Sursock family

Common card · No. 386829

The Sursock family (also spelled Sursuq) is a Greek Orthodox Christian family from Lebanon, and was once an important family of Beirut. Having originated in Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire, the family has lived in Beirut since 1712, when their forefather Jabbour Aoun (who later adopted the family name Sursock) left the village of Berbara. After the beginning of the 19th century, they began to establish positions of power within the Ottoman Empire. The family, through lucrative business ventures, 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 a network of relations to the families of Egyptian, French, Irish, Russian, Italian and German aristocracies, alongside a manufacturing and distribution empire across the Mediterranean.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Daoud Corm (1852-1930), Public domain