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In 1928, the French Orientalist Louis Massignon was sent to the Levant to carry out a survey of the French presence in the region, which had just been under heavy threat by a nationalist revolt : the French authorities must find new ways of enforcing the mandate entrusted to them by the League of Nations. The idea of calling in an Orientalist expert came following a twofold logic : to try and break with a tradition of protecting Christian minorities and to attempt to unify the “French Islam”, from the Magreb to the Near East. Massignon’s report underlines the contradiction between the intentions of the mandatory power and the realities of its rule, which was based on clientelism. It also underscored the difficulties of reconciling a military administration with the necessity of progressively leading Syria to independence. Finally, Massignon pronounced his opinion based on his personal knowledge and familiarity with Syria’s nationalist circles and this leads him to contrast a French-speaking colonial policy to a policy of cooperation based on Arab as a language of communication and culture.