Why Do Arabs Keep British Names For Countries?

[Reshad]

Okay, im just wondering, not trying to be offensive, but why are so many of the Arab countries keep the names of the British colonial mandates?

a little back ground on history, most of the modern Arab states, like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan..etc. were created when Britain and France drew lines in the sand after dismantling the Ottoman Caliphate. Arabs didnt really have much of a say in this even though the British had promised them independence if they back stabbed the Turks and sided with them. Instead the British and French just cut up the states. They gave them names based on what they felt it should be, like Jordan and Palestine: these names were put into place by the British and had no historical meaning in Arabic! Some others, kept their old names, like Syria for example. Im not sure about Lebanon and Iraq though, i think Lebanon might be a French name.

seems like a pretty pointless issue, but im just wondering, how could a proud people like the Arabs accept names and borders given to them by a foreign occupier?

[Ugly Jinn]

Forget the topic, your 'interest' says, "If Mousavi is Imam Hussein , Ahmadinejad is Yazid.....".

Wowzer, I'd like you to expand on that, I'm curious.

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Actually certain places have changed, few cities in India changed their names back to it's original. They were changed in the first place because the British couldn't pronounce them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaming_of_cities_in_India

I prefer to keep the names, it's part of history now.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Ugly Jinn

[Reshad]

Forget the topic, your 'interest' says, "If Mousavi is Imam Hussein , Ahmadinejad is Yazid.....".

Wowzer, I'd like you to expand on that, I'm curious.

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Actually certain places have changed, few cities in India changed their names back to it's original. They were changed in the first place because the British couldn't pronounce them.

http://en.wikipedia....cities_in_India

I prefer to keep the names, it's part of history now.

Its a quote i heard from some reform movement supporters that caught my eye, so i decided to save it as an interest.

Anyways India isnt relevant to tis, and the Indians did bring back alot of the pre-Britsh names after independence. example Bombay is now Mumbai

[south-lebanon]

First and foremost, Arabs are not proud.. actions speak far louder than words, and everyone sees that arab leaders/people have little dignity, they have totally swallowed the divide and conquere pill, hook, line and sinker, they have paid off high members of society like clerics and they have a monopoly on media, not allowing any dissent or allowing very little.

It gets even worse, In Syria, the rebels want to go back to the old french mandate flag instead of the current pan-arab one that was adopted in the 60's :wacko:.

[Noura]

Palestine has been in used for a long time before the arab conquests of the region, syria is derived from assyria, and syroil, which is a pre arab name, and iraq has been in use for a long time to describe the land of the Mesopotamian river as a fertile region, and lebanon comes from Mount Lebanon, which was semi autonomous during the ottoman rule, and lubnan which is a pronuciation of lebanon was proclaimed by julius ceaser,. And also the syrian rebels use the syrian republic flag and not the mandate one .

Edited March 10, 2012 by Noura

[south-lebanon]

This Falg was adopted in 1932, when Syria was controlled by the French, Later the Syrians got rid of it and adopted the pan-arab colours as a gesture for possibly the begining of re-unifying the arab world.

[Qa'im]

It gets even worse, In Syria, the rebels want to go back to the old french mandate flag instead of the current pan-arab one that was adopted in the 60's :wacko:.

This is the French Mandate flag of Syria:

This is the flag of the Syrian Republic, after Syria gained independence from the French and established a democracy:

Then, Assad performed a military coup that instated his dictatorship, then he died and his son took over.

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Arabs aren't proud of the colonial history, but these countries have existed for nearly a century now, and before that, much of the Middle East and North Africa was Ottoman territory. The names Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, etc. were not invented by the British and French, rather, they have their long history and resonance with the area. The French called Shaam the "Levant", but no one living there calls it the Levant.

[south-lebanon]

Ok it wasn't the French mandate, but it was still a flag that was adopted, during the reigns of French colonialism, its stricking how it was first used a time when Syria was further divided along secterian lines, with Lebanon given to the Christians, Latikia given th the Allawites and Jabal Druze was given to the druze.

and now thr irony is that during these times of upheaval, the rebels want to adopt a flag that once represented a fractured Syria.

Edited March 10, 2012 by south-lebanon

[Mahdiyah]

Jaqueline and Rosanne is a must!

[Ruq]

This is the French Mandate flag of Syria:

This is the flag of the Syrian Republic, after Syria gained independence from the French and established a democracy:

The 2nd is deffo more aesthetically pleasing.

[5a49]

This is the flag of the Syrian Republic, after Syria gained independence from the French and established a democracy:

Then, Assad performed a military coup that instated his dictatorship, then he died and his son took over.

Edited March 11, 2012 by RoAcHy

[Professor Higgins]

Palestine - Roman and English version of Falasteen

Iraq - Long been there to describe Mesopotamia, infact the British called it Mesopotamia and not Iraq

Syria ( Souria) - Derived from Assyria, though the current boundaries of Syria and Lebanon are a product of Sykes and Picot.

Lebanon - derived from Jabal Lebnan ( Mount Lebanon)

Jordan - name of a River, but the country is 100 % an invention of British colonialism and was created to satisfy the Hashemite monarchs, Jordan is actually a part of Palestine.

Egypt - Ancient Roman name for the land ( Aegyptus), official name in Arabic is still Misr.

[Professor Higgins]

Ok it wasn't the French mandate, but it was still a flag that was adopted, during the reigns of French colonialism, its stricking how it was first used a time when Syria was further divided along secterian lines, with Lebanon given to the Christians, Latikia given th the Allawites and Jabal Druze was given to the druze.

and now thr irony is that during these times of upheaval, the rebels want to adopt a flag that once represented a fractured Syria.

The Flag was adopted in 1932, Syria got independence in 1945, between 1945 and 1958 it was the flag of independent Syria. The current flag was adopted in 1958 due to the union with Egypt, the old flag was again re-adopted in 1961 after Syria broke away from Egypt, then again the current flag was re-adopted in 1963 after the Baathist coup.

[Wahdat]

Nation State is the root of it all. It makes the whole world absurd and is not only limited to Arab countries. For example, I was born in Afghanistan but I find it embarrassing and shameful to take any sort of pride in it and I am even embarrassed to say I am Afghan. Although Afghanistan is (i believe) the only country in Asia and one of the two in the entire world to have never been colonized and has resisted foreign designs that have shaped the rest of non European world, I still find it shameful because its identity is not organic and local. It was some fat guy 1000s of miles away who sketched its borders and told us to pick a flag.

Nation states divide humanity. And for this reason alone we should denounce it.

[Professor Higgins]

Nation State is the root of it all. It makes the whole world absurd and is not only limited to Arab countries. For example, I was born in Afghanistan but I find it embarrassing and shameful to take any sort of pride in it and I am even embarrassed to say I am Afghan. Although Afghanistan is (i believe) the only country in Asia and one of the two in the entire world to have never been colonized and has resisted foreign designs that have shaped the rest of non European world, I still find it shameful because its identity is not organic and local. It was some fat guy 1000s of miles away who sketched its borders and told us to pick a flag.

Nation states divide humanity. And for this reason alone we should denounce it.

Are you Pashtun ?

Is there a class system in Afghanistan ? Do rich Afghans consider poor Afghans to be their equals ?

[bolbol]

As a supplement to Roachy