George Antonius: The Formative Years

Abstract

George Antonius was born in Dayr al-Qamar (Lebanon) on 19 October 1891 at a time when, after four centuries of Ottoman rule, the Arab nationalist movement was in an embryonic stage. The early movement was a Damascus-based, urban, elite phenomenon which sought autonomy, rather than the independence, of Arabic-speaking provinces from the Ottoman Empire. Akin to the future political activists from aristocratic and middle class families in Syria and Palestine, Antonius was not moved to support Arab nationalism until after the liberation of Arab territories from Ottoman rule in 1918. As a member of a generation of leadership which had been educated in Ottoman professional schools, the American University in Beirut, or in Europe, Antonius was the product of an intellectual training which led him to adopt a secular form of Arab nationalism, rather than pan-Islamism. With a European-oriented education, this generation also trusted in a Weberian model of modernization, which encouraged the development of Western institutions.1 In Antonius' case, affinity with the West and loyalty to Great Britain were particularly encouraged because he was a member of a Syrian Christian minority which had historically assisted in the European economic, cultural, and political penetration in the Middle East.2 After moving to Alexandria, Egypt, where his father entered into the lucrative cotton trade, Antonius was groomed to work for the British. Integrated into a rich and