Isṭifan al-Duwayhi, patriarch of the Maronite church (1670-1704) and a graduate of Maronite College in Rome, stands out as the leading historian of Syria in his time. A man of the Arab East, intimately familiar with the tribal ways of his native land, Duwayhi also enjoyed the advantages of a Western education of the highest quality; these two sides to the man are reflected in the content and tone of his historical writing. His chronicle, Tarikh al-azmina, treats the history of his own Maronite community within the context of the general history of Syria, while treating the history of Syria for the period of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as part and parcel of a broader Ottoman history. Furthermore, Duwayhi was the first ‘Lebanese’ historian to present Druze and Maronite history as two aspects of the same historical process; it is in this context that Duwayhi made conscious use of history for political ends, resorting, at times, to conscious omissions and creative reinterpretations.