Abstract
Syrian and Lebanese Christian Arab intellectuals have an important place in the history of Arabic literature. Throughout history, Lebanon has been the gateway of the Middle East to the west. Since the entry of Western language and culture into Arab countries is through Lebanon, it is a strategically important country. There are 24 different ethnic and religious groups that can be politicized very quickly in the country where the followers of three celestial religions live together. Lebanon experienced the most painful days in its history between 1788-1860. Although the Ottomans tried to act equally among religious and ethnic groups, France supported the Maronite Catholic Christians, Britain's Druzes and Russian Orthodox Christians in order to gain control in the region, and the Egyptian Governor Mehmet Ali Pasha saw the region as a buffer zone, there have been conflicts between races and members of different religions leading to civil war. Armenian and Greek poets, who spoke Arabic, and lived like Arabs, infiltrated to the nearest Lebanese Emirate, made an extraordinary effort to fuel these conflicts. The Ottoman Empire, which wanted to maintain its sovereignty in the region, supported Emir Bashir al-Shihabi. II. Bashir, just like the Arab Caliphs, his Emirs and commanders, employed 4 poets named Nikola et-Türk, Ameen al-Cundî, Nâsîf el-Yâzıcî and Bedros Kerâme, each of whom was a member of a different faction in his palace, and through these poets, groups belonging to different ethnic races and religions. aimed to keep it under control. II. Bashir's Christian poets generally saw the Ottoman Empire as the sole responsible for all events in Lebanon of the period; Therefore, they strongly opposed the existence of the Ottomans in the Middle East. However, they rarely wrote poems praising Ottoman rulers, governors and statesmen. Unable to dismiss the idea of Lebanon's independence for a moment, taking every opportunity for this, sometimes rebelling against the Ottomans, sometimes standing by the strongest against the Ottoman Empire. It is significant that Beşîr Eş-Şihâbî invited 4 poets, who were considered the greatest poets of the 19th century, to his palace simultaneously. Among the reasons for this invitation, the goals such as immortalizing the services they provide to the poets by advertising them, silencing their rivals through their poets and getting the support of the ethnic and religious groups living in Lebanon for an independent Lebanon by getting closer to the groups represented by the poets through their poets stand out.