num_pages: 200
description: During the nineteenth century, Beirut was transformed from a provincial town of 6,000 to a political and cultural center of 120,000, becoming the leading seaport of the eastern Mediterranean. This study examines the migration that lay behind much of this growth – why the migrants came, what economic changes resulted, and particularly how social relations among the city’s religious communities were transformed. The author shows how Beirut grew from a community where Muslims and Christians lived side by side in harmony to a city where new sectarian tensions reflected fundamental changes in the socioeconomic and political balance, changes that shaped the social relations of modern Lebanon.
language: English
title: Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth-Century Beirut
titlecomplete: Merchants and Migrants in Nineteenth-Century Beirut
ratings_count: 8
publisher: Iuniverse Inc