Bel Lebnééné calls for Lebanese Arabic to be standardized

ENAR

Lebanon has a long history as a shipping and trading hub, leveraging its geographical location on the Mediterranean Sea and connecting mainland Europe to the Arab hinterland. It was several thousand years ago that religious texts referenced the peoples of Mesopotamia (in what is now modern day Iraq) first migrating and settling on the coastal lands of the area. These people were known as Canaanites. Later, the Phoenician civilization dominated the coastal lands of the Eastern Mediterranean and was centered around the present-day geographical borders of Lebanon. For a period, the Romans ruled over the area before the Arabs, and this was followed by a struggle over control of the region during a period known as the Crusades. Fast forward to the 1500s, and Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years until its collapse following World War I. From then until the Republic of Lebanon was