Antun Sa'adah (March 1, 1904-July 8, 1949) was a Lebanese social nationalist thinker and founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. He rejected Arab Nationalism and indeed the idea that the speakers of the Arabic language formed a single nation, and argued instead for the creation of the state of United Syrian Nation or Natural Syria that includes the area that "extends from the Taurus range in the northwest and the Zagros mountains in the northeast to the Suez canal and the Red Sea in the south and includes the Sinai peninsula and the gulf of Aqaba, and from the Syrian sea in the west, including the island of Cyprus, to the arch of the Arabian desert and the Persian gulf in the east." (Kader, H. A.). March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... SSNP flag The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (Arabic: al-Hizb al-Suri al-Qawmi al-Ijtimai, often referred to in French as Parti Populaire Syrien) is a nationalist political party that advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian national state. ... Arab nationalism refers to a common nationalist ideology in wider Arab world. ... Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

Sa'adah rejected both language and religion as defining characteristics of a nation, and instead argued that nations develop through the common development of a people inhabiting a specific geographical region. He was thus a strong opponent of both Arab nationalism and Pan-Islamism. He argued that Syria was historically, culturally, and geographically distinct from the rest of the Arab world, which he divided into four parts. He traced Syrian history as a distinct entity back to the Phoenicians, Canaanites, Assyrians, Babylonians etc. and argued that Syrianism transcended religious distinctions. Pan-Islamism is the loose unification of all Islamic countries and peoples. ... Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon and Syria. ... This article is about the land called Canaan. ... This article concerns the Assyrian people. ... Babylonia was an ancient state in Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ...

A Lebanese Christian from Dhour Choueir, he wrote during the French colonial period between the two World Wars. He spent much of the period in exile in Brazil. As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ... A world war is a military conflict affecting the majority of the worlds countries. ...

In 1932 he returned to Beirut and began to teach at the American University of Beirut. That year he founded Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Beirut to oppose the French division of the region and push for unity. He spent most of the mandate period incarcerated by the French authorities. 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... Central Beirut (2004) Beirut (Arabic: , transliterated Bayrūt - the French name, Beyrouth, was also commonly used in English in the past) is the capital, largest city and chief seaport of Lebanon. ... The American University of Beirut (AUB) is a private, independent, non-sectarian university founded in 1866 in Beirut, Lebanon. ... SSNP flag The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (Arabic: al-Hizb al-Suri al-Qawmi al-Ijtimai, often referred to in French as Parti Populaire Syrien) is a nationalist political party that advocates the establishment of a Greater Syrian national state. ... Central Beirut (2004) Beirut (Arabic: , transliterated Bayrūt - the French name, Beyrouth, was also commonly used in English in the past) is the capital, largest city and chief seaport of Lebanon. ...

On July 4, 1949, the party declared a revolution in Lebanon in retaliation to a series of violent intimidations staged by by the government of Lebanon against party members. These acts were supported by foreign powers trying to limit the influence of the party in the anti-sectarian movement and its influence on the Palestinian issue and in the spreading of the idea of a stronger united and independent Syrian Nation. The revolt failed and as he went to Damascus to meet Husni el-Zaim (Republic of Syria ruler at the time), who was supposed to support him as previously agreed, he was handed by el-Zaim to Lebanese authorities by. Saadeh and many of his followers were judged by a military court in a quick and unfair way and were executed. Saadeh's execution was at dawn of July 8th 1949. July 4 is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 180 days remaining. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ...

He published many books, treatises and articles during his life time on a wide range of topics.

He emphasizes the role of philosophy and social science in the development of his social ideology. He views social nationalism, which is his version of nationalism, as a tool to transform traditional society into a dynamic and progressive one. Secularization plays an important role in his ideology. Secularization is taken by him beyond the socio-political aspects of the question into its philosophical dimensions.

References

• ["al-Islam fi Risalatayh" Islam in its two Messages: Mohammedanism and Christianity, by A. Saadeh]
• "Some Distinguishing Aspects of Saadeh's Thought" By Dr. Adel Daher

• SSNP IDEOLOGY, as prepared by Dr. Haytham A. Kader

External links

• "What Motivated me to Establish the Syrian Social Nationalist Party", by Antoun Saadeh
• Official SSNP Online Biography of Sa'adah