Sursock family
The family, through lucrative business ventures, savvy political maneuvering, and strategic marriages, embarked on what Leila Fawaz called "the most spectacular social climb of the nineteenth century," and, at their peak, had built a close network of relations to the families of Egyptian, French, Irish, Russian, Italian and German aristocracies, alongside a manufacturing and distribution empire spanning the Mediterranean.
][better source needed] Their wealth and sophistication are also reflected in their residences, equal in elegance to any Italian palazzo, which remained largely unscathed despite fifteen years of mortar fire and violence during the Lebanese Civil War.
[11] The family developed wide social ties and was close to key Ottoman and European figures, frequently playing host to a wide range of royals and diplomats, including King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, German Emperor William I, Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, amongst other monarchs.
[12][3] The Sursocks built their fortune through their successful manufacturing and transportation empire, which extended from Turkey to Egypt and ultimately to the United Kingdom.
[15] In addition to their manufacturing and export activities, the family increased its fortune as landowners in the Ottoman Levant, amassing profits from both rent and tax collection, as well as from the sale of their many properties.
The Sursocks also became heavily involved in banking in Egypt and Lebanon, where they helped finance major projects including the Suez Canal, the Beirut-Damascus highway, and the Beirut Harbour Company.
George Dimitri Sursock, Worshipful Master of the Grand Orient lodge, recorded his extensive dealings with, and on behalf of, the masonry.
Despite the vast damage to Beirut during the conflict, the main Sursock residence lies untouched alongside buildings whose outer walls bear scars caused by years of violence.
[24] The Sursocks have shaped Lebanon's history from the late Ottoman period to present; indeed, the selection of Beirut, which would come to be known as the 'Pearl of the Orient,' as the provincial capital was in no small part the result of their entreaties to the Porte.
[6] The Sursocks soon became protégés and dragomen to numerous European and American consuls-general and were afforded political privileges and protection by the various countries with whom they had ties, including Russia, Germany, Greece, Ireland and the United States of America.
Moussa Sursock, the 8th Duke of Cassano,[citation needed] his brothers and his father Alfred are reported to have travelled on Greek and Russian passports as well as to have gained protégé status with other European consulates in Beirut as a result of their wide-ranging activities.
[5] Furthermore, the Sursocks' heavy involvement in Egyptian affairs allowed the family to form close relations with members of the monarchy including Khedive Sa'id of Egypt, who reigned from 1854 to 1863, and his nephew Isma'il Pasha (1863–1879), affording them preferential deals on large infrastructural projects and extravagant public works.
Michel Sursock, a deputy to the Ottoman parliament, became infamous during the great famine in the First World War for hoarding grain and speculating on the supply.
[31][32] Evidence of the remarkable concentration of wealth accumulated by the Sursocks, who already owned tens of thousands of acres of the finest land in the region, can be found in records detailing their sustained purchases of numerous new villages every year.
In 1897, Theodor Herzl writes about the Sursock family in his diary, noting the onset of negotiations with the Jewish Colonisation Organization for the purchase of 97 villages in Palestine.
On 18 December 1918, the PDLC concluded an agreement with Nagib and Albert Sursock for the purchase of 71,356 dunams in the Jezreel Valley, including Tel Adashim.
The Ottomans tried to limit mass land acquisition and immigration, but had their hands tied by European pressure and also corruption and greed of officials and large landowners.
The assets left to the family included a wide range of real estate in and around Beirut, Mersin (Adana, Turkey), Tartus (Syria) and Alexandria (Egypt) which afforded the heirs significant influence over the region.
Though this Greek Orthodox family of foreign proteges often adopted the style and manners of French and other European elite, the Arabic inscriptions indicate deep traces of an Ottoman alliance stretching back centuries.
[46] The Sursock Museum collection consists of 5,000 pieces, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, glassware, and iconography, all of which date back to the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
The Lebanese families headed by Mr. Sursock, who wished to build the railway for their personal needs, instead saw their permit and subsequent deposit with Sultan Abdul Hamid II expire two years later.
George Moussa Sursock had developed close ties with a wide variety of rulers and members of Europe's monarchy, from Franz Joseph of Austria to William of Germany and Louis Prince of Battenberg.
Michail has spent time as CEO of KKR Capstone for Asia Pacific, as a Managing Director at Motorola Inc, and as a President with Mars across three continents.
Robert Sursock, over many decades, established himself as a premier banker in Paris and beyond, having built and grown such institutions as PrimeCorp Finance, Gazprombank Invest Mena and Banque Arabe et Internationale d'Investissement.
[65] Isabelle Hélène Sursock fell in love with and wed Prince Marcantonio VII Colonna [it], who brought her to Italy, where she was able to integrate successfully into Roman high society at a time when it had to deal with Mussolini.
[68] The "alternate queen," as she was known in Italy's elite circles, never abandoned her palace (Palazzo Colonna), which she so profoundly loved, and continued to weave her diplomatic skills at the highest level,[69] receiving heads of state and royalty from half the world.
The archives, which are divided into three categories (public, private, and commercial-accounting), primarily span from the years 1876 to 1978 and record the activities of Alfred, Moussa, Nicolas, Princess Isabelle, Lady Cochrane and other particularly prominent members of this small Greek-Orthodox family.
