Once dubbed the Pearl of the Orient, Beirut, for all its new construction, is also a place of Old World opulence and faded grandeur. Seventeen years of civil war can alter a country, both physically and psychologically. But in the case of Lebanon, and Beirut in particular, the war also had the unlikely effect of cloaking parts of the city in a kind of time capsule.

Shiny new buildings may be mushrooming along the city’s famous seaside corniche, but a walk through Beirut’s older neighborhoods can yield Belle Époque, Art Déco and Arabesque buildings, dating from the period of the Ottoman rule and the French mandate. The façades, often stained and cracked by the patina of time, reveal nothing of their intriguing interiors or their owners.

Unless an individual is lucky enough to snag an invitation to a private dinner at one of the city’s grand homes, most visitors have one or two options when in Beirut. There is the Sursock Museum, a 19th century Venetian/Gothic confection that now houses an art museum. Located on a street once lined with similar mansions, it was once owned by a family known as 'the Rothschild’s of the East.' Now it is government property.  The other alternative is the Robert Mouawad Museum. An oriental palace built in 1911, it was home to Henri Pharaon, the enigmatic politician and art collector who helped design the Lebanese flag. Miraculously, his mansion escaped damage during the war, and after his death was bought by the famous jeweler Robert Mouawad, who converted it into a private museum housing his rare collection of jewelry, manuscripts, and ceramics.

Up until now, if you weren’t quite connected with Beirut’s big families, than this was about as much as you would see of the city’s opulent past.   

Enter Hani Samaha, who has managed to unlock the doors to some of Beirut’s most sumptuous and historic interiors through a series of must-have coffee table books.

Born in Beirut into a family of antique dealers, Samaha published his first book, Inside Beirut: Private Views, while still a student majoring in business at Depaul University in Chicago. After setting up his publishing house, Samaha Books, he went on to produce other influential design tomes on the city’s hidden interiors, including his most recent offering, Beirut Interiors: The Art of Living.

The public has always displayed a voyeuristic fascination when it comes to the homes of the rich and cultured, but examples from the Middle East have always been hard to come by.  In the past, books such as Lisa Lovatt-Smith’s 'Moroccan Interiors', or Frederic Couderc’s 'Inside Africa North & East', provided readers with a tantalizing glimpse into such worlds and the people who inhabited them. Franka and Carla Sozzani’s fairytale palace in Marrakech, shoe designer Christian Louboutin’s elegant home in Cairo, and Sheikha Fatima Al-Sabah’s luxurious casbah in Tangiers, are just a few of the rare examples featured in such publications.

Samaha’s books not only tap into this niche market, but also provide another perspective on living in a country that is trying to shake off the vestiges of the war. His books are ultimately a study in how beauty, art and culture can flourish in the most adverse of conditions. All the more intriguing in the case of Beirut, since many of the interiors featured in Samaha’s books reflect this city’s cosmopolitan history; one shaped by a succession of Roman, Ottoman, French, and Arab influences.

In today’s heightened political climate, it’s a wonder Samaha’s books ever materialized, when one considers the amount of behind the scenes preparation that went into getting such a project off the ground. It’s akin to going down Embassy Row in Washington DC, and asking permission to take pictures inside each building.

But a few connections can go a long way in a tightly knit city such as Beirut, and like a well seasoned diplomat, Samaha went about knocking on doors belonging to the city’s oldest families, as well as Beirut’s political and cultural elite. The result is a stunning series of books conceived by Samaha with the well-known photographer Albert Saïkaly, which capture this city’s joie de vivre and reinforce its place as a trendsetter within the region.

www.samahabooks.com

Image captions:

Although Hani Samaha’s work covers examples of both modern and historical interiors, his books also shed light on Beirut’s glamorous past. A time when its social and cultural scene was dominated by the city’s prominent families. Clockwise Center: The late Henri Pharaon pictured in his sumptuous Beirut mansion in 1983; Yvette Pharaon in 1930; Three of the grand doyens of Beirut society, Maria, Yvonne, and Linda Sursock in 1949; The cover of Samaha’s latest offering, Beirut Interiors: The Art of Living; The glamorous Linda Sursock in 1940; Alfred Sursock was a well known collector of Italian renaissance paintings, much of which can still be seen today in his daughter Lady Yvonne Cochrane’s mansion; The Sursock’s were the best known of Beirut’s aristocratic families and built a number of mansions that dominated the city’s Ashrafieh quarter, as can be seen in this vintage postcard.