Ralph Hage on Muck Rack

Ralph Hage

Beirut, Washington, D.C.
Covers:  Art | Architecture | Cultural Heritage
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Ralph Hage’s Journalist Portfolio

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Youssef Aftimus - A Pioneer of Architectural Revival and Urban Vision in Lebanon

Youssef Aftimus - A Pioneer of Architectural Revival and Urban Vision in Lebanon

Melkart Magazine — Youssef Aftimus, born on 25 November 1866 in Deir el Qamar, within the Chouf region of what was then the Ottoman Empire, emerged as a major civil engineer and architect whose style melded Moorish Revival aesthetics with urban planning in early 20th-century Beirut.
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George Hatem - The Lebanese Doctor Who Helped Build Modern China's Public Health System

George Hatem - The Lebanese Doctor Who Helped Build Modern China's Public Health System

Melkart Magazine — George Hatem, known in China as Ma Haide, lived a life that seems almost improbable. Born in the United States to Lebanese immigrants, he would go on to become a key figure in China's Communist revolution, a trusted physician to its leadership, and one of the first foreigners granted citizenship in the People's Republic of China.
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The Battoulah - The Golden Face of Gulf Womanhood

The Battoulah - The Golden Face of Gulf Womanhood

Melkart Magazine — Long before oil wealth, nation-states, and global fashion cycles reshaped the Persian Gulf, women across its coastal societies wore a garment that translated cultural identity into form: the battoulah, also known as the burqa'.
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Vaults, Values, and the Vernacular

Vaults, Values, and the Vernacular

STRUCTURE Magazine — Structural engineering is often viewed as a purely technical field, focused on the precise application of material science, the optimization of forces, and the functionality of buildings. Yet, when we expand our view, we see that the practice of structural engineering has developed in various contexts, times, and cultures, influenced by local conditions, available materials, and the values of a particular society.
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Somewhere Between Beirut and Houston

Somewhere Between Beirut and Houston

Melkart Magazine — A Conversation with Mark Speer of Khruangbin on Lebanon, Fairuz, Elias Rahbani, and How Music Travels
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Iris sofarana: A Rare Flower Found Only In Mount Lebanon

Iris sofarana: A Rare Flower Found Only In Mount Lebanon

Melkart Magazine — Among the rocky slopes of Mount Lebanon grows one of the country's most remarkable botanical treasures: Iris sofarana. This striking flower is endemic to Lebanon, meaning it occurs naturally nowhere else in the world.
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Fists & Flying Kicks Among the Ruins: A '90s Kung Fu Film Shot in Lebanon

Fists & Flying Kicks Among the Ruins: A '90s Kung Fu Film Shot in Lebanon

Melkart Magazine — In the mid-1990s, a kung fu action film was shot in Lebanon. It moved through Beirut, along the coast, and staged its final confrontation among the Roman ruins of Baalbek. The film was called Operation Golden Phoenix.
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Lebanon's Last Bell Maker: Naffah of Beit Chabeb

Lebanon's Last Bell Maker: Naffah of Beit Chabeb

Melkart Magazine — Between 1700 and 1900, Beit Chabeb flourished as a center of bell-making, with thirteen workshops operating at the height of its craft. That legacy was shattered during the Great Famine (1915-1918), when many artisans fled and others perished. By the end of the Second World War, only two workshops were still standing.
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When Yasmine Brought Khebez to Sesame Street

When Yasmine Brought Khebez to Sesame Street

Melkart Magazine — In Season 54 of Sesame Street, Yasmine, a Lebanese-American character, stepped onto children’s television’s most famous block and quietly made history.
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Moussa al-Sadr - Imam and Institutition

Moussa al-Sadr - Imam and Institutition

Melkart Magazine — There are figures in Lebanese history who belong to a sect, a party, or a fleeting political moment. And then there is Imam Moussa al-Sadr - a man who seemed to belong to the idea of Lebanon itself: wounded, plural, aspiring, unfinished.
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Architect Profile: Hassan Fathy - Champion of Sustainable Architecture

Architect Profile: Hassan Fathy - Champion of Sustainable Architecture

Melkart Magazine — Hassan Fathy was an Egyptian architect whose work left a profound impact on both the architectural world and the broader movement toward sustainable design. Trained in modern architecture, he became a pioneer of environmentally conscious building long before "green architecture" was recognized globally.
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Sheikh Abou Hassan Aref Halawi and the Authority of Restraint

Sheikh Abou Hassan Aref Halawi and the Authority of Restraint

Melkart Magazine — Sheikh Abou Hassan Aref Halawi remains one of Lebanon's most revered spiritual leaders. His legacy, however, extends beyond Druze moral authority. Rooted in the inner discipline of the muwaḥḥidūn (Unitarians), his vision of leadership offers an introspective model of authority with profound relevance for Lebanon's persistent fragmentation, sectarianism, and quest for unity.
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Saint George Orthodox Church in Broummana, Lebanon - A Modernist Tent of Light

Saint George Orthodox Church in Broummana, Lebanon - A Modernist Tent of Light

Melkart Magazine — Rising above the wooded slopes of Broummana, Saint George Orthodox Church - known locally as Mar Jirjis - stands as one of the most compelling expressions of Lebanese sacred modernism. Rebuilt in 1962 on the foundations of an 1880 church, the structure reflects a moment when Lebanon was confidently participating in global architectural experimentation.
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The Palestine Sunbird (Cinnyris osea) - A National Symbol in Flight

The Palestine Sunbird (Cinnyris osea) - A National Symbol in Flight

Melkart Magazine — The Palestine sunbird (Cinnyris osea) is one of the most dazzling birds of the Middle East. Small in size but radiant in appearance, it flashes metallic colors as it darts between flowers in gardens, forests, and rocky hillsides.
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Timgad - The Roman City of Algeria

Timgad - The Roman City of Algeria

Melkart Magazine — On the northern slopes of the Aurès Mountains in northeastern Algeria lie the ruins of Timgad, one of the most complete and informative examples of Roman urban planning outside Italy. Founded around 100 CE under the emperor Trajan, this city - known in antiquity as Colonia Marciana Ulpia Traiana Thamugadi - was designed as a settlement for military veterans and evolved into a significant civic center in Roman North Africa.
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Inside Beirut's 1960s Music Scene with Angelo Galvani

Inside Beirut's 1960s Music Scene with Angelo Galvani

Melkart Magazine — An Italian pianist's memories of a cosmopolitan city, its vibrant nightlife, and the music that defined a bygone era.
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Michel Chiha and the Politics of Confidence

Michel Chiha and the Politics of Confidence

melkart.net — Michel Chiha's intellectual and political sensibility was shaped long before the birth of the Lebanese state. Banker, essayist, and political thinker, he would later become one of the principal intellectual architects of Lebanon's constitutional and economic frameworks.
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Kenneth Khouri - A Lebanese Jamaican Pioneer Who Captured a Nation's Sound

Kenneth Khouri - A Lebanese Jamaican Pioneer Who Captured a Nation's Sound

melkart.net — When Kenneth Khouri bought a disc-recording machine in Miami in the late 1940s - almost on a whim - he did not imagine that the decision would alter the cultural destiny of Jamaica. Yet from that accidental purchase emerged the island's first recording studio, its first pressing plant, and the industrial foundations of ska, rocksteady, and reggae.
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An Unlikely National Symbol of Lebanon - The Striped Hyena

An Unlikely National Symbol of Lebanon - The Striped Hyena

melkart.net — When most countries select a national animal, they choose creatures associated with power or elegance - lions, eagles, or stallions. Lebanon's national animal, the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), stands apart. Often misunderstood and rarely seen, this nocturnal scavenger may seem an unusual choice, yet it reflects the country's landscape, history, and enduring character.
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The Tripoli International Fair - Ruins of a Modern Dream

The Tripoli International Fair - Ruins of a Modern Dream

melkart.net — In the heart of Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city, lies one of the most ambitious architectural projects of the twentieth century in the Middle East: Tripoli's Rachid Karami International Fair, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1962. Conceived at the height of Lebanon's post-independence optimism, the fair was intended to embody progress, openness, and national unity.
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The Alawites of the Eastern Mediterranean - Beyond Sect and State

The Alawites of the Eastern Mediterranean - Beyond Sect and State

melkart.net — Misunderstood and often mislabeled, the Alawites of the Eastern Mediterranean are explored through history, faith, and resilience - without flattening their story or ignoring others' suffering.
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Ferdinando Manetti - The Italian Painter Who Helped Shape Lebanese Modern Art

Ferdinando Manetti - The Italian Painter Who Helped Shape Lebanese Modern Art

Melkart Magazine — Ferdinando Manetti was an Italian painter whose work and teaching played a formative role in shaping modern Lebanese art in the mid-20th century. From his sacred murals in Ain Karem to his years in postwar Beirut teaching at ALBA, he bridged classical European traditions with a new generation of Lebanese modernists.
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Phoenix dactylifera: The Date Palm and Symbol of Iraq

Phoenix dactylifera: The Date Palm and Symbol of Iraq

Melkart Magazine — In Iraq, the date palm is not scenery, it is presence. It stands along riverbanks, at the edges of towns, in the background of childhood memories and old photographs. It shades courtyards, feeds families, marks seasons, and absorbs history in silence.
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When The Beatles Visited Beirut — A Brief But Remarkable Stop in 1964

When The Beatles Visited Beirut — A Brief But Remarkable Stop in 1964

Melkart Magazine — On a warm Sunday afternoon in June 1964, hundreds of people pressed against the edge of Beirut International Airport’s runway, straining for a glimpse of an aircraft that wasn’t even scheduled to stay. Some clutched vinyl records, others scraps of paper. One even wore a mop-top wig. At a moment when Beatlemania was sweeping the globe, Lebanon found itself hosting unexpected guests — The Beatles. Though they never performed in the country, their brief refueling stop in Beirut left a small yet memorable imprint.
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