Oblong Quarto album (ca. 19x26,2 cm). 12 card stock leaves. With 84 mounted original gelatin silver photographs ca. 5,7x8 cm (2 ¼ x 3 in). No captions. Period brown cardboard album fastened with a string. Binding worn at the edges, tear of the spine, photos age-toned, one photo with minor stains, but otherwise a very good album with strong, interesting photos.

Historically interesting collection of original gelatin silver photographs, likely taken by French soldiers stationed in Lebanon and Syria during the French mandate in the 1920s.

At the time, both nations were under a French administration established shortly after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. The mandate period saw major political upheavals, including local uprisings, the drawing of new borders, and the emergence of Beirut and Damascus as cultural and administrative centers under French influence.

The album features eighty-four rare amateur photographs of the western Arab World, with most images showing early twentieth-century Lebanon. About twenty photos of Baalbek portray local landmarks (Temple of Jupiter, Hajar al-Hibla, Roman Ruins, Roman Temple of Bacchus, etc.), ethnographic views (with a clearly visible Lebanese flag waving atop a local dwelling), and lively shots of the compiler and his military comrades posing at ancient sites. Especially interesting is a candid urban scene showing locals in European costume and traditional attire standing on the platform or walking along the tracks at Baalbek Railway Station, with French police maintaining order. The Lebanon series concludes with a photograph of the iconic Pine Residence in Beirut and well-executed views of the city’s waterfront.

Identified photos from Syria mostly show the Grand Café Moderne, the entrance to the at-Taynabiyya mausoleum mosque, the Umayyad Mosque, Bab Tauma, and a busy Al Marjeh Square (with clearly visible telegraph column, trams, and horse carts) in Damascus. One lively vernacular photograph taken at the historic Midhat Pasha Souh shows dozens of locals busily navigating a dense corridor of marketplace stalls. The other images primarily depict sweeping aerial views of the city, residential architecture, street reconstruction works, and diverse urban scenes.

Overall, historically interesting collection of original gelatin silver photographs, likely taken by French soldiers stationed in Lebanon and Syria during the French mandate in the 1920s.