I was wondering if anyone could direct me to either translations of French/Arabic sources or useful sources originally in English regarding the period leading up to and the beginning of the French Mandate of Syria. Or at least ways to find these sources because I've been trying and so far I've only been able to find relevant sources in Arabic and French.
The French and Arabic sources are probably going to be the most relevant, and I'm less familiar with this material in either case.
Off the top of my head, in English I can point you to two that would be relevant:
The minutes of the Big Four discussions on Syria at the Paris Peace Talks: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=goto&id=FRUS.FRUS1919Parisv05&isize=M&submit=Go+to+page&page=1
The King Crane Commission report which collected petitions in Syria to determine what the will of the Syrian people was in regards to the mandate: http://web.archive.org/web/20080625193546/http://www.ipcri.org/files/kingcrane.htmlhttp://web.archive.org/web/20080625193546/http://www.ipcri.org/files/kingcrane.html
I happen to be in the perpetually-ongoing process of learning both French and Arabic. I'm far, far from fluent in Arabic, but I'd be happy to take a shot at translating anything you've found if you'd care to link me to some of it.