Damage near Baalbeck temple during Israel-Hezbolllah war, 2024. (Credit: Lucile Wasserman/L'Orient-Le Jour)
An elderly man plays the oud in a courtyard in Aleppo, his fingers dancing between familiar and urgent movements. Children sit on the rubble-covered ground, listening attentively to both the musical notes and historical memories they evoke.
Cultural preservation in the Middle East manifests through such moments, when people use tradition to defy challenges and demonstrate resilience and profound affection for their heritage. At the same time, the forces of modernization and war produce a collision of plates across the region.
The modern urban landscape features high-rise buildings that stand in contrast to the historic structures destroyed by warfare. The current momentum often pushes forward at the expense of historical heritage. Still, people and communities maintain their cultural distinctiveness because they understand it as protection of their identity against global homogenization.
The world has never been more connected to the Middle East through technological advancements, travel and commercial exchanges. Cities like Dubai, Doha and Riyadh present themselves as prime examples of development.
But, the rapid pace of modernization erodes traditional ways of community life, along with native languages and environments. The destruction extends beyond physical structures — it threatens a lifestyle that connects people to their ancestral heritage.
Modernity comes with its advantages, like economic growth, education and innovation, but it often fails to respect cultural heritage, creating societies that have no connection to their own historical narratives.
War destroys culture — in a different manner than modernization does — by either ignoring it or replacing it. The Middle East has been the target of systematic attacks against cultural symbols, which often serve as psychological warfare instruments.
The National Museum of Baghdad suffered massive artifact theft during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Old City of Sanaa in Yemen has been bombed multiple times.
Lebanon, too, has faced this particular pattern of destruction. The 15-year Civil War led to the destruction and looting of numerous cultural institutions, including libraries and theaters. The 2006 war with Israel caused further damage to cultural landmarks and infrastructure throughout the region. The 2020 Beirut port explosion destroyed the historic Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael neighborhoods, home to artisans' studios, galleries and traditional Lebanese architectural sites.
Cultural devastation inflicts wounds that extend far beyond what can be seen. The destruction reaches beyond human lives, erasing collective memory. A nation loses essential aspects of its identity when its historical records are completely erased.
A subtle cultural resistance has emerged throughout the Middle East despite numerous obstacles. Artists, teachers, architects and community members actively work to safeguard existing heritage sites while they attempt to revive destroyed cultural landmarks.
In Lebanon, the Beirut Heritage Initiative operates as a coalition formed after the 2020 blast to restore historical buildings in damaged areas. Working with local craftsmen, the team restores balconies, arches and facades, using traditional materials and techniques to safeguard both beauty and historical legacy.
Through art, people find healing while also preserving their cultural heritage. The traditional Palestinian embroidery known as tatreez remains active in refugee camps as means of sustaining cultural traditions.
In Iraq, young artists use mural paintings to restore war-damaged neighborhoods by depicting motifs from Mesopotamian civilization. The Lebanese initiative “Beit Beirut” transforms damaged buildings into memory museums that aim to prevent forgetting and repetition of past conflicts.
Digital platforms have also become crucial in preserving culture. The Syrian Archive, along with the Akkar Network for Development, uses technological tools to preserve cultural practices and folklore, also collecting personal testimonies at risk of being lost. Memory now takes shelter in cloud storage, as the physical environment no longer offers protection.
Do traditional elements and contemporary advancements need separate spaces, or can they coexist without mutual destruction? Many across the region believe they can — and must.
Oman’s national development policies, for example, require new construction to adopt traditional Omani architectural aesthetics, demonstrating how heritage can be integrated with progress. In Lebanon, urban planners support adaptive reuse — a practice that involves converting historic homes into contemporary businesses while preserving their structural and spiritual integrity.
Across the region, some tech startups use digital methods to preserve manuscripts and develop mobile applications that teach endangered languages and share local historical knowledge with younger generations.
The main challenge lies in achieving progress through inclusive approaches that maintain cultural roots, rather than forcing a choice between modernity and heritage. Identity is a living system that adapts to change — but, it must always remain anchored to its original source.
Culture preservation in the Middle East often occurs through ordinary actions rather than monumental structures. A grandmother teaches dabke (traditional dance) to her grandchildren; a craftsman carves traditional designs into doors — these everyday act help sustain identity across different generations.
The Lebanese people have made remembering a revolutionary act, as the streets continue to reflect historical and contemporary elements. And across the region, people hold onto their cultural heritage despite political and economic collapse, and the lasting effects of explosions and wars.
By writing poetry amid destruction, singing songs during protests and painting murals on damaged walls, people have expressed their culture — culture in the time of crisis serves to preserve.
For societies to move forward and develop, they must remain connected to their historical roots — because in a region marked by loss, the most powerful act is remembering.