UCLA

This dissertation explores the transnational dimensions of the Syrian Revolt of 1925-1927. By including the activities of Syrian migrants in Egypt, Europe and the Americas, this study moves away from state-centric histories of the anti-French rebellion. Though they lived far away from the battlefields of Syria and Lebanon, migrants championed, contested, debated, and imagined the rebellion from all corners of the mahjar (or diaspora). Skeptics and supporters organized petition campaigns, solicited financial aid for rebels and civilians alike, and partook in various meetings and conferences abroad. Syrians abroad also clandestinely coordinated with rebel leaders for the transfer of weapons and funds, as well as offered strategic advice based on the political climates in Paris and Geneva. Moreover, key émigré figures played a significant role in defining the revolt, determining its goals, and formulating its program. By situating the revolt in the broader internationalism of the 1920s, this study brings to life the hitherto neglected role migrants played in bridging the local and global, the national and international.

Starting with the Ottoman reforms of 1908, this study first explores the evolving political consciousness of the mahjar in relationship to the growth of international society and institutions. From the late Ottoman period to the Paris Peace Conference and the establishment of the League of Nations, Syrian and Lebanese communities abroad sought to impact the political climate of homeland through the writing of petitions, and the formation of societies and associations. With the bombardment of Damascus in October of 1925, the study shifts its lens to Geneva. Syrians lobbied the League of Nations through numerous petitions calling for justice and intervention. By virtue of residing outside the mandated territories, diaspora groups were able to bypass the censorship of the French mandatory government. Consequently, groups such as the Geneva-based Syro-Palestinian Congress acted as the external representatives of nationalists within Syria. By petitioning the League, Syrian émigrés partook in a civic order that was particular to local concerns within Syria, but which played out in the international circles of Geneva and Paris. In studying the connections between the local and global, the dissertation goes on to consider how the philanthropic engagement of the mahjar in 1925 shaped the civic discourse in south Lebanon. Detractors of the rebellion utilized diasporic networks abroad to wage a campaign for compensation that hinged on the mandate government’s need to protect Lebanon’s Christian minority. While previous histories of the revolt have depicted it as crucial to a popular Syrian nationalism, this study argues that it was also equally meaningful for the assertion of a Lebanese, confessional republic. Even as Syrians and Lebanese mobilized around the League of Nations and French mandate, émigrés also coordinated with various liberal, Pan-Islamist. and Communist networks that operated across state borders. Though the system of nation-states ultimately prevailed, the dissertation highlights how the concerted efforts of divergent networks in connection with the revolt complicate our understanding of the postwar international system. Lastly, the project considers the aftermath of the revolt, and the exile of rebel leaders to Transjordan. As migrants, rebel refugees challenged the borders and states of the interwar period.