One characteristic of Lebanon, expressing a common
nostalgia where tradition is concerned, is that of
family names being finally used as the names of the
towns or villages of their owner’s residence. If one
looks around one finds many interesting examples.
The region of Fayadieh was once the domain of the
Fayad family, while the village of Mradiyeh was the
fief of the Nrads. Then to the south of Hazmieh, on
heights above Beirut on an attractive slope, there
is a stretch of 150 acres, which was once the possession
of the Asfour family (Asfour meaning bird) and so
took the name Asfourieh. This happened at the beginning
of the twentieth century, for at that time and even
earlier the western Christian missions were plentiful
and each one found followers and sympathizers. This
was because the Ottoman regime was harsh and unjust
and people were ready to accept anything new that
relieved them in some degree of the Turkish tyranny.
Hospitals, schools, cultural activities, development,
national feeling, all represented a need for emancipation.
So it was that the Asfours offered this plot of land
to a medical mission for the setting up of a psychiatric
hospital for the mentally ill.
On this wide stretch of land a hospital was built
that was different from others. It did not consist
of one massive block, a single construction, but comprised
several buildings distributed over wooded land. There
was one independent block for men, another for women,
an operating and service block, with laboratories,
a clinic, conference halls, halls for reunions and
meetings, games courts, independent chalets, a park
with trees, a restaurant with kitchens, and a church,
in short a very functional village complete in itself.
Here was a hospital set in natural surroundings, with
paths winding between the clumps of trees and seats
where one could sit down and relax, making a place
for taking walks where one could breathe pure air
and admire the beauties of nature, the first of its
kind in Lebanon and the Middle East.
The doctors giving treatment came from far and wide.
They included Lebanese, British, Americans, French
and Germans. The main central hospital was attached
to the Beirut Medical Faculty. There was a general
director who had the help of doctors and general assistants.
One of them, whose name slips me, had a passion for
art, in particular painting, and possessed a studio
workshop. He needed help and became friends with the
artist painter Omar Onsi, my own professor, and came
regularly to work in the latter’s studio and to show
him his productions. On one occasion the doctor invited
Omar to go and paint a landscape showing the natural
beauty of Asfourieh.
Omar told me that he had spent a most pleasant day
there, and showed me the painting he had done. He
added that the doctor had sat beside him to do a painting
of his own; but he noticed that Omar simplified his
composition quite freely, not imitating nature but
eliminating certain details and emphasizing others.
He asked him, “Why have you removed those trees and
rocks?” Omar replied, “Like that I have made the view
more attractive.” Thereupon the doctor called one
of the gardeners and ordered him to cut down the trees
in question so that now it was nature that imitated
the art of Omar, and not the contrary. This upset
the artist as he much loved trees and nature and he
explained to the psychiatrist that the group of trees
could be very attractive in another context.
I tell this little anecdote because I could feel how
much Omar esteemed the director of the hospital. Omar
did several watercolors at Asfourieh, showing what
one may well call a typical English garden. The trees
have grown up as if the hand of God had scattered
them pell-mell, without any symmetry or plan. It is
like a poetic woodland in this domain which is all
peace and calm for the soul, so hastening the patients’
recovery.
But how many songs have been sung, how many jokes
have been told, about the Asfourieh! The very name
has become synonymous with mental hospital!
We have been talking about a time when the hospital
and convent of the Holy Cross did not yet exist. The
holy Père Jacques, Father Jacob, was in due
course to take up the role of caring for the mentally
sick. This he did very capably at the Holy Cross and
this marked the beginning of a decline in the importance
of the Asfourieh hospital, which no longer exists
as such. The site has now become a piece of neglected
rough land with a guardian present during the daytime
and an extensive residential project is being prepared
to cover it. Mental patients go to the hospital of
Father Jacques at Holy Cross, where they are looked
after by the sister of the community which the holy
priest founded.
For their part, the Asfours, seeing that the Latins
in Lebanon had no bishopric of their own, offered
them their own fine house at Hadath as a residence
for the Latin-rite bishop.
Joseph Matar - Translation from the French:
Kenneth Mortimer
