Title | Education in the First Five years of the French Mandate over Syria and Lebanon |
---|---|
Author | Idir Ouahes |
Pages | 9 |
File Size | 166.2 KB |
File Type | |
Total Downloads | 422 |
Total Views | 591 |
Idir Ouahes. ‘Education in the first five years of the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon: contestation and co‐option’ ‐ Talk given to the Imperial & Global History Network Workshop at Bristol University, 15th May 2014. This talk will give a brief outline of the situation ...
Idir Ouahes.
‘Education in the first five years of the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon: contestation and co‐option’ ‐ Talk given to the Imperial & Global History Network Workshop at Bristol University, 15th May 2014.
This talk will give a brief outline of the situation of educational policy and practice as it evolved in Syria and Lebanon and then give a case study on the selective use of funds. Syria was conquered by France after the World War and a Mandate was declared by the League of Nations. This was a form of late colonial subjugation that retained many of the domestic traits of earlier aggressive imperialism such as heavy policing and surveillance while presenting a public face in the internationalism that had been building since the end of the nineteenth century. As such, it was subjected to a deal of pressures in the cultural sphere that had hitherto been unheard of. It thus forms an interesting case study of the political role of education and the politicisation of education. These respective themes form two of my chapters. Let me first give some background to the situation as it stood in 1920. The end of the war saw a great deal of devastation to the populations in the Levant since the region had become a battlefield. Many missionary schools and hospices had been forcibly shut by the Ottoman authorities in wartime. The provisional military
Idir Ouahes.
administrations set up by France and Britain did their best to maintain the status quo but documents from the later Mandate period suggest several schools shut down by the war were not re‐ established until well after the end of hostilities. Needless to say Islamic education had a very long history in the region, focusing on rote learning. Modern education had taken a variety of forms in the Ottoman Empire and often followed the ebb and flow of political events. Thus the initial firman encouraging families to send their children to school was put out by Sultan Mahmo
ud II even before the Tanzimat reform period. Even the
outset of that period, encapsulated in the Gulhane proclamation, did not place major emphasis on education. It nevertheless contributed to the administrative competency that led to a growth in public education for civil servants. The noted Arab historian Albert Hourani outlined the role of the Arab literary renaissance (the nahda) in encouraging political participation. Yet despite these nineteenth century changes, state schooling in the Arab province on the eve of the World War was rudimentary, with Yemen and Iraq being the worst off. Throughout the nineteenth century, foreign missionary schools had increased in size and importance with the standout example being the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, now known as the American University.
Idir Ouahes.
By 1920 the French had moved east from Lebanon and crushed an attempt by a coalition of Syrians under the Arabian Prince Faisal. It cannot be said that the French moved quickly on education though key administrative steps were taken to analyse the situation and allocate funding. It is likely that alongside the administrators’ French tradition for strongly grasping social situations, there was a great deal of international pressure. The mandate was explicitly meant to be a different type of colonial state with tutelage as its key guiding principle. The mandate itself stated that the French authorities had to “enact measures to facilitate the progressive development of Syria and the Lebanon”. Article 6 stressed “respect for the personal status of the various peoples and for their religious interests”.1 Article 8 stated that the Mandatory power could not discriminate on the grounds of race, religion or language and was to “encourage public instruction, which shall be given through the medium of the native languages in use in the territory”. Alongside were the demands of international educational missions and their parent nations. By 1925 the United States ambassador to France had signed an agreement with Foreign Affairs minister Raymond Poincaré to ensure American citizens had their territorial rights respected despite the US’ boycott of the League of Nations and assure that Americans could establish
1
Council of the League of Nations, “French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon”, The American Journal of International Law, vol.17, N. 3, (Jul.1923)
Idir Ouahes.
new schools and teach in French as they wished. 2 This stood on top of the existing provision in the Mandate document that already guaranteed missionary schools almost complete freedom to operate. My research draws out the way the initial attempts at an almost military administration of education quickly dissipated as popular and international pressure mounted. Even before the outbreak of a huge revolution in 1925, education had become a site of contestation as increasingly assertive Syro‐lebanese and passive local elites frustrated French attempts. French control was nevertheless assured to some extent by co‐optation of minority groups such as the Lebanese Christian Maronites. I want to discuss one of the themes that my case studies bring out. The Ottoman experience had taught the new French rulers that purveyors of dissent tended to be the highly educated. Aside from that of pre‐eminent intellectual ‘Abdul‐Rahman Shahbandar, Service De Renseignement (henceforth SR) reports offer up such names as Rafik Tamimi who was teaching in Paris, then became Director of the School of Commerce under the Ottomans. Tamimi is mentioned as having been away from Syria on suspicious terms. 3 The inherent social role of education was well recognised by the French authorities. 2
“Convention between the United States and France Respecting Rights in Syria and the Lebanon, The American Journal of International Law, Vol 19, N. 1, (Jan, 1925). 3 Territoire Ennemie Occupe (Zone Ouest), “L'Agence Arabe A Beyrouth” (09/12, 1919), [MAE 1SL/V/2374 Cabinet Politique]. For more on Arab secret societies see: Ernest Dawn, C., “The Rise of Arabism in Syria”, in. Middle East Journal, Vol. 16, N. 2, (Spring 1962).
Idir Ouahes.
SR summaries of middle class professionals consistently outline their level of education as key piece of information for intelligence officers to take into account. 4 Such highly educated Syrians nevertheless would go on to take up prominent roles in organising the Great Syrian Revolt which began in 1925, at the end of the period under study here.5 Even prior to the introduction of the French Mandate, elites in the Arab domains had recognised the importance of educational access for political coherence. On the eve of World War, Hama representative at the parliament Khalid al Barazi spoke against the Young Turk government’s educational policy and called for an increase in access, stating that: “The only standard by which a nation’s material and spiritual progress is gauged is by the degree of that nation’s education…” 6 Yet Barazi was arguing his case for the sake of an Ottoman nation. This contrasted to other Arab elites who by this late period who moved increasingly toward Arabist stance. 7 The variety of approaches to access were accentuated in the early mandate, with all sides recognising its political importance.
4
Service De Rensignment, “Fiche De Renseignments‐ Alep”, (4 May 1928), [MAE 1SL/V/1560 Cabinet Politique] Provence, Michel, The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism, (Austin TX: University of Austin Press, 2005), 38‐42; Khoury, Phillip, Syria and the French Mandate: The Politics of Arab Nationalism 1920‐1945, (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987), 255‐258; 6 Khalid M. Al‐Barazi, The Majlis Mebusan: The Ottoman Parliament (1908‐1912), ( London, Unpublished Thesis SOAS, 2002), 166‐168 7 Ernest Dawn, C., “The Rise of Arabism in Syria”, in. Middle East Journal, Vol. 16, N. 2, (Spring 1962) 5
Idir Ouahes.
The French authorities made selective use of their funding as an important instrument in tying local elites via improvised education. . 8 In the context of Mandate educational policy as a political tool, the authorities allowed local elites to be in semi‐autonomous control. Direct pensions paid to elites for “political reasons” were used alongside the stipends for educational establishments that were paid through the Instruction Publique. Thus the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch received an 110,000 Franc (2000 E£) bursary on top of the money sent for the maintenance of Orthodox schools. The same French report discusses the huge payment 1.2 million Fr (around 22,000 E£) made to Noury Cha’lan, a Bedouin chief of great importance to the Rif Dimashq. It should be noted that article XI of the contract between Cha’lan and General Catroux establishing this clientelist relationship stipulated that Cha’lan should seek to set up schools for Bedouin children, though there was no mechanism to ensure and review such an undertaking. Interestingly later reports from 1924 point out that the Lycée Des Garcons opened a separate section dedicated to the sons of Bedouin chiefs, suggesting that even if bedouin schools were set up the chiefs did not have enough faith in it for his own offspring. The introduction of a unified Contrôle Bédouine on the 1st of January 1925 would allow individual S.R. Officers the organisational capacity to offer schools for the sons of Bedouin leaders. 8
Shiller, Robert, Irrational Exuberance, (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).
Idir Ouahes.
In the city of Ḥama Instruction Publique decision makers encouraged the funding and refurbishing of the Greek‐Orthodox school, singled out because its language of instruction was French. The same report explains that schools in the Ḥauran mountains were lacking the resources, if not the will, for education and encouraged the Instruction Publique to do more to provide at least one French teacher per village classroom. Another report emphasised the role of schools such as the Alliance Israélite and the Greek‐Orthodox and Armenian‐Catholic school which represented the “most active site of [French] propaganda in Aleppo.” In another case attempts by the Frère Lazaristes to gain a stipend from the French government were looked on favourably because the Lazaristes “contribute the most to the spread of French culture.” State funds could be used as a stick to induce the directors of schools to institute French learning or face cuts in their budget, as was the case with schools in the Sanjak of Iskanderūn in 1921. The goal of French rulers in their financial promotion of schools was not the simple pursuit of knowledge but the establishment of “great centres of propaganda”. This was in direct contravention with article 8 of the declaration of the Mandate which required the authorities to “encourage public instructions, which shall be given through the medium of the native languages in use in the territory”.
Idir Ouahes.
It is important to note that this was not just simple top‐down administration by the French. The day to day administration of the educational apparatus required co‐optation of local elites yet this also gave some manoeuvring space for those encouraging an anti‐ mandate stance. To give one short example out of many. Mohamed Kurd ‘Ali, who had been a member of the Ottoman state, was director of Instruction Publique. He suggested changes to the structure in the government apparatus that would encourage decentralised educational decisions. I want to finish by noting the pervasiveness of surveillance in the educational sphere. It I true that surveillance had an Ottoman past. Basic surveillance was instituted in late 18th and 19th century Ottoman schools as a method of forming a corps of officials and administrators has been noted by Avner Wishnitzer. Articles 15 and 16 of the Young Ottoman Constitution of 1876 simultaneously promised free education for Ottomans while placing all schools under the supervision of the state. Article 114 made primary education compulsory. Though this Constitution only lasted for two years before Sultan Abdulhamid circumvented it, its impact on the drawing up of a second Constitution by the Young Turks is evident. The Young Turks Proclamation for the Ottoman Empire states that All schools will operate under the surveillance of the state and
Idir Ouahes.
reiterates a promise for free primary schooling though this time the language of instruction was specified as Turkish. Yet the extent and depth of surveillance in the Mandate was impressive. As Jean David Mizrahi demonstrated it was the formed the foundations of the early Mandate power as it transitioned from military administration.9 Yet Mizrahi’s focus on the personalities and institutions of the intelligence service misses out on the wide scope of its activity, including in depth involvement in the cultural sphere. Report cards on individual teachers in small hamlets are among the archives, alongside consistent monitoring of institutions and figures.
9
Jean David Mizrahi, Genese de l’Etat Mandataire:Service de Renseignement et bandes armees en Syrie et au Liban dans les années 1920 , (Paris, Publications de La Sorbonne, 2003). ...