page_title: Sursock family
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Sursock family / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the Sursocks' Villas
context_page_description: The Sursock family is a Greek Orthodox Christian family from Lebanon, and one of the most important “Seven Families” of Beirut. Having originated in Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire, the family has lived in Beirut since 1714, when they began to establish significant positions of power within the flourishing Ottoman Empire. The family, through lucrative business ventures, savvy political maneuvering, and strategic marriages, embarked on what Leila Fawaz called "the most spectacular social climb of the nineteenth century," and, by their peak, had built a close network of relations to the families of Egyptian, French, Irish, Russian, Italian and German aristocracies, alongside a manufacturing and distribution empire spanning the Mediterranean.
context_section_description: The Sursocks were one of Beirut's aristocratic Christian families that moved freely in Ottoman, Egyptian and European high societies. The Sursocks were an integral part of an international bourgeoisie centered in Alexandria, Beirut, Cairo, Constantinople, Paris and Rome. They were one of the "Seven Families" in Beirut's aristocratic nobility. Their wealth and sophistication are also reflected in their residences,  equal in elegance to any Italian palazzo, which remained largely unscathed despite fifteen years of  mortar fire and violence.
  In the 17th century, members of the Sursock family served as tax collectors and held other key positions on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. As a result, they benefitted greatly from the 1858 Ottoman land reforms, during which they acquired large tracts of fertile land in Palestine and Syria, in addition to extensive holdings from Egypt to Beirut. 
  The means by which this Greek-Orthodox Ottoman family came into possession of such particularly palatial real estate were multiple. As a long line of land owners and tax collectors, the Sursocks were able to leverage their finances and capital using their connections to American, Russian, German and French consuls over the decades to establish extensive economic and political connections.
  The family developed wide social ties and was close to key Ottoman and European figures, frequently playing host to a wide range of royals and diplomats, including King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, William I, Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, amongst other monarchs.
  The Sursocks built their fortune through their successful manufacturing and transportation empire, which extended from Turkey to Egypt and ultimately to the United Kingdom. 
  Dimitri Sursock was the founder of "Sursock and Brothers," a prominent firm in nineteenth century Beirut which acted as an agent for Lascaridi and Company in the 1850s and 1860s and shipped grain to London, Cyprus and throughout Europe. The firm and its assets were subsequently taken over by his sons after his death: Nicolas, Moussa, Loutfallah, Khalil, Ibrahim and Joseph.
  In addition to their manufacturing and export activities, the family increased its fortune as landowners in the Ottoman Levant, amassing profits from both rent and tax collection, as well as from the sale of their many properties. Based in Beirut, the family owned many properties along the Mediterranean region, and, for over one hundred years, the Sursocks owned a significant amount of real estate in the heart of Mersin, Turkey, including many shops and properties in the eponymous Sursock Quarter of the city. Their financial activities were wide-ranging, and included shipping and the production of silk and other goods built for transport to London and throughout the region.
  The Sursocks also became heavily involved in banking in Egypt and Lebanon, where they helped finance major projects including the Suez Canal, the Beirut-Damascus highway, and the Beirut Harbour Company. The family also served as direct creditors to Ismail Pasha and other members of Egyptian royalty, who soon found themselves heavily involved with and indebted to the family. As a result of their extensive financial activities, the family was branded "the Rothschilds of the East," and indeed engaged the Rothschild banking family during their sale of the Jezreel Valley to the Jewish National Fund in 1906. The Sursocks are recorded as having been deeply intertwined in Freemasonry at the time, under the Grand Orient of France, with many speculating on the reasons behind the family's rise. George Dimitri Sursock, Worshipful Master of the Grand Orient lodge, recorded his extensive dealings with, and on behalf of, the masonry.
  However, members of the family also gained notoriety for taking advantage of the famine in Lebanon during the First World War by selling overpriced basic food supplies, and for selling large swaths of Arab land in Palestine to Jewish settlers, who demanded the oftentimes forceful eviction of the peasant residents.
  In the wake of the Lebanese Civil War 
caption: Sursock Villa
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