Memoirs of Iranian revolutionaries as a source on the history of the first phase of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1976)

   The article is dedicated to comparative analysis of the historical memoirs of members of the Iranian revolutionary movement acting in Lebanon in the 1970^s.

   The principal objective of the research is to reconstruct hitherto unknown aspects of the first phase of the Lebanese civil war (1975-76).

   Thus far, this type of sources, as well as the problem of participation of the Iranians in the conflict on its’ initial stage, has barely received attention from specialists in the history of Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as from Iranian historians and researchers working in the field of the modern history of Iran. However, these memoir sources may serve as a valuable source on the history of the first years of the Lebanese civil war, not only because they reveal unknown details of the social and political life in the country during the described period, but also because the fact that memoirs of the Iranians may present another perspective of the events of the conflict. In the frames of the historical study, the main information on the internal political situation that had developed in Lebanon by the beginning of the civil conflict, and on the events of the first stage of the Muslim-Christian confrontation, are identified and analyzed. In particular, on the basis of these sources, a characterization of the attitude of members of the Iranian opposition movement to the Palestinian problem is provided, and a reconstruction of how the Iranians perceived and understood the position of the Shiite community in Lebanon, are performed. Active participation of Iranian revolutionaries in the life of the Lebanese Shiite community in the period preceding the civil war is analysed. A description of the prominent events of the first stage of the armed conflict, including descriptions of episodes of hostilities reflected in the memories of the Iranians, is proposed.

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