The Pervasiveness of the “Sacred” in Beirut’s Public Spaces. “A Preliminary Geographical Analysis”

SFEIR, Christiane

doi:10.21608/aaj.2022.274633

The Pervasiveness of the “Sacred” in Beirut’s Public Spaces. “A Preliminary Geographical Analysis”

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Christiane SFEIR

Professor, Lebanese University, and research units, CERDA Lebanese University

10.21608/aaj.2022.274633

Abstract

This paper aims to very briefly analyse, through geographer’s eyes, the
various religious and secular actors’ strategies in their process of
production of sacred spaces in Beirut, Lebanon. The eighteen Lebanese
religious communities present in the country each mark Beirut’s urban
landscape with religious symbols and signs that are also very often
politically charged.
Our assumption is that “sacred” space cannot be limited just to religious
buildings; in Beirut, it is expressed by taking over public spaces,
transforming easily accessible secular loci into areas that impose rules
and specific codes of behaviour.
In the city, religious events are expressed through spiritual, cultural,
social and architectural venues. Beirut is marked by symbols merging
politics and religion, with a regular use of religion by the media
working for political parties; thus, each quarter of the city is marked by
a particular political ideology that reflects the religious identity of its
inhabitants through specific codes and signs.
These vary according to their geographical position and time frames. The religious affiliations of the majority of the inhabitants of a particular region impose codes that mark particular public spaces. This geography is rendered even more complex by the specific religious calendars observed by each religion: spatial “sacredness” thus begins and ends on clear-cut dates for each religion, producing specific spaces created, recognized and used differently by the various segments of the city’s population.

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