Emir Majid Arslan was born in 1908 into the Arslan family, one of the two great Druse houses of Mount Lebanon. First elected to parliament in 1931, he would remain a fixture of Lebanese public life for over half a century.
His defining moment came in November 1943. When the French authorities arrested Lebanon's president, prime minister, and several ministers to halt the country's move toward independence, Arslan was among the few leaders who escaped. With his colleagues he raised the flag of a free Lebanon from the village of Bechamoun, forming a provisional government and a national guard in open defiance of the Mandate.
Within days, popular uprisings and international pressure forced the French to release the imprisoned leaders. As the freed statesmen returned, they passed through Bechamoun — where, the story goes, Majid Arslan knelt before the Lebanese flag and kissed it. The date, 22 November, became Lebanon's Independence Day.
He went on to serve as Minister of National Defense more times than any figure in Lebanese history, a steady hand across decades of change — remembered as one of the fathers of Lebanese independence.
“As the freed leaders returned through Bechamoun, the emir knelt before the flag of a country newly its own.”
Sources & further reading
- Wikipedia — Majid Arslan
- Wikipedia — Bechamoun & the 1943 independence
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