Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Francis Anthony Boyle, Foundations 

of World Order (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 

1999); Richard A. Falk, Unlocking the Middle East: The 

Writings of Richard Falk, An Anthology (New York: Olive 

Branch Press, 2003); Wilhelm G. Grewe, The Epochs of 

International Law (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2000); 

Majid Khadduri, The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s 

Siyar (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966); 

Majid Khadduri, The Law of War and Peace in Islam (Bal-

timore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955).

Laylat al-Qadr

  See n

ight

 

of

 d

estiny

.

League of Arab States

  See a

rab

 l

eague

.

Lebanon

 

(Official name: Lebanese 

Republic)

Lebanon is a small country of about 3.9 million 

people (2008 estimate) occupying a land of leg-

endary beauty, which totals a little over 4,000 

square miles at the eastern edge of the Mediter-

ranean Sea. It is smaller than the state of Con-

necticut in the United States. Bordering i

srael

on the south and s

yria

 on the north and east, 

Lebanon comprises a narrow coastal plain that 

rises into the Lebanon Mountains, which parallel 

the sea and peak at the perennially snowcapped 

10,131-foot Qurnat al-Sawda. Historically called 

“The Lebanon,” these mountains drop on the east 

into the Beqaa Valley, which extends to the Anti-

Lebanon Mountains at the eastern border. In gen-

eral the coastline features a combination of rough 

shores, fine beaches, and ancient ports; the coastal 

plain is fertile and relatively humid; the Lebanon 

Mountains are rugged and lush; and the Beqaa is 

agricultural and relatively dry.

The population is about 60 percent Muslim 

and 40 percent Christian, with Shiis representing 

the largest Muslim group (1.2 million, 2005 esti-

mate) and Maronites forming the largest Christian 

denomination (estimated between 800,000 and 

900,000). Lebanon also has a significant d

rUze

population. Arabic is the official language, though 

French, English, and Armenian are also spoken. 

The government has a democratically elected par-

liament, a president as chief of state, and a prime 

minister as head of state. The economy is about 67 

percent service-based, 21 percent industry, and 12 

percent agriculture, with substantial remittances 

also coming from large numbers of Lebanese liv-

ing abroad.

Colonial empires throughout history have 

been attracted to the desirable location and natu-

ral habitat of Lebanon, and a striking legacy of 

Roman and native Phoenician ruins remains to 

the present. In the seventh century the Byzantine 

Empire lost control of what is now Lebanon to 

the rapidly expanding Islamicate empire, thereby 

setting the stage for the complex religious demo-

graphic that continues to exist today. In a succes-

sion of shifting reigns, the Crusaders seized the 

area in the 12th century, the Mamluks took control 

in the 13th century, and the Ottomans ascended to