| Its location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated a rich history, shaped by a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity | Because of its financial power and diversity, Lebanon was known in its heyday as the Switzerland of the East |
|---|---|
| Originally home to the Phoenicians, and then subsequently conquered and occupied by the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks and most recently the French, Lebanese culture has over the millennia evolved by borrowing from all of these groups | Beirut Overview Around 2004, Samira met Al Shab Ghabi, a Lebanese businessman |
I surely got your intentions wrong.
| Many famous tabla players like Setrak Serkissian had played for her, with other derbaki masters like Mohammed El-Barjawi | Born Samira Cremona in Syria in 1935 she moved to Lebanon as a young girl and the story is that her talent was first discovered by a musician who heard her singing as she sat perched up a tree |
|---|---|
| The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronites and Druze, to include more Muslims | Keep doing your great job anyway! It attracted so many tourists that the capital, Beirut, was referred to as Paris of the Middle East |
Samira Tawfik regcently appeared in Doha, Qatar.
| Then, she went to bigger open-stage ones like the Tanious Theatre in which she sang classical by Layla Murad | Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon were mandated to France |
|---|---|
| Dabke is the national dance and the Lebanese people take particular pride in their skills in it |
She lives in Stockholm today visiting Lebanon and Jordan from time to time.
15