As summed by As'ad AbuKhalil, Historical Dictionary of Lebanon (London: Scarecrow Press), 1998: Ethnically speaking, the Lebanese are indistinguishable from the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. They are undoubtedly a mixed population, reflecting centuries of population movement and foreign occupation... While Arabness is not an ethnicity but a cultural identity, some ardent Arab nationalists, in Lebanon and elsewhere, talk about Arabness in racial and ethnic terms to elevate the descendants of Muhammad. Paradoxically, Lebanese nationalists also speak about the Lebanese people in racial terms, claiming that the Lebanese are "pure" descendants of the Phoenician peoples, whom they view as separate from the ancient residents of the region, including — ironically — the Canaanites. Recent studies by Miriam Balmuth has also shown that a large part of Phoenicians' history has been influenced by political ideologies that started with the Greeks and the Romans and that the Phoenicians did not have a shared Phoenician identity which they identified with, choosing to identify with their city of origins such as Tyre and Sidon. They did however share a common language, common religious practices, ethnic origin and a common maritime trade culture. See also Aramaeanism Assyrianism Berberism Canaanism Kataeb Party Lebanese nationalism Maronites Names of Syriac Christians Pan-Arabism Pharaonism Phoenicia Kurdish nationalism Notes Further reading Kaufman, Asher, "Phoenicianism: The Formation of an Identity in Lebanon in 1920" Middle Eastern Studies, (January, 2001) Plonka Arkadiusz, L’idée de langue libanaise d’après Sa‘īd ‘Aql, Paris, Geuthner, 2004 (French) Plonka Arkadiusz, "Le nationalisme linguistique au Liban autour de Sa‘īd ‘Aql et l’idée de langue libanaise dans la revue «Lebnaan» en nouvel alphabet", Arabica, 53 (4), 2006, pp. 423–471. (French) Salameh, Franck, Language Memory and Identity in the Middle East; The Case for Lebanon, Lanham, MD, Lexington Books, 2010, Salameh, Franck, Charles Corm; An Intellectual Biography of a Twentieth-Century Lebanese "Young Phoenician", Lanham, MD, Lexington Books, 2015, External links National Geographic: "Who Were the Phoenicians?" National Geographic: "In the Wake of the Phoenicians:DNA study reveals a Phoenician-Maltese link" The Irish Lebanese Cultural Foundation: "A parallel in History between Lebanon and Ireland"