First Sight of Lebanon

This was my first sight of Lebanon, in April of 1952, when I was on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. An hour before I had landed from a ship in the port of Beirut and now I was in a service taxi winding up the road to Dahr al-Baider, the fourteen-hundred metre high pass to the Beqaa Valley, once the granary of ancient Rome. Now as I looked at the mountainside below, I received an impression of Lebanon that has never left me. It was not because of any fine buildings or any site of particular beauty. It was simply the sight of thousands of terraces that had been hewn out of the steep slopes to permit the sowing of wheat and the planting of olive trees.

No mighty machines had ground into the hard rock as they do now, making light of such work. I realised that simply over the centuries generation after generation of sturdy peasants, fighting against hunger and against the plundering of oppressors, against bitter cold and burning sun, had toiled to keep their families alive, to provide stores of food to last through the winter, and to ensure some charcoal to warm their austere retreats when icy blasts swept the world outside.

Never had they hopes of leisured retirement to reward their labours. Christian Druze or Muslim, their only reward could be in heaven, to where they turned their prayers for the spiritual force that was their sole resource for survival. Need might make them hard on their children, but strong bonds united them and so tough virtues were handed on.

Little could they have dreamt of the luxuries their descendants enjoy. Now feet step on the accelerator in the warmth of a car instead of wearily plodding over the turned soil. Television has replaced story-telling through long dark nights. Central heating and brilliant lighting have replaced the soft glow of embers in the manqal.

The prophets warned against the worship of false gods. These gods may no longer bear their old Canaanite names, but they remain the same, riches, luxury, unbridled pleasure, pride, vanity and self-conceit. These are the true enemies of the people that lead them to disaster. May the Lebanese remain always true to their spirit of their forebears and to the worship of the true God.

Kenneth Mortimer