No... not Wiam nor Walid. Three generations ago! The Jumblatt was Fouad (Walid's grand father). The Wahhab was Chakib (not so sure how he is related to Wiam). The year was 1921. The month, August. And the day, the sixth.
Around twenty four hours before the assassination, Fouad Jumblatt resigned from his position as Kaaim-Makkam of the Shouf because significant elements within the Druze sect, lead by the Sheikh el Akl of the time, Hussein Hamade (a member of the rival Yezbeki clan), protested against Fouad's handling of an insurgency that was lead by Chakib Wahhab. Fouad had resorted to arresting female members of the insurgents' families as a means of pressuring the men to hand themselves in to the authorities.
Wahhab was purportedly under the influence of Syrian elements who were resisting the French mandate. Accordingly, he did his best to incite the Druze against the French and the Maronites in Lebanon. His tactics composed of assassinations, and traditional guerilla techniques. His targets included high-ranking and notable Maronites, French officials as well as any Lebanese working for the Mandate government.
Jumblatt, on the other hand, assumed the responsibility of maintaining order and a state of peace between the Maronites and Druze in his jurisdiction. His relationship with the French was far from hostile - not so shocking considering they appointed him. The lion's share of his efforts went to maintaining a peaceful relationship between the Maronite and Druze communities based on a notion of justice that he vigorously enforced. His wrath was felt most by those Druze who he perceived to have transgressed his laws.
On August the fifth, after mailing out a resignation letter to the French, he got wind of news that Chakib Wahhab and his men had assassinated the Mukhtar of Za'rouriya (a village in Ainbal Valley), who was a Maronite. Immediately, Fouad sent another letter to the French rescinding his offer to resign. The next morning, on the sixth, amidst a gathering of Ba'aklinis,(one of his seats of power was the Serail of Ba'aklin) he announced his fateful decision to head to the scene of the crime. A number of gendarmes headed by Yousef Kasbaar (who was also on Wahhab's 'black list') accompanied him.
Chakib Wahhab and his men were lying in wait. They ambushed Fouad Jumblatt, on his way from Ba'aklin to Za'rouriya. Fouad was hit by a bullet in his chest while riding Yousef Kasbaar's horse. His own horse was in a stable in Ba'aklin because it was injured the previous day.
The rest is history.
Or is it?
SOURCE: Timoviev, Igor, Kamal Jumblatt, the Man and the Legend, Beirut, 2001, pp 27 - 28
SPECIAL THANKS: Doha. I couldn't have written this little post without her help.
Addendum: Wael Abu Faour claims that his grand father was among the civilians wounded by Wiam Wahhab's body guards in the not-so-little scuffle that transpired during a funeral prosession in Hasbayya a few days ago. The idiots fired their weapons when participants began expressing their displeasure regarding Wahab's presense. It appears that Wiam has some unfinished business he'd like to take care of!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
What an interesting story. I love stories about Lebanon's history because so much of it is confusing and not really taught. As if in Lebanon, today means nothing, tomorrow means a whole lot and yesterday, well, better forget all about it lest secrets start to come out.
Great post, tks Raja and Doha. Maybe history does not have any predictive value, but it is still fascinating.
excellent post!
the jumblatts have a history of dying violently... no wonder walid spends his time hiding under the wing of the strongest man around...excellent post!
i wonder what geagea's grandpa was doing in those days...
so fouad jumblatt died on my birthday... hmmm... and the druze reincarnate...
"Future TV said the army arrested 12 of Wahab's bodyguards."
er... he travels with a whole platoon??
So that's why Wiam acts and looks stupid and retarded! They have a long family history of that. This man belongs behind bars. What a gangster!
Dalal
acrobat,
you have to acknowledge the irony here... c'mon! If anything, this post should highlight how in Lebanon we never study history because we are perpetually living it!
As for Wahhab's body guards, most accounts claim that he took 20 - 30 "body guards" with him to the funeral. That is not a Platoon, it is a Company!
If they don't put him and his platoon behind bars, then there's no state in this country.
How can these people finance these private militia? How can he pay the salaries and the equipment of 30 bodyguards?
Allow me to play the devil's advocate, or in that case the stupid syrian puppet's advocate.
If he gets procecuted and thrown in jail then that's great.
If he does not, well then I think jumblat and bou fa3our are just bluffing and the whole fiasco was not really his fault.
I find it very hard to beleive that jumblat has the backing of the ministery of interrior, and is right while at the same time he still cannot -justly- prosecute wahhab.
Or maybe it's just the sad justice of our legal system. It'll probably take him 20 years to get a verdict.
Read how Michael Young's article got trounced on the Angry Arab website...and read how Michaels response got trounced again....
blog reporter
your comment about geagea is in geagea's favour.
Unlike walid,samir wasn't the heir of a political dynasty and a rich family .
He wasn't born in a castle like mokhtara and yet he built a castle like me3rab.
No offense to the jumblatt dynasty for which i have great respect.
Post a Comment