Apparently, in the late 19th century, excessive drinking was synonymous with “English drunkeness”, as documented by Jurji Zaydan, a “Lebanese campaigner for public morality.” The quote below, originally in “Public Morality and Marginality in Fin-de-Siecle Beirut” by Jens Hanssen, can be found on Ajam Media Collective’s facebook page, and offers an interesting look into the life of Beirutis in the 19th century.
It’s hard to believe that the Lebanese dubbed drunkenness as a foreign concept only a century or two ago. Getting drunk nowadays is a favorite Lebanese past time, as evident by yesterdays “Khamis Sakkara”, and our huge pubbing scene in Beirut.
Somewhere along the wavery line of history, we decided to “Westernize” ourselves, and thus succumbed to western concepts. It really makes you wonder though, what would we have been like if we hadn’t?
