Encyclopedia of Islam

Lebanon

  

441  J

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power in the 16th century. Facing oppression by 

the various conquering forces, marginalized reli-

gious groups (for example, Maronites, Shiis, and 

Druze) found refuge in the difficult terrain and 

remote heights of The Lebanon, thereby ensuring 

their ongoing participation in the diverse sectar-

ian makeup of the population.

The Lebanon had been considered part of 

Greater Syria since ancient times, and, in the 

wake of World War I, in 1920, France received 

the mandate over much of Greater Syria. Later 

the same year the French established Greater 

Lebanon with its modern borders and with the 

capital at Beirut. Officially the Lebanese Republic, 

the country gained independence from France in 

1943 with a government based on a confessional 

system of power sharing between its many reli-

gious sects. Per the last official census, from 1932, 

when Christians were the majority, the president 

is always a Maronite Christian, the prime minister 

a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a 

Shii Muslim. While the demography has shifted 

and given rise to a Muslim majority, Lebanon’s 

relatively high percentage of Christians continues 

to be unique among Arab countries.

Muslim sects include Sunnis, Twelve-Imam 

Shiis, Ismaili Shiis, Alawis, and Druze. Christian 

sects include Maronite, Greek Catholic, Roman 

Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Jacobite (Syrian Ortho-

dox), Armenian Orthodox (Gregorian), Armenian 

Catholic, Assyrian (Nestorian), Chaldean, and 

Protestant. Large numbers of Palestinian refugees 

fled to Lebanon after the Arab-Israeli wars of 

1948 and 1967, and southern Lebanon became an 

important base for the p

alestine

 l

iberation

 o

rga

-

nization

 (PLO). Jews played an integral role in Leb-

anese society until they emigrated in large numbers 

under increasing pressures fomented especially by 

the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Israeli invasion of 

Lebanon in 1982, which ended PLO control in the 

south and gave rise to h

izbUllah

, a Lebanese Shii 

guerrilla and social welfare organization. 

Underlying dissatisfactions with the sectar-

ian power balance coupled with a long history 

of foreign meddling that was increasingly fueled 

by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to the Civil 

War of 1975–90. The brutality and chaos of this 

notorious war shattered any image of the tolerant 

pluralistic society for which Lebanon had been so 

well known. While resolution of the underlying 

causes of the war has remained elusive, substan-

tial reconstruction was undertaken in Beirut, and 

Lebanon regained its attraction as a tourist des-

tination in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This 

situation, however, began to deteriorate with the 

assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime 

minister (1992–98, 2000–04), in February 2005 

by unknown assailants. A hostage-taking incident 

at the Lebanese-Israeli border in summer 2006 

resulted in a short-lived Israeli-Lebanese war that 

involved Hizbullah missile attacks on Israel and 

Israeli airstrikes and troop movements in Leba-

non. The Lebanese infrastructure was seriously 

damaged, especially in the south. United Nations 

troops were introduced into the country to facili-

tate peace-keeping efforts in the war’s aftermath.

See also a

laWi

; a

rab

-i

sraeli

 

conFlicts

; a

rme

-

nians

;  c

hristianity

 

and

  i

slam

; 

colonialism

; 

c

rUsades

;  m

amlUk

;  o

ttoman

 

dynasty

;  s

hiism

; 

s

Unnism

.

Kenneth S. Habib