The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Lebanon

Lebanon is an Arab country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, bordering on Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south. The etymology of the name is a matter of dispute, like almost every other aspect of Lebanon’s history and culture: it is usually linked to the color white in reference to the snowy mountains of Lebanon. The country is a modern creation, although ultra-Lebanese nationalists insist that the country extends far back in history to the times of the Phoenicians. The founding myth of Lebanon was devised early in the 20th century by Lebanese Maronite intellectuals with close ties to the French government and to the Maronite patriarchate, which wanted to separate its constituency from its Arab/Muslim surroundings after the demise of the Ottoman Empire. The country was created as an attempt to replicate the Jewish state in Palestine, but the French (the rulers of the area after World War I) decided that the viability of Lebanon as a political entity required the addition of territories outside of Mount Lebanon (the historic “homeland” of the Maronites). Those territories (including the greater Beirut area, the south, the north, and the Beqaa Valley) increased the number of Muslims in the new political entity and prevented the creation of an outright Christian republic—which was the demand of the Maronite patriarch at the peace conference in Paris. Thus the French created the Republic of Lebanon after World War I, putting an end to four centuries of Ottoman control over the Levant.

From the inception, the Lebanese split along sectarian and political lines over the identity and foreign policy of the new country: many Muslim Lebanese wanted unity with Syria (and later with other Arab countries during the heyday of Arab nationalism), and many Christians wanted a distinct entity with Western links. The constitution of Lebanon in 1926 recognized that sectarianism was at the heart of the Lebanese political system and society, and the state recognized citizens on the basis of their membership in the juridically recognized sects.

During the era of the French Mandate, when France ruled over Lebanon in association with a reliable political elite, a census was arranged to ensure the political dominance of the Maronites: other sects in the country were treated as secondary in public offices and posts. The political elite produced the unwritten “National Pact” in 1943 to achieve a modicum of understanding between the Sunni and Maronite elites. It reserved the top posts of government for the Maronites, and the prime ministership was awarded to the Sunnis (while the weaker post of speaker of parliament was given to the Shi‘is, who would become the largest single sect in the country by 1975).

The arrival of Palestinian refugees into Lebanon after 1948 added an important factor that would radicalize the Lebanese body politic. Furthermore, tensions increased after Lebanon’s independence in 1943. Many Muslims resented the National Pact, especially as their percentage in the population increased substantially, while secular Lebanese resented the sectarian basis of the political system and the domineering role of the clerics of all sects. The civil war of 1958 was a rehearsal for the major, protracted civil war that erupted in 1975 and continued until 1989, when Lebanese politicians produced the Ta’if Accords, which redistributed political power in the country in favor of the Council of Ministers, limiting the powers of the Maronite president. It took into consideration the new demographics and the military results of the civil war, which were not in favor of Christian militias. Lebanon entered an era of relative calm in the 1990s, but the assassination of Sunni prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005 and the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 increased tensions, even among the Muslims themselves.

In its contemporary history, Lebanon has suffered from Syrian political and military intervention and from successive Israeli invasions and occupations of Lebanese territories. Lebanon has a relatively open press and political system compared to those of neighboring Arab countries. It has survived a century of existence as a political entity, but its future remains uncertain.

See also colonialism; Hizbullah