Developed by British officer Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) in 1907, scouting was first introduced into the Middle East in 1912, a history analyzed in Jennifer Dueck’s The Claims of Culture at Empire End (2010). It became more known after World War I, with the largest groups first forming in Damascus and Beirut. In the latter, a Sunni, Muhyi al-Din Nusuli, in 1920 founded al-Kashshaf al-Muslim, which in 1922 was recognized by the International Scout Federation (ISF) as the Muslim Scouts of Syria. Earliest recruits were at the school of the American University of Beirut, though most enrolled at the Islamic College (Kulliya Islamiyya) and the schools of the Maqasid Islamic charity organization. During the 1925-1927 anticolonial Syrian Revolt, the French Mandate authorities disbanded the scouting groups, though they soon recovered. In 1927, too, the pro-French Catholic Scouts de France were founded, and small secular French and Jewish units came to life as well. Moreover, scouting picked up speed also outside the French Mandate, e.g. in Egypt and Palestine, as Arnon Degani’s “They were prepared: the Palestinian Arab Scout Movement 1920-1948” (2014) shows.

Back in the French Mandate, the Muslim Scouts of Syria and Lebanon joined ranks in 1931. In 1933, there were 45 troops involving 3,000 members. But in 1934 the French authorities clamped down on them, concerned about support for Syro-Lebanese unity. Lebanese and Syrian scouts split. If in the 1930s especially Muslim scouts formed part of a widening organizational involvement of youth in anticolonial nationalist politics, they had seen themselves as nation-building pioneers already in the 1920s. As the below text shows, in their eyes scouting allowed (male) youngsters to develop physical strength, be outdoors and get to know “their” nation’s natural habitat, and hone self-help, leadership skills, and team spirit, among other desirable traits. In this sense the below text, which was printed without a byline in the Beiruti journal al-Kashshaf (The Scout), was complex, not unlike Baden-Powell’s beliefs as expressed in his seminal Scouting for Boys (1908). It meant to strengthen individuals’ self-reliance while simultaneously serving a collective end, in Baden-Powell’s case the British Empire, here the Lebanese-Syrian nationalist cause.

The Soviet legation distribute books in English, French and Arabic arguing against the Marshall Plan.

[Probable draft] of a joint security agreement between the Lebanese Sûreté Générale and the Syrian Sûreté Générale with sections on Jewish people, foreigners, artists, refugees, Palestinians, Communists, political and diplomatic personalities and Lebanese and Syrian nationals.

Document discussing an Islamic conference on Muslims living in the USSR, a meeting of communists, Lebanese-Soviet relations, and Lebanese-Israeli relations.

Document discussing attempts by Pisrenko to gather information on Lebanese/Syrian cooperation on a joint defense project, information on the cessation of a communist newspaper's publication.

The Journalist Informer discusses Polish-Syrian foreign relations, staff changes at the Yugoslav legation.

Report regarding an increase in Russian commercial activities in Lebanon, resignations from the Department of the Commercial Attaché.

The Journalist Informer writes to Chehab that the communists were organizing a series of lectures to promote cultural cooperation between the Lebanese and Soviet communist parties, to be held at the home of Ra'īf al-Khūrī.

Short document regarding Husni Za'eem's visit to Lebanon.

Description of Adeeb al-Shishakli's visits to Lebanon and attempt to organize a military coup in Syria.