reader to take a 100 page break before returning to a particular city. However, this organization ultimately highlights the recurring patterns of cosmopolitanism and nationalism that led to the integration and disintegration of all three cities.
The book is a highly informative read that was part vibrant travel literature of a bygone era and part solemn history of social collapse. The title promises "Splendour and Catastrophe" and that is exactly what the reader gets, in well-researched detail.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Three East Mediterranean cities, that came to grief with Philip Mansel's Eloquently touching book
By Didaskalex
****
"The Mediterranean is a vast expanse, with countless ports and cities, towns and villages; ... to zoom in on a number of the individual places..., and say, why they have always been so special. One of them is Malta, ...Then there is Palermo,...Patmos. just a few...; I could have talked about Taormina, or Delos or Corfu." -- John Julius Norwich
The most concise introduction to the book is wrote by Norman Stone for The Guardian. It is a story that goes back a very long way, as Alexandria lay at the mouth of the Nile, and Smyrna - birthplace of Herodotus - had a superb harbor bay that led straýght to the interior of Anatolia,... Beirut, though also Phoenician and Roman in ancient times, really owed its emergence to the French in the 19th century, when they used the local Christians to establish a semi-colony. In the 19th century, these port cities flourished, and in all of them a European Diaspora settled - Greeks especially, but also Jews, Italians and English, who established dynasties known as "Levantine", with enormous mansions and parks that survive at least in Izmir if not elsewhere.
I share with Patrick Seale his reaction to the moving history of the East Mediterranean cities trio, that came to grief in Philip Mansel's eloquent and touching book, that almost brought tears to my eyes. Mansel wrote a lamentation for a vanished cosmopolitan society which flourished in the century preceding the First World War, only to fall victim to local conflicts, the meddling of foreign powers and nationalist counter reaction. Meticulously analyzed and colorfully told, it describes human misery, intellectual bleeding, residents expulsion on a grand scale that initiated social decline, and political decay.
The Ottoman Empire/ Middle East expert, Eton reared and Oxford educated, came to the final conclusion that, "The Beirut dilemma goes to the heart of the Levant. At certain times ... Levantine cities could find the elixir of coexistence, putting deals before ideals, the needs of the city before the demands of nationalism. Like all cities, however, Levantine cities needed an armed force for protection. ... The very qualities that gave these cities their energy -- freedom and diversity -- also threatened their existence." This has been proven right now, by the evolution of the "Arab Spring". Unrest erupted like a tsunami wave, swept Tunisia, ending sixty years of military control of Egypt, and leaving Libya, and Syria behind in turmoil and civil war.
A Posteriori by the reviewer:
Are Alexandria and Smyrna Levantine?
Levant simply means "where the sun rises" or "where the land rises out of the sea", a meaning attributed to the region's easterly location on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Ancient Egyptians called the Levant Qdem, or Retjenu. Ancient Egyptian texts called the entire area of Mediterranean coast, between Sinai and Anatolia Retjenu. It included three regions, of which the southern region, Djahy, shared the approximate boundaries of Canaan. The Fertile Crescent, coined by James H. Breasted of Chicago Oriental Institute, includes Mesopotamia together with the Levant and became the name most used since then. With Beirut in the center, both Alexandria and little known Smyrna were outside the traditional ancient Levant.
What has Smyrna to do with Alexandria and Beirut?
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a strategic central point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern Izmir, Turkey. Its foundation like Alexandria, is associated with Alexander the Great, became a metropolitan city during a period of the Roman Empire, which has ended by an earthquake in the second century AD.
Since I was born in Alexandria, and know very well its ancient and recent history, and likewise visited and admired its clone Beirut, I know fairly well its culture, even the memory of the Shawerma and Mezza revive my taste buds. Would the eminent author has selected Antioch or Constantinople in the trio, I could never have been puzzled. John Julius Norwich, colorful writer and great Byzantine scholar and expert would have supported my preference.
The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean (Vintage)
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