‘A Syrian diasporic private archive: the Mishaqa family collection’

The Mishaqas have been a prominent Christian family in Lebanon and Syria since the mid-eighteenth century. Their most celebrated member, Mikha’il Mishaqa (1800-1888), was a ‘Renaissance man’ of Ottoman Syria: polymath, diplomat, religious controversialist, financier, physician. Later generations of the family have continued to play important roles both in the Levant and in the diaspora. I will present some aspects of their rich family archive, which family members generously shared with me during my recent research for a book on Mikha’il Mishaqa; and discuss plans for making this unique resource, now dispersed in a number of international locations, available to scholars and the public.