دار بيبليون
Religious Studies Library Project/ Speech delivered on the World Day of Non-Violence by Lwiis Saliba, 1/10/2022
“Man is the enemy of what he does not know”, says the Arab proverb. Our religious enmities in this Arab East, and in the rest of the world, are mainly due to our mutual ignorance. We have been living for decades, rather hundreds of years, side by side, and we only know about the other, who is different from us, some inherited prejudices, most of which are wrong. This mutual ignorance has always been and continues to be a source of violence. It has become clear to me personally, and after much research leading to the writing of several books on religious violence and religious wars and their roots, that one of their main causes is ignorance of the other. In India, several sages have always repeated to me a proverb which says: ‘A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing’.
This is our situation today, especially in this Arab East: we know little about our own religious and spiritual tradition, or rather we know only enough about it to be fanatical about it and consider it the absolute truth, and everything else is wrong. On the other hand, we know almost nothing about the religious and spiritual traditions of others.
Despite his pessimistic view of war, his belief that man is violent by nature, and his assertion that we cannot stop wars, we find that Sigmund Freud proposes a formula worthy of consideration, which would mitigate the scourge of wars, and could slow down the path to violent conflict. Freud says: “Everything that helps to develop and spread culture works against violence and war”.
Culture in all its aspects is the first victim of wars. That is why the bet on the dissemination of a culture of peace and tolerance is one of the most important things we can do in the fight against the phenomenon of violence and wars. That is why I felt it was so important and relevant to present the following project to you, especially on this International Day of Non-Violence.
Since I was a child, I have chosen to work for 2 objectives: non-violence, which I learned from Mahatma Gandhi, and culture, especially in the field of religious sciences and the knowledge of the other who is different. My hobby was, and still is, collecting books. In this, living for long periods in many countries with different languages helped me a lot to realise this wish. I lived in Paris for university studies, then worked as a bookseller and editor there for about 11 years, and in India for about three years, then in Egypt for more than a year. In addition, I had a long stay in my native country, Lebanon, and long visits to most Arab and Islamic countries, such as Tunisia, Iraq, Syria, the Emirates and Iran. Then European countries such as Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, and I participated as a publisher in big ‘Book Fairs’ in most of these countries, as well as a researcher, author and university teacher in scientific symposiums in these same countries. My first objective in all these cultural activities in which I participated, was to collect the books which were at my disposal, in particular in the spiritual fields and in that of the sciences of the religions, all the more so as that helped me in my research, in my studies and my university teachings. My other job as a bookseller and publisher enabled me to obtain these books at reduced prices, which made it easier for me to buy every serious or interesting book that fell into my hands in one of the three languages I master: Arabic, French and English, or in one of the ancient languages I learned: Syriac, Latin, Hebrew and Sanskrit. I proceeded to ship these books to Lebanon by sea. Thus, I have been able to collect in my private library about forty thousand books in the three living languages, in addition to Spanish and the ancient languages mentioned above. Most of these are basic texts and sources, or serious studies in the sciences of religion. In Buddhism and Hinduism, for example, I have one of the richest libraries in Lebanon and the Levant and in all three languages.
In addition to these books on paper, I have assembled, in collaboration with a number of friends and specialists, an electronic library which includes, to date, about 45 thousand electronic books and magazines in PDF format.
This valuable collection, if made available to researchers and interested persons, provides them with knowledge, sources and references not available elsewhere in this region.
In my firm belief that the dissemination of knowledge and the development of culture is the best way to spread the culture of peace and non-violence, which we need in this Arab East still mired in violence and ignorance, I am now proposing a project to transform this private and specialised library into a public one, in my country and my hometown of Jbeil/Byblos.
Why Jbeil/Byblos precisely? Not only because it is my city and my birthplace, but also because it is the city of letters and the book, since it exported the syllabic alphabet and the Phoenician letters to the ancient Greek cities and other metropolises of the ancient world. It also exported Papyrus to the Greeks, so they called it Byblos, a word derived from Papyrus, and they named the book Bible, deriving from Byblos, from which the Bible got its name.
Moreover, the culture of peace and non-violence has remained embedded in Byblos throughout its history. Its ancient name “Jbeil” means Jeb-El”, meaning Beth-El the house of El (Îl in Aramaic pronunciation), and Îl is the god of Byblos, to whom the legend attributes the construction of Byblos. This legend was transmitted by the author Philo of Byblos (1st century AD) ().
He was known by his slogan: “War is against my will, so spread love among people and pour peace in the heart of the earth” (). The God of Jbeil and its builder, is therefore a God of love, peace, and non-violence, and throughout its seven thousand year history Jbeil/Byblos has been a city of peace and non-violence.
And then, this god of love was adopted by Christianity. The Gospel of Matthew (1/23) quotes the prophecy from the book of Isaiah (7/14): “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be Immanuel”. The Gospel of Matthew adds: “Our God is with us”. On the cross, Jesus cried out, “Îli, Îli, lema sabachthani, that is, my God Îl, my God Îl, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
And Îl of Jbeil is a just and merciful God, who converses with humans, sympathises with them, shares their concerns and treats them, addresses the heroes through a dream, and reveals his will to them. The citizens of Jbeil depicted him with one head and four eyes, to include in his vision the four points of view of the world and the four directions, emphasising the unity of the universe, the equality of the regions, and the comprehensiveness and openness of the religious perspective.
With its veneration of Îl, Jbeil has known religious pluralism since the earliest times. The Phoenicians were divided between the supporters of the god Îl and the followers of the god Baal (), who later became Adonis. In one of the temples of Byblos, an Egyptian goddess can be seen next to the ancient local deity of Byblos for the Canaanites ().
Byblos has always been open to the religions of neighbouring peoples or those who passed through its territory. In 1903, in Byblos, in the properties of Lebanese monks, a large statue of the god Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, was found.
The archaeologist Father Renzvall discovered in Byblos in 1908 a statue of Jupiter the Great. As he was mentioned in a Greek writing underneath, the people of Jbeil worshipped him and considered him their god Malukh, but they brought him out in a Greco-Roman costume” ().
Explaining this remarkable phenomenon, the historian, Father Louis Sheikho (1859-1927) says: “The Phoenicians agreed to mix their gods with the gods of Greece and the Romans and considered them all as the same gods, not differentiating them in essence but accidentally. They called Baal after Jupiter, and Ashtart after Venus. The Phoenicians continued their familiar national religious customs, they changed nothing in their worship. In this vein, you see a single temple, in Lebanon and in Jbeil in particular, honoured by the Greeks, the Romans and the Phoenicians. Each of them claims to honour his own deity there.
The geographical location of Byblos, which mediated the distance between the two greatest empires of ancient history, Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley, contributed to the religious pluralism and cultural diversity that we clearly see in its ancient history. This is still one of its most important characteristics to this day. This cultural openness, as well as cultural diversity, played a key role in the site of Byblos, halfway between the two giants of the ancient world, Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Byblos’ close relationship with Mesopotamia dates back to the fourth millennium BC, as excavations show. While Jbeil’s relations with Egypt date back to the time of the second pharaonic dynasty (3100-2995 BC), as the legend of Isis and Osiris () testifies.
This central geographical location of Byblos contributed to the establishment of a Phoenician political and cultural balance between the two giants: Egypt and Mesopotamia.
One aspect of the cultural diversity in Byblos is the multiplicity of languages that its inhabitants master. The French archaeologist Maurice Dunant, during his excavations in the city, discovered a clay tablet dating from between 2300 and 2200 B.C. on which is engraved a school exercise that shows that the Akkadian language was taught in Byblos schools. This scholar adds: “Egyptian, Akkadian, and perhaps Sumerian, were familiar languages in Byblos and Phoenicia, especially to those whose external relations linked them to the countries of these languages. The schools of Byblos date back to at least the 23rd century BC. They taught the languages of Egypt and Mesopotamia, as historical sources show. By the time of the Romans, the Greek language had spread to all classes of the Phoenician population, especially in Byblos, and Greek was the language of most Middle Eastern countries, while the official departments used the Latin language, and Philo of Byblos (42-117 AD) wrote his books in Greek. For all these reasons, it is certain that the entrenchment of the culture of peace and non-violence in Byblos through the ages, the consolidation of religious pluralism and openness to the difference of the other in the ancient and modern history of this city, as well as the consolidation of the tradition of multilingualism in ancient and contemporary times, make Jbeil/Byblos a model city for the foundation of a project for a centre of interreligious dialogue and a Library of Religious Sciences. Of course, it is necessary for this project to have a suitable place and location, to start cataloguing the books electronically, and to put the general index on the Internet so that everyone can benefit from its titles and research topics. We have created a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which has an official licence in Lebanon, and which will take charge of the organisation and management of this eventual centre. Any technical or material help is welcome, it will advance this intellectual, civilizational and dialogue project. Our friend and professor, Dr Jacques Vigne, the Great Friend of Jbeil for example, has promised to give this centre his own library and books. Manuscripts and cultural heritage will have a special place there.
Hoping that the next few days will allow us to launch the implementation of this vital project, I thought it appropriate to present it on this ‘International Day of Non-Violence’. It is a project of dialogue and non-violence par excellence. I hope it will attract the attention and interest of our dear listeners. Thank you very much for listening.