Words and situations

Saeb Salam

The book "Words and Positions" contains speeches and lectures delivered by Lebanese Prime Minister Saeb Salam on political and national occasions between 1954 and 1990, in which he discusses his thoughts and opinions on Lebanese and Arab events.
This documentary book, whose contents were compiled from the archives of the American University of Beirut and President Salam's own personal archives, provides a comprehensive overview of his fundamental positions on various issues. It primarily reveals his political orientations throughout his life, most notably his nationalist and Arabist orientation through his stances on the Arab-Israeli conflict and his support for the Palestinian resistance, which began in 1936.
There are also milestones in his vision for building the Lebanese state, as he was one of those who contributed to the process of building modern Lebanon, through his participation in the parliamentary session to remove the mandate provisions from the constitution and in drawing the new Lebanese flag. Since the 1950s, he has called for the construction of a modern and advanced state in all fields, in addition to calling for the drafting of a modern constitution based on the abolition of sectarianism. From here, these "words and positions" gain their importance, as they are an important document of milestones in Lebanon's modern history and its transformations, especially the Lebanese Civil War, which Salam had warned of since the 1950s.
The words also present the Arab vision of this nationalist leader, who treated Lebanon only as part of its Arab and Islamic environment. In this context, his "Maqasid" speeches and words also come, that is, those revolving around the Maqasid Islamic Charitable Society in Beirut, whose board of trustees he chaired between 1958 and 1982. He realized that the Maqasid was the primary opportunity available for the advancement of Lebanese Islamic society, particularly through modernizing the society's educational work.