Culture of Lebanon

Presented By:Reyes/Bela-ong/Solis

Tugadi/Centeno/Costemiano

Lebanon• The culture of Lebanon is the cross

culture of various civilizations over thousands of years. Originally home to the Phoenicians, and then subsequently conquered and occupied by the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks and most recently the French.

• Lebanese culture has over the millennia evolved by borrowing from all of these groups. Lebanon's diverse population, composed of different ethnic and religious groups, has further contributed to the country's festivals, musical styles and literature as well as cuisine.

Lebanon

• Despite the ethnic, linguistic, religious and denominational diversity of the Lebanese, they “share an almost common culture”. Lebanese Arabic is universally spoken while food, music, and literature are deep-rooted “in wider Mediterranean and Levantine norms”.

Lebanon

Arts• By the turn of the 20th century, Beirut

was vying with Cairo to be the major center for modern Arab thought, with many newspapers, magazines and literary societies. Additionally, Beirut became a thriving epicenter of Armenian culture with varied productions that was exported to the Armenian diaspora.

Visual Arts• Mustafa Farroukh was one of

Lebanon's most prominent painters of the 19th century. Formally trained in Rome and Paris, he exhibited in venues from Paris to New York to Beirut over his career.

Contemporary Art• Contemporary Art started in Beirut

immediately after the end of the civil war (1975-1991) with the alternative artworks of Anita Toutikian. Many more contemporary artists are currently active, such as Walid Read, a contemporary media artist currently residing in New York.

Architecture• The Italianate, specifically, Tuscan,

influence on architecture in Lebanon dates back to the Renaissance when Fakhreddine, the first Lebanese ruler who truly unified Mount Lebanon with its Mediterranean coast executed an ambitious plan to develop his country.

Arabic Literature• Khalil Gibran (1883–1931),

who was born in Bsharri, is particularly known for his book The Prophet (1923), which has been translated into more than twenty different languages. Several contemporary Lebanese writers have also achieved international success; including Elias Khoury, Amin Maalouf, Hanan al-Shaykh, and Georges Schehadé.

Music• Music is pervasive in Lebanese society. While

traditional folk music remains popular in Lebanon, modern music reconciling Western and traditional Arabic styles, pop, and fusion are rapidly advancing in popularity. Radio stations feature a variety of music, including traditional Lebanese, classical Arabic, Armenian and modern French, English, American, and Latin tunes

Music• Prominent traditional

musicians include Fairuz, an icon during the civil war, Sabah, Wadih El Safi, Majida El Roumi, and Najwa Karam who built an international audience for the genre.

Media• Lebanon is not only a regional center of

media production but also the most liberal and free in the Arab world. According to Press freedom's Reporters Without Borders, "the media have more freedom in Lebanon than in any other Arab country".

Cinema• Cinema of Lebanon, according to film

critic and historian, Roy Armes, was the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced over 500 films..

Theatre• Lebanese theatre has its origin in passion

plays. The musical plays of Maroun Naccache from the mid-1800s are considered the birth of modern Arab theatre. Some scholars like Abdulatif Shararah divided theatre in Lebanon into three phases: translations of European plays, Arab nationalism, and realism.

End of Lebanon Culture