Machine summary:
The Levant Reconciling a Century of Contradictions Mazen Hashem Although the revolution in Syria is unfolding within the modern politi- cal boundaries of this country, its proper understanding is not attainable without putting it in a larger historical context, which includes the adjacent geographical areas of the Levant, Bilad al-Sham.
Furthermore, the change in Syria has consequences for the region as whole ‒ it will institu- tionalize the Arab Spring as an unavoidable political force, and it will ener- gize the process of cultural reformation and the recovery of a civilizational Muslim identity.
The Phoenicians of the first millennium BC and the third century AC queen of the Palmyrene Empire, who led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire, left landmarks on the Syrian soil ‒ but it was the Islamic civilization that left its mark on the soul of Bilad al-Sham because for centuries it was at the heart of the Muslim order that stretched from the Atlantic in the west to the borders of China in the east, with Da- mascus, Syria as the capitol of the Umayyad rule.
Culture and the Collective Identity The Arab Spring and the Syrian revolution were more than political up- heavals, adjustments to the restructuring of the global economy, or the materialization of regional power realignments.
The post-Ottoman era represented the formal arrival of modernity to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, which entered through the social, economic, and political conditions that the colonial power created or facilitated.