To: Head Editor of Cahiers Science et vie
Ref: N° 145, May 2014, issue 4/8

Dear Madam,

I have been reading Science et vie for some seventy years now, not to mention the cahiers and various associated publications. But now I am very sorry to see the degree to which your historical research is one-sided and I can only register my disappointment.

On page 15 you publish a table of outstanding ancient civilizations but here you ignore, I hope unintentionally, one of the most shining and influential sources of civilization, that of the Phoenicians. You mention instead an obscure kingdom called Juda, where there was not one skilled metal-smith, lack of whom obliged its people to go to Tyre or Sidon to get their reservoirs and various tools forged for them – see Kings I, chapters beginning 5, 6 and 7.

You leave out all mention of the Canaanites and of the land of the Phoenicians, cradle of the Ugaritic and Giblite alphabets. All encyclopedias talk of these as the most important invention made by mankind since its beginnings and also tell us that two-thirds of the civilization known as Greek was the fruit of the achievements of the ancestors of the Lebanese. Eminent Phoenicians handed on the knowledge acquired, Thales, Euclid, Pythagoras, Zeno of Cittiram, and Europa of Tyre after whom Europe is named. Indeed there was a time when the Mediterranean was in fact the playground of the Phoenician fleets.

Glass, purple dye, paper (from papyrus), the book (Bible named from the city of Byblos), and oval constructions were due to the Phoenicians, while the famous sanctuary of Lady of Byblos drew pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean. Beirut became in due course the home of the famous Law School with Ulpian and Pepinian, while Philo of Byblos attained fame as an author. Cadmus set out from here and Hanno who went round Africa in the 6th century B.C.. They showed that the planet Earth was a sphere, reached America and sacrificed to the One Supreme God El.

To the inhabitants of this land was due the first dwelling on the surface of the globe built of hewn stone, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom being the Lebanese house with seven internal posts. They developed astronomy and use of the compass. To these achievements we may add the following:
– Navigation, Noah’s Ark, the vessels of Tarsis (towards Spain) which with their raised bulwarks penetrated the Straits of Gibraltar (ref. Victor Berard).
– The round voyage of Hanno and the Chariot of the Gods.
– The voyage of Himilkhon bringing amber from the Baltic, the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, the discovery of land which is now Brazil, Venezuela or Uruguay, with expeditions into the Pacific Ocean, perhaps even reaching the Behring Strait.
– The spirit of peace and humanism, peace treaties and alliances with peoples resisting, courage and strategy. The heroism of Hannibal, legends, epic poems, belles lettres, the arts, temples raised to gods and goddesses of which that of Baalbek-Heliopolis was the most grandiose in all the Mediterranean.
– Sciences and technology, agriculture, viticulture, metallurgy, jewelry, weaving, cement-making, chemistry, the dawn of nuclear physics with the atomic theory of Democritus, urban planning, democracy, medicine, schools and universities…
May I refer you, dear madam, to the book of Charles Corm covering six thousand years of history of peaceful genius contributing to the good of humanity.

A table of the ancient civilizations which is incomplete is unfortunate. May I point out that he who writes to you now has French citizenship and has forebears who rendered France much service. Now I believe I see how one-sided the media can be. You as editor, madam, have suppressed or obliterated eight thousand years of history. What a disgrace! Chapter 23 of the book of the prophet Isaiah and chapters 26, 27 and 28 of the prophet Ezekiel speak of the riches and far-reaching influence of the Phoenician cities, while the archeological discoveries in situ of Renan and Montet Dunant have revealed how brilliant was the history of the ancient towns of Phoenicia, of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Arwad and Ugarit.

You do well to mention the kingdoms of Israel and Juda, which left us the Bible and opened the way for the Christian religion, but their contribution to actual civilization is of quite another order. While wishing you to accept my sincerest regards, I would simply ask you to make the appropriate correction to your plan.

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Matar
All rights reserved © LebanonArt
Translated from French: K.J. Mortimer

Some Comments!

Jorge Parra
William, many thanks for setting the record straight! In these moments of so much uncertainty about the future of the already scarce historical relics from the Mid-East countries, it is certainly necessary to keep as many accurate records as possible. These local trends, call them Taliban, Isis, etc, relatively small groups, and yet so radical and so intolerant and disrespectful, can do tons of harm as to how the record of historical events is tracked, with their proposed systematic destruction of historical grounds. That in itself is too much already!! History does not need some clueless journalists and their editors on top of this, adding their own touch of limited knowledge on those subjects. My best wishes to you, hoping your fine art business is doing great!! Jorge

Samir Matar
Dear Professor Joseph Matar, I have read your comment sent to the editor of Science et Vie and I fully agree with you. Now I share it on my Facebook page. It would be fine to invite a full article on our ancestors and publish it with a wide coverage scientific journal as Scientific American.
As I have promised William some time ago, I wish to dedicate to you my scientific work recently accepted. I hope you agree.
With kind regards

Lamya Ghosson
MR. Joseph Matar, the Artist, and great thinker; I am thankful that there are Clever Active thinkers Like you. I am Lebanese, I have traveled and lived in many countries.
I ‘ve been teaching for 5 years at Colleges in the USA, I always talk to my students about ( The Phoenicians ) and their invention of the Alphabets and how they started the Language with vocal sounds, the Phoenicians were sea people, they invented the ships by carving the solid Cedars, I have English books saying the Phoenicians traveled all over and discovered America before Columbus! Most of the students hear this for the first time, Some students are of Arabic origin. All the credits is given to the Greek or Latin…
We deserve more recognition. We could trace all Languages back to Lebanese & Arabic. Even this is not included in the books that we have to teach from. I do it on purpose giving my students copies from books showing and explaining to them! To make them aware !.
We say, phonetic, phonics, phone…

Riad Mansur Iounan Atallah
Interessante !!! É sempre salutar relembrar fatos da Civilização antiga Fenícia. Parabéns ao pintor pelas considerações tecidas junto ao órgão de edição Francês.