ABSTRACT
Introduction The decade following the First World War was the formative period of Arab nationalist thought, and Syria-Lebanon-Palestine was the centre for this ideological development. Since historical arguments were an essential part of the political debate one effect of the rising tide of nationalism was an upsurge in historical research. Thus Syrian historiography flourished in the 1920s. During the span of a few years several monumental works of lasting value were published: Nahr al-Dhahab (1922-26) by Shaykh Kamil al-Ghazzi and flam al-Nubala' (1923-27) by Shaykh Gharib al-Tabbakh, both focusing on the city and region of Aleppo, and Khi(a( aI-Sham (192528) by Muhammad Kurd (Ali, presenting a Damascus oriented view on history. Characteristically the proclaimed aim of all these historians was to serve the nation with their writings, to enlighten their fellow countrymen, abniP al-watan, about the past in order for them to take control of the future.· l:Iubb al-watan min al-iman (Love of the fatherland is part of the faith) was not only a popular dictum at the time, but almost an
• Kiimil al-Ghazzi, Nahr al-Dhahab fi Ta'rikh /:Ialab, 3 vols., 2nd ed. (Aleppo: Dar al-Qalam al-'Arabi, 1991), I: 21; Gharib al-Tabbakh, J<liim al-Nubalii' bi-Ta'rikh /:Ialab al-Shahbii', 7 vols., 2nd ed. (Aleppo: Dar al-Qalam al-'Arabi, 1988), I: 24; Mu~ammad Kurd 'Ali, Khirar ai-Sham, 6 vols. (Damascus: al-Matba'a al-J:Iaditha, 1925), 1: 7.
