---
title: 'Guest of Damascus: General Gouraud (Al-Muqtabas front page, 25 October 1920)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/al-muqtabas-guest-of-damascus-gouraud-1920/
description: Front page of the Damascus daily Al-Muqtabas, three months after the French army took the city, carrying a column-length biography headed 'Guest of…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Heroizing biography of the French High Commissioner printed in a Damascus daily three months after the French conquest of the city. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Guest of Damascus: General Gouraud (Al-Muqtabas front page, 25 October 1920)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/al-muqtabas-guest-of-damascus-gouraud-1920.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/al-muqtabas-guest-of-damascus-gouraud-1920.jpg)

# Guest of Damascus: General Gouraud (Al-Muqtabas front page, 25 October 1920)

Front page of the Damascus daily Al-Muqtabas, three months after the French army took the city, carrying a column-length biography headed 'Guest of Damascus: General Gouraud'. It opens by stating that it adds no word of praise, then calls him 'hero' and 'great hero of France' and says the fatherland stands 'above everything' for the Frenchman: virtue words attached to the High Commissioner, with no named byline and no counter-view on the page.

## Text on the object

Original (Arabic) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
دمشق الاثنين ١٢ صفر ١٣٣٩ و ٢٥ تشرين الاول سنة ١٩٢٠ — السنة الثانية عشرة — العدد ٢٩٨٩
المقتبس (Al-Moktabas) جريدة يومية سياسية اقتصادية اجتماعية
ضيف دمشق
الجنرال غورو
ننشر هنا خلاصة ترجمة الجنرال غورو بطل شمبانيا بالأمس ومندوب الحكومة الافرنسية في سوريا وكيليكيا وضيف دمشق اليوم مقتصرين على ذكر ما تقلب على حياة الجنرال من مختلف الصفحات من غير أن ندخلها كلمة مدح أو إطراء إذ أن أعمال الرجال هي معيار عظمتهم وميزان قيمتهم الحقيقية
[...]
وبالجملة فتاريخ حياة هذا البطل مملوء بالوقائع والحوادث الجسام [...] لا يحيى الا من كثر فيه أمثال هذا القائد من الذين يستهينون بالموت ويفادون بكل شيء لأجل وطنهم والوطن في نظر الافرنسي فوق كل شيء
وإن دمشق اليوم تحيي في شخص الجنرال غورو بطل فرنسا العظيم ومندوب الحكومة الافرنسية في [سوريا ...] [illegible]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Damascus, Monday 12 Safar 1339 and 25 October (Tishrin al-Awwal) 1920 — twelfth year — No. 2989
Al-Muqtabas (Al-Moktabas), a daily political, economic and social newspaper
Guest of Damascus
General Gouraud
We publish here a summary of the biography of General Gouraud, yesterday's hero of Champagne and delegate of the French government in Syria and Cilicia, and today's guest of Damascus, confining ourselves to mentioning what the General's life has gone through, from its various pages, without introducing into them a word of praise or flattery, since the deeds of men are the measure of their greatness and the true scale of their worth.
[...]
In sum, the history of this hero's life is full of great battles and events [...] a nation lives only where there are many like this commander, who make light of death and sacrifice everything for their country, and the country, in the Frenchman's eyes, is above everything.
And Damascus today greets in the person of General Gouraud the great hero of France and delegate of the French government in [Syria ...] [illegible]
```

Masthead, headline, standfirst and closing paragraphs read from a 200 dpi render of the first page; the middle of the biography and the last lines of the final paragraph are not transcribed ([...]). Low-quality scan: uncertain words are elided, nothing is supplied from memory. Translation is machine-made by Claude, not checked by a fluent reader.

[← Irish Bulletin, Vol. 3 No. 24, 5 October 1920: 'Keep Up the Pressure'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/irish-bulletin-keep-up-the-pressure-1920/) ["Our New Racial Problem: Japanese Immigration and Its Menace" (Sacramento Bee pamphlet, November 1920) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacramento-bee-our-new-racial-problem-1920/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (France · 1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Assignat of fifteen sols, law of 4 January 1792](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/assignat-quinze-sols-1792/) (France · Jan 4, 1792 · Glittering generalities)
- [Assignat of fifty sols, law of 23 May 1793 (British Museum)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/assignat-cinquante-sols-1793/) (French First Republic · May 23, 1793 · Glittering generalities)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (British India · Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- [Te Haeata (Auckland), 'Te Runanga Maori ki Kohimarama', 1 September 1860](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/te-haeata-kohimarama-runanga-1860/) (New Zealand · Sep 1, 1860 · Glittering generalities)