Beirut - City of Capital and Culture

The emergence of early modern Beirut as an important port city was characterised by its initially slow but then accelerated urban expansion and demographic development, turning the once small, sleepy harbour into one of the most active and multifaceted cities along the eastern Mediterranean coast. This development changed the city from a space of arrival and passage to a much sought-after place of abode, attracting new residents from the hinterland and other Arab cities as well as some foreigners from abroad. Sharing a composite make-up of different religious communities and social stratifications with other cities and capitals in the region, Beirut came to be seen as having a self-consciously mixed population that merged new modes of capital and culture, based on (long-distance) trade, knowledge production and networks of communication. More than other eastern Mediterranean port cities, both the city’s residents and temporary visitors made early reflections on the nature of Beirut, its inhabitants and their ways of life.