ALTHOUGH I had traveled extensively in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, India and Pakistan, I was deeply impressed with Beirut and the rest of Lebanon on my first visit there in 1964.

It was an Arab capital unlike any I had seen. The country was wonderful and small, the weather excellent all year round, the Arabic press was great and its English Daily Star outstanding. A few years later, we tempted most of the staff to join me at Arab News.

It had the excellent American University of Beirut, which had one of the finest reputations in the Middle East. Another Lebanese university produced some of the country’s best Arabic studies graduates.

There were many places for sightseeing on foot and driving, including parks and green areas. The whole country was beautiful, reasonably priced and above all peaceful. It remained like this until the end of the French colonial mandate, and when it later erupted into civil war in 1975. Thousands were killed and many more emigrated as the country was engulfed in a deadly struggle involving nearly all the religious sects and political sectors. The death toll and property damage nearly brought the country to its knees.

I had arrived just before the start of the long and dreadful civil war, which would plunge the country into a gloom it had never experienced before. I had checked into a four-star hotel in the wonderful Hamra area, that reminded me of Paris’ main streets with its open-air cafes and great shopping areas at prices that attracted hundreds of thousands of Arabs and non-Arabs.

In fact, the richer ones took to the hills where they rented flats overlooking nearly the entire country. The country had rivers, local and foreign cafes and restaurants of the first order, and movie houses. In fact, we discovered an Indian restaurant at prices all of us could afford, which rivaled some of the best in Bombay at the time. It was within walking distance from the Al-Hamra, one of the finest boulevards in the Middle East, which catered for all tastes, including all kinds of Arabic food.

With a wide variety of Arabic and English newspapers, the Al-Hamra had practically everything one wanted and complete peace and tranquility at a time when Lebanon’s neighbors were engulfed in coups and counter coups.

Other countries such as Egypt, Syria and Iraq were embroiled in civil strife and suffering from wave after wave of military rule, economic chaos and sweeping nationalization and confiscation of banks and properties. In contrast, Beirut was an oasis of peace and prosperity. It had become the hub of economic, social, intellectual and cultural life in the Middle East.

It was a haven of liberalism, had a fine port and very busy airport, a free economic and foreign exchange system, a solid gold-backed currency that was usually stable, supported by a banking system that was almost second-to-none in the Middle East. It was underpinned by a wise foreign policy fortified by American military power when necessary. The sound financial system saw Arab money flow in, from the Gulf and the entire region. Beirut was considered a trusted haven and for a long time free from the shocks and misadventures that rocked other capitals during the maddening, post-fifties years in the Middle East.

Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire that included much of the Middle East stretching from Iraq to Oman. It lasted until the end of the First World War when Turkey was defeated and France and Britain took over and divided the region under the terms of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.

This was, of course, an agreement between victors, and took place without consulting millions of Arabs. The ill-fated pact divided the region as mere colonial possessions. Beirut and some territories fared better than others, as France introduced some educational reforms, a contemporary press, imposed French as the second language after Arabic, while its diverse religions and sects coexisted fairly well. Since the mid-seventies, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese left their country for the US, South America, Australia and Canada. They were mostly welcomed in their new homes because of their skills, educational qualifications, and for those wanting to marry, their physical attractions.

Lebanon became independent in 1943 with Beirut as its capital. It became a major tourist attraction when the Europeans stopped fighting as the World War II ended in 1945. When I visited, it was a highly developed city with superb schools and colleges, and magnificent hotels including the five star Phoenicia and St. George hotels.

Mainly Muslims inhabited the western part while the Christians were in the east. The south was home to the Lebanese Shiite community.

Its highly advanced media impressed me, consisting of good dailies and weeklies, which lasted until recently. Other Arab and superpower states competed to use the main papers as mouthpieces, especially during the turbulent years of the Middle East, from the sixties into the nineties.

I was particularly impressed with the dailies and subscribed to them from Aden, which had direct air links with Beirut. But with the advent of the computer and 24-hour news cycles, the Beirut press, like most others, lost their allure among foreign countries.

It is quiet now with a few major incidents but the country is volatile and can explode at any time, as was the case a few weeks ago with huge blasts in the southern Shiite locality. Major foreign companies and Gulf-owned estates have practically closed down and may stay that way for many years to come.

• Farouk Luqman is an eminent journalist based in Jeddah.