From the Lectures of the Lebanese Cénacle

• Among the lectures of the Lebanese Cénacle was that of Dr. Zahia Kaddoura, who lectured on the 15th of this month on 'asabiyya — group solidarity — in Arab society, its origin and its developments. It was a valuable historical study in which the breadth of the lecturer's learning and her far-sightedness were plain.

Dr. Kaddoura began her lecture by speaking of the origin of 'asabiyya from the time man first existed, then of how it developed in its different directions with the appearance of Islam and the evolution of 'asabiyya from the tribal and the familial to the religious. Then, with the rise of the Umayyad state in Syria, regional 'asabiyya arose, which paved the way for the emergence of racial 'asabiyya among the Persians and the Byzantines — awakening attention to the national idea, which came early and did not reach maturity until after the flourishing of the spirit of the renaissance in the West.

The weakness of the Abbasid state was the cause of the rise of Turkish racial feeling, which led to the Seljuk–Abbasid contest that ended with the Turks taking over the rule, until the close of the First World War, when the West laid its hand upon the Arab world.

The lecturer concluded by saying that the appearance of parties heralds a new dawn, since they help greatly toward the disappearance of the existing solidarities; and she called for the necessity of intellectual and cultural harmony among these parties, so that they may be able to serve the public interest in the fullest manner.