Episodes

  • Beirut 1885 The Silk Merchant Who Defied an Empire

    Beirut 1885 The Silk Merchant Who Defied an Empire
    Jul 4 2026
    In 1885, a Maronite silk merchant from Beirut named Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock stood up to the Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II over a land dispute in the Bekaa Valley. When the sultan tried to confiscate the Sursock family's vast estates, Nicolas used his connections in the French consulate and the local courts to fight back. The case reached the Sublime Porte in Constantinople, and Nicolas eventually won, but the confrontation revealed the fragile power balance between local elites and imperial authority in late Ottoman Syria. This episode explores the Sursock family's rise, their role in the silk trade that connected Beirut to Lyons, and how one man's defiance set a precedent for other Lebanese notables. It also touches on the legal system of the time, the influence of the Capitulations, and the beginnings of a Lebanese diaspora identity. #Beirut #SilkTrade #OttomanEmpire #SursockFamily #NicolasIbrahimSursock #LebanonHistory #AbdulhamidII #BekaaValley #Capitulations #Lyons #Maronite #19thCentury #LandDispute #SublimePorte #OttomanLaw #MiddleEast #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    6 mins
  • Beirut 1840: The Bombardment That Ended Egyptian Rule

    Beirut 1840: The Bombardment That Ended Egyptian Rule
    Jul 4 2026
    In 1840, a British-Ottoman-Austrian fleet bombarded Beirut and forced Ibrahim Pasha's Egyptian army out of Lebanon, ending a decade of occupation. This episode explores the naval campaign, the Battle of Beirut, the role of Admiral Charles Napier, and how the city's skyline was reshaped by cannon fire. We discuss the shifting alliances between Muhammad Ali, the Sublime Porte, and European powers, and how local Maronite and Druze leaders like Bashir Shihab II and Bashir Jumblatt navigated the crisis. The episode also covers the Convention of London and the firmans that restored Ottoman control, setting the stage for the 1860 massacres and the Mutasarrifiyya system. A forgotten chapter of Lebanon's 19th-century wars that reveals how great power politics tore and remade the Levant. #Beirut1840 #IbrahimPasha #MuhammadAli #CharlesNapier #BattleofBeirut #EgyptianOccupation #BashirShihabII #BashirJumblatt #LondonConvention #OttomanEmpire #BritishNavy #Levant #19thCentury #NavalHistory #LebanonHistory #MiddleEastHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    8 mins
  • Beirut 1832: Ibrahim Pasha and the Egyptian Occupation of Lebanon

    Beirut 1832: Ibrahim Pasha and the Egyptian Occupation of Lebanon
    Jul 3 2026
    In 1832, Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, marched into Greater Syria and began a decade-long occupation that shattered the old Ottoman order in Mount Lebanon. This episode explores how Egyptian rule brought unprecedented conscription, disarmament, and tax collection to the mountain villages, sparking the 1834 peasant revolt led by the Druze chieftain Bashir Jumblatt. We trace the rise of Ibrahim Pasha's modern army, the clash between centralized state power and local feudal autonomy, and the lasting scars left by the Egyptian withdrawal in 1840 — including the division of Mount Lebanon into two kaymakamates. Along the way, we meet the Maronite patriarch Yusuf al-Khazin, the Shihab emir Bashir II, and the British Admiral Robert Stopford who helped expel the Egyptians. This episode builds on earlier conversations about the 1840 peasant uprising and the 1860 massacres, filling in the crucial decade that set the stage for Lebanon's sectarian confessional system. #IbrahimPasha #MuhammadAli #EgyptianOccupation #GreaterSyria #MountLebanon #BashirJumblatt #1834PeasantRevolt #BashirShihabII #Tanzimat #OttomanEmpire #Druze #Maronite #Kaymakamate #1830s #FexingoHistory #BeirutHistory #LebanonHistory #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    10 mins
  • Beirut 1982: The Siege That Shattered the PLO's State Within a State

    Beirut 1982: The Siege That Shattered the PLO's State Within a State
    Jul 3 2026
    In the summer of 1982, Israeli forces encircled West Beirut for ten weeks, bombarding the city in a bid to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization. This episode zooms in on the siege itself: the relentless shelling, the water and food shortages, the tense negotiations mediated by Philip Habib, and the final, fateful evacuation of Arafat and his fighters by sea. We look at how the siege reshaped Lebanese politics—empowering the Shia Amal movement as the PLO vacated, deepening the Maronite-Syrian rift, and setting the stage for the Sabra and Shatila massacre that followed. We also consider the human cost: thousands of civilian dead, the destruction of the city's cultural heart, and the enduring trauma that fuels Lebanon's collective memory. #Beirut1982 #SiegeOfBeirut #PLO #YasserArafat #PhilipHabib #SabraAndShatila #ArielSharon #WestBeirut #LebaneseCivilWar #AmalMovement #Maronite #Syria #Israel #OperationPeaceForGalilee #BeirutAirport #RaficHariri #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    9 mins
  • Beirut 1907 The Coffeehouse that Brewed Revolution

    Beirut 1907 The Coffeehouse that Brewed Revolution
    Jul 2 2026
    Long before militias carved up Beirut, a different kind of battlefield existed in its coffeehouses. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the forgotten story of the city's early 20th century qahwa — spaces where Ottoman officials, journalists, secret society members, and ordinary Beirutis gathered over tiny cups of bitter coffee to debate the future of the empire. Focusing on the years 1905–1908, we trace how the al-Qarantina and Bab Idriss coffeehouses became nerve centers for the Young Turk movement and Arab nationalist thought. We meet figures like the reformist Sheikh Abdelhamid al-Zahrawi and the journalist Rashid Rida, who used these informal parlors to circulate banned newspapers and hatch plans that would culminate in the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. Drawing on Ottoman police records and memoirs, we reconstruct the smoky rooms where Syria's fate was argued long before any borders were drawn. This is a story about the power of conversation — and how a five-cent cup of coffee helped topple an empire. #BeirutHistory #CoffeehouseCulture #YoungTurks #OttomanEmpire #1908Revolution #ArabNationalism #RashidRida #AlQarantina #BabIdriss #Beirut1900s #AbdulhamidII #SheikhAbdulhamidAlZahrawi #Censorship #SecretSocieties #MiddleEastHistory #History #FexingoHistory #Lebanon Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    7 mins
  • Beirut 1860: The Massacre That Changed Lebanon Forever

    Beirut 1860: The Massacre That Changed Lebanon Forever
    Jul 1 2026
    In 1860, sectarian violence erupted across Mount Lebanon, culminating in a massacre of thousands of Christians by Druze and Muslim forces. This episode explores the causes—from feudal tensions to Ottoman reforms—and the aftermath: the French military intervention and the creation of the Mutasarrifiyya, a Christian-governed autonomous region that reshaped Lebanese identity. We discuss the role of the Druze Jumblatt family, the Maronite clergy, and the European powers, and how this event set the stage for Lebanon's modern confessional system. #Lebanon #MountLebanon #1860Massacre #Druze #Maronite #OttomanEmpire #Mutasarrifiyya #Jumblatt #FrenchIntervention #SectarianConflict #LebaneseHistory #19thCentury #MiddleEast #History #FexingoHistory #Beirut #Christians #Kisrawan Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    8 mins
  • Beirut 1918: The Ottoman Exit That Changed Everything

    Beirut 1918: The Ottoman Exit That Changed Everything
    Jul 1 2026
    In October 1918, as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, Beirut was cut loose from four centuries of imperial rule. This episode follows the chaotic transition in the days after the Ottoman withdrawal: the establishment of a makeshift Arab government under Faisal's banner, the arrival of French warships, and the power vacuum that pitted local notables, Allied interests, and emerging nationalist factions against each other. We focus on the brief Arab administration of Shukri al-Ayyubi and the role of the Beirut Reform Society in shaping post-war expectations. Through the eyes of observers like American consul William S. Buckler and Lebanese historian Asad Rustum, we trace how the city's elites navigated competing promises from Britain, France, and the Arab Revolt. The episode examines the fateful decisions made in those weeks, from the hoisting of the Arab flag over the Serail to the quiet negotiations that paved the way for French control. It's a story of hope, confusion, and the seeds of later conflict. #Beirut1918 #OttomanWithdrawal #ArabGovernment #Faisal #ShukriAlAyyubi #ArabRevolt #FrenchMandate #BeirutHistory #WorldWarI #SykesPicot #BeirutReformSociety #WilliamSBuckler #AsadRustum #ArabFlag #MiddleEastHistory #LebanonHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    7 mins
  • Beirut 1919: The Paris Peace Conference That Lebanon Almost Got

    Beirut 1919: The Paris Peace Conference That Lebanon Almost Got
    Jun 30 2026
    In 1919, as the Great Powers carved up the Ottoman Empire at the Paris Peace Conference, a small delegation from Mount Lebanon arrived in Versailles with a bold demand: an independent state, not a French mandate. Led by the Maronite Patriarch Elias al-Huwayyik, they lobbied for a Greater Lebanon that included the Bekaa Valley and the coastal cities—but ran into opposition from Syrian nationalists, Druze notables, and even some of their own Sunni neighbors. This episode unpacks the forgotten diplomacy of the Lebanese delegation at Paris, the competing petitions from Muslim and Druze communities, and the quiet deal-making that ultimately gave France the green light to create Lebanon as we know it. We explore the backroom meetings, the secret correspondence with Henri Gouraud, and the bitter irony that the same Patriarch who fought for Lebanese sovereignty would live to see French troops enforce that sovereignty with violence. A story of hope, manipulation, and the birth of a nation that was never quite born. #ParisPeaceConference #EliasHuwayyik #GreaterLebanon #MountLebanon #1919 #FrenchMandate #HenriGouraud #SyrianNationalism #Druze #BekaaValley #Maronite #LebaneseIndependence #WorldWarI #SelfDetermination #Diplomacy #History #FexingoHistory #MiddleEast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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    7 mins