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85-683: The Shia notables such as the Harfush emirs of Baalbek and Bekaa Valley were among the most sought-after local intermediaries of the Ottoman state. Later the Hamadas rose to power. They exercised control over multiple tax farms in the rural hinterland of Tripoli in the seventeenth century through complex relationships with both the Ottoman state authorities and the local non-Shiaa communities. The Harfush and Hamadas both belonged to Shia Islam in Lebanon ,

170-690: A cloth-maker, grammarian and poet from Karak Nuh , was apparently persecuted for rafd in Damascus and then moved to Iran, where he received an official state post. The Harfushes appear to have been back in control of Baalbek by 1702, when local accounts indicate that a Christian shaykh of ‘Aqura in Mt Lebanon entered emir Husayn’s (Harfush) service as yazıcı , or secretary, on account of his Turkish skills. In 1711, French consular reports suggest, Husayn Harfush gave shelter to Haydar Shihabi and then supplied 2,500 troops to help him wipe out his Druze rivals in

255-788: A confederation between Aradians , Sidonians, and Tyrians. Further east, the Bekaa valley was known as Amqu in the Bronze Age, and was part of Amorite kingdom of Qatna and later Amurru kingdom , and had local city-states such as Enišasi . During the Iron Age, the Bekaa was dominated by the Aramaeans , who formed kingdoms nearby in Damascus and Hamath , and established the kingdom of Aram-Zobah where Hazael might have been born, and

340-606: A letter offering their submission to Sultan Selim I , but was executed in 1518 by Janbirdi al-Ghazali as a rebel. There is no further word on Musa Harfush's eventual participation in the Yemen campaign (which was in fact directed against the forces of the Zaydi Shiite imam), and in later years the Harfushes would be appointed sancak-beğs of Homs and Tadmur rather than of Sidon. If nothing else, his being selected to lead

425-572: A major role alongside Lebanon's main Sunni , Maronite and Druze sects. The vast majority of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon adhere to Twelver Shi'ism . Today, Shiite Muslims constitute around 27% of the Lebanese population. Under the terms of an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, Shiites are the only sect eligible for

510-512: A mutual systematic observation of the Ja'fari school , which also continued after Fatimid demise. Shiites also had a strong presence in certain areas in northern Palestine and Transjordan as confirmed by al-Maqdisi (c. 966-985), mainly in Tiberias , Amman and Qadas . Traveling through Tyre and Tripoli c. 1047, Nasir Khusraw noted in his Safarnama that most of the inhabitants of

595-566: A positive and inviting dialectical relationship between the theological construct of Imamism and its social milieu gave precedence to the Shiite possibility. Per al-Muhajir, the beginning of the process can be traced right after the Hasan–Muawiya treaty in 661. Per Harris, the 842 revolt in Jabal Amel gave rare exposure to a Shia-minded population on the fringes of Mount Lebanon . In

680-571: A tribal auxiliary division in return for an official governorship in 1568, more than twenty years before the Ma‘n family received their emiral title, points towards both the possibilities and the limits of Shiite enfranchisement under Ottoman rule: the progressive monetarization of provincial government and the privatization of military power in the later sixteenth century created a context in which non- Sunni tribal leaders constituted viable, even ideal, candidates for local tax and police concessions, accredited by

765-568: Is a branch of Shia Islam which emerged in 765 from a disagreement over the succession to Muhammad . Isma'ilis hold that Isma'il ibn Jafar was the true seventh imam, and not Musa al-Kadhim as the Twelvers believe. Isma'ili Shi'ism also differs doctrinally from Imami Shi'ism, having beliefs and practices that are more esoteric and maintaining seven pillars of faith rather than five pillars and ten ancillary precepts . Though perhaps somewhat better established in neighbouring Syria, where

850-461: Is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries significantly more Phoenician than another." Lebanon throughout its history was home of many historic peoples who inhabited the region. The Lebanese coast was mainly inhabited by Phoenician Canaanites throughout the Bronze and Iron ages, who built the cities of Tyre , Sidon , Byblos and Tripoli , which was founded as a center of

935-701: The Battle of Ain Dara , and establish himself as sole emir of the Shuf. curiously not addressed in H. A. al-Shihabi or any other chronicles of the period. The Ottoman court historian Raşid (d. 1735) telescopes several important events into his official account (but omits the atrocities committed against the Shiaa villagers). The Hamadas, who were supported by the ʿAwjan as well as the Harfush , were caught in heavy snows while fleeing toward Baalbek. An estimated 150 men perished. Only

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1020-770: The British Mandate of Palestine in a 1924 border-redrawing agreement were forcibly depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and repopulated by Jews . The seven villages are Qadas , Nabi Yusha , al-Malikiyya , Hunin , Tarbikha , Abil al-Qamh , and Saliha . The inhabitants in turn fled to Lebanon. In addition, the Shia Twelvers in Lebanon have close links to the Syrian Shia Twelvers . There are approximately 100,000 to 120,000 Alawites in Lebanon , where they have lived since at least

1105-513: The Druze , who in belief, practice, and history have long since become distinct from Isma'ilis proper. Druze constitute 5.2% of the modern population of Lebanon and still have a strong demographic presence in their traditional regions within the country to this day. Due to official persecution by the Sunni Zengid dynasty that stoked escalating sectarian clashes with Sunnis, many Isma'ilis in

1190-649: The Great Syrian Revolt broke out in 1925, the calm remained in Jabal Amel. Nevertheless, many Shiites joined the rebels in Syria , and played a central role in the battles of the Qalamoun Mountains and Akroum , where Shiites reportedly took a booty of more than 400 rifles and fifty horses from French forces. Many Christians who fled their villages during the revolt were accommodated by Shia notables from Nabatieh and Bint Jbeil , an act that

1275-663: The Keserwan hills east of Beirut , it's possible that Shia tribespeople were present in the area in the Umayyad period or after the 759 Munaytra uprising, and were well-established in the area by the 940s–960s. Muahjir contrasts this view, contending that the Shia community in the highlands likely formed following the Fall of Tripoli in 1109 after the city's depopulation of its former Shia inhabitants. In Syria, Aleppo , which figures in

1360-873: The Kingdom of Syria , emphasizing their Arab identity, while simultaneously defending Shiite particularism. Following the official declaration of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in March 1920, anti-French riots and clashed broke out in the predominantly Shia areas of Jabal Amel and the Beqaa Valley . Rebels attacked French military bases and garrisons in their areas, and sectarian clashes also took place, notably in Ain Ebel , due to French arming and their perceived acceptance of French mandatory rule. The French sent an expedition of 4,000–6,000 soldiers led by Colonel Niger to

1445-552: The King–Crane Commission visit. This angered the French, who encouraged an unsuccessful assassination attempt against him. Sharafeddine strongly denounced sectarian hostility as it only gave purpose for the French military presence. During the famous the conference of Wadi al-Hujayr on 24 April 1920, he called for the protection of Christians. The Christians (Nasara) are your brethren in the country and in destiny. Show to them

1530-477: The League of Nations . Sayyid Abdul-Husayn Sharafeddine believed that the only way to ward off foreign political influence was to establish modern schools while maintaining Islamic teachings. In 1938, he built two schools, one for girls and another for boys, at his own expense. However, the girls' school did not last long due to financial difficulties and traditional views, prompting Sayyid Sharafeddine to transfer

1615-668: The Muslim conquest of the Levant reached Lebanon, these Arab tribes received the most power which encouraged the non-Arabic-speaking population to adopt Arabic as the main language. The spread of Shia Islam in Lebanon was a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon over a few centuries. By the time of the Islamic conquest, Jabal Amel was an ethno-linguistic hybrid which included the tribes of Amilah and Judham as well as Hamdan émigrés, and non-Arab communities. According to Irfan Shahîd ,

1700-545: The Safavids of Iran , contributing significantly to the empire's conversion into Shia Islam. Tahmasp I (1524–1576) appointed Muhaqqiq al-Karaki from Karak Nuh as the deputy of the Hidden Imam , and granted him extensive power over the sadrs (Grand viziers) in a prolix edict in 1533. Tahmasp reportedly told him: "You are the real king and I am just one of your agents". This brought new political and court power to

1785-586: The crisis of 1781 . One particular scholar from Jezzine, Muhammad ibn Makki , became a widely known Shi'i faqīh who advocated developing religious law through debate with Sunni scholars, whose fame as a legal expert spread as far as Khorasan , where the reigning Sarbadar invited him to instruct his court in Twelver Shiism. On 30 June 1384, Ibn Makki was charged with heresy and subsequently executed in Citadel of Damascus : Between 1292 and 1305,

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1870-868: The 16th century. They are recognized as one of the 18 official Lebanese sects, and due to the efforts of an Alawite leader Ali Eid , the Taif Agreement of 1989 gave them two reserved seats in the Parliament. Lebanese Alawites live mostly in the Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood of Tripoli , and in 10 villages in the Akkar region , and are mainly represented by the Arab Democratic Party . Bab al-Tabbaneh, Jabal Mohsen clashes between pro-Syrian Alawites and anti-Syrian Sunnis have haunted Tripoli for decades. Isma'ilism , or " Sevener Shi'ism",

1955-579: The Bekaa. He captured Mustafa Pasha and defeated the Harfush's Emir. Bekaa Valley before and after the battle of ‘Anjar can be obtained from a recently published register of iltizam appointments for the province of Damascus. Covering the years 1616 to 1635, the register among other things provides documentary evidence of the Harfushes’ growing marginalization as well as of the rise of the Shihabis of Wadi Taym as new contenders for government tax farms in

2040-878: The Duruze, who had (the Duruze) earlier won the battle in Deir Al Qamar" (The Harfushes stood behind the Christians and defeated the Duruze in the battle field of Zahle'). In 1865 the Ottoman government ordered to send the last Harfush emirs to Edirne in Turkey for exile; later most of them returned to Baalbeck, but others could not and stayed in Istanbul; subsequently Emir Ahmad bin Mohamad bin Soultan El -Harfouche

2125-507: The French authorities in Lebanon, specifically regarding the hierarchical distribution of social capital along religious communal lines. During these negotiations, petitions were often used by different sects to demand support for reforms. For example, the middle-class of predominantly urban Sunni areas expressed their demands for educational reforms through petitions directed towards the French High Commissioner and

2210-579: The Ftuh just to pillage the farmsteads. In the course of an attempt to retrieve some of their animals, Husayn ibn Sirhan, his cousin Hasan Dib and several companions were caught and killed. In late October, when Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi visited Tripoli, Ali Paşa was still out "battling the pertinacious heretics, the Hamada faction". Like the Hamadas, the Harfush emirs were involved on more than one occasion in

2295-571: The Harfush emirate of the Bekaa Valley and the Hamadas of Mt Lebanon challenged the territorial extension and power of the Druze emirate of the Shuf. Unlike the Druze, the Shia emirs were regularly denounced for their religious identity and persecuted under Ebu's-Suud 's definition of ( Kızılbaş ) heretics. The Harfushes had been a regionally paramount dynasty since early Mamluk times and even served as patrons of local Shiaa shrines and scholars. To

2380-536: The Harfushes had retaken control of the Bekaa from the Ma‘ns and the mufti was long dead, the village remained formally excluded from their holdings. The register also sheds light on the administrative context of the fitna (strife) between the Harfushes and Ma‘ns in 1623–24. It corroborates local chroniclers’ claims that Fakhr al-Din offered to send the sultan 100,000 gold coins for the Baalbek tax concession, but casts doubt on

2465-517: The Islamic clerics and their networks, intersecting Tabriz , Qazvin , Isfahan , Rasht , Astarabad , and Amol . Another prominent cleric was Baha'uddin al-Amili , who authored mathematical and astronomical treatises, including the possibility of the Earth's movement prior to the spread of the Copernican theory , and is responsible for many architectural feats in the city of Isfahan . With

2550-700: The Isma'ili population has largely vanished over time. It has been suggested that Ottoman-era persecution might have spurred them to leave for elsewhere in the region, though there is no record or evidence of any kind of large exodus. Isma'ilis were originally included as one of five officially-defined Muslim sects in a 1936 edict issued by the French Mandate governing religious affairs in the territory of Greater Lebanon , alongside Sunnis , Twelver Shiites, Alawites, and Druzes . However, Muslims collectively rejected being classified as divided, and so were left out of

2635-666: The Ja'fari shar'ia courts in practice, the Shia community was deliberately encouraged to "practice sectarianism" on a daily basis. Shia Twelvers in Lebanon refers to the Shia Muslim Twelver community with a significant presence throughout Lebanon. The jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire was merely nominal in the Lebanon. Baalbek in the 18th century was really under the control of the Metawali, which also refers to

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2720-509: The Khazins now prevented the wholesale slaughter of the survivors, by disingenuously claiming they had no permission from Maan to leave the province of Tripoli, and directed the imperial forces elsewhere. Still, Ali Paşa was not to be satisfied. A manhunt began for the Hamadas and their confederates, Shiaa or otherwise. Untold villages were torched, women enslaved, and severed heads brought back to Tripoli. In late August, he sent another army into

2805-689: The Kisrawan rebels, resulting in fierce battles that eventually crushed the defenders. The Mamluks then devastated villages and cultivation through August 1305 and expelled much of the population, most of whom settled in Southern Lebanon and the Beqaa valley . After the Ottoman conquest circa 1516, leading Shiite families in Jabal Amil , Beqaa Valley and Mount Lebanon , which had been ensconced prior to Ottoman arrival, were co-opted into

2890-543: The Levant, the Qarmatians were ordered to be stamped out by the ruling Fatimid , themselves Isma'ilis and from whom the lineage of the modern Nizari Aga Khan is claimed to descend. The Qarmatian movement in the Levant was largely extinguished by the turn of the millennium. The semi-divine personality of the Fatimid caliph in Isma'ilism was elevated further in the doctrines of a secretive group which began to venerate

2975-571: The Mamluks carried out a series of punitive expeditions against the Shia population of Kisrawan region in Mount Lebanon east of Beirut , headed by Aqqush al-Afram . According to Mamluk chronicler Badr al-Din al-Ayni , in 1292, the Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil compelled Baydara to take three thousand cavalry up the coast from Egypt , entering Kisrawan from the south. According to al-Ayni,

3060-468: The Ottoman provincial administration as mukataacıs or as governors of secondary sanjaks with fiscal and police responsibilities over a vast section of the Syrian coastal highlands. According to Abdelnour, the Shiite population in 1765 probably stood around 40,000. The Harfushes of Baalbek received the iltizam concession for the Bekaa as well as a rank in the provincial military hierarchy. In

3145-428: The Ottoman withdrawal in 1918, the French entered Nabatieh and barred the local populace from carrying out political activity. Local chiefs rejected the demand, and instead hoisted the Arab flag in several villages. Shiites participated in the Syrian nationalist movement and Syrian National Congress in 1919, and prominent Shiites such as Ahmad Rida often stated their support for Syrian unity and independence within

3230-658: The Ottomans they were therefore always leading candidates for local fiscal and political offices, including for the military governorship of the sub-province of Homs, to which they were appointed to partially offset the influence of the increasingly hegemonic Druze emirate. The late Mamluk historian Ibn Tawq identifies an Ibn Harfush as a muqaddam of the Anti-Lebanon mountain villages al-Jebbeh and Assal al-Ward as early as 1483. Later, Ibn al-Himsi and Ibn Tulun mention one as deputy (na'ib) of Baalbek in 1498. The unnamed Ibn Harfush appears in an Ottoman archival source as early as 1516, when he and several other local notables signed

3315-433: The Shia Twelvers specifically from the landmass that is modern Lebanon. Metawali, Metouali, or Mutawili, is an archaic term used to specifically refer to Lebanese Twelver Shiites in the past. The term was a way to distinguish the uniqueness and unity of the community. The term 'mutawili' is also the name of a trustee in Islamic waqf -system. Seven Shia (Mutawili) villages that were reassigned from French Greater Lebanon to

3400-418: The Shiite Ja'fari jurisprudence or madhhab was legally recognized as an official madhhab , and held judicial and political power on multiple levels. The institutionalization of Shia Islam during this period provoked discussions between Shiite scholars and clergy about how Shiite orthodoxy should be defined. For example, discussions about the mourning of the martyrdom of Imam Husain during Ashura , which

3485-502: The caliph Hakim as the embodiment of divine unity . Unsuccessful in the imperial capital of Cairo , they began discreetly proselytising around the year 1017 among certain Arab tribes in the Levant. The Isma'ilis of Wadi al-Taym and Jabal Shuf were among those who converted before the movement was permanently closed off a few decades later to guard against outside prying by mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims, who often viewed their doctrines as heresy. This deeply esoteric group became known as

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3570-416: The coast. Meanwhile Greek was used as language of administration, education and trading. It is important to note that most villages and towns in Lebanon today have Aramaic names, reflecting this heritage. However, Beirut became the only fully Latin -speaking city in the whole East. On the coast, Tyre prospered under the Romans and was allowed to keep much of its independence as a " civitas foederata ". On

3655-531: The competition of other local forces. As elsewhere in the empire, administrative units such as sancaks , eyalets and tax farms were not precisely delimited but could be reorganized according to the government's needs or the assignee's personal importance. The Ottomans briefly contemplated turning Sidon-Beirut into a beğlerbeğlik under ‘Ali Harfush in 1585; starting in 1590 Fakhr al-Din Ma‘n and his sons held Safad and then Sidon-Beirut for many years as sancak-beğs. The Harfush leader Emir Yunus al-Harfush

3740-406: The country. While the French and Russians mainly encouraged Maronite and Orthodox active learning respectively, along with American Protestant missions in Beirut, the British established educational institutions in Druze areas, and Sunnis mainly benefitted from Ottoman state institutions. However, Shiites were the only ones who did not benefit from such activities. This neglectance continued into

3825-413: The death of the Ilkhan Ghazan in 1304, the Mamluks assembled the main Mamluk field army for a third campaign. In July 1305, according to al-Maqrizi , al-Ayni and Druze chronicler Salih ibn Yahya, 50,000 Mamluk troops marched from Damascus to meet up with another army under the na'ib of Tripoli coming from the south, also summoning their Druze Buhturid allies. The Mamluk pincer movement converged on

3910-444: The defenders, whom he called kafarat rawafid , mobilized 10,000 defenders who lured Mamluk contingents into ambushes . The campaign was a failure, and Baydara was only able to extricate his troops after offering gifts and releasing prisoners. In 1299, Kisrawan mountaineers attacked the fleeing Mamluk army, which brought Kisrawan back to Mamluk priority, prompting a swift retribution in 1300. Punishment did not suffice, and following

3995-410: The earlier fall of Shiite multezims in Kisrawan and North Lebanon . According to Comte de Volney , no more than 500 Shiite families survived Jazzar's rampage at the time of his visit in 1785. According to Tamara Chalabi, these events would persist in the collective memory of the Shia of Jabal Amel well into the early 20th century. During this time period, Shiites built particularly close ties with

4080-459: The early 14th century, Jabal Amel was becoming the Twelver Shia center of the entire Levant . During this period, a stream of scholars shifted to Jabal Amel from Aleppo due to Mamluk takeover as the area provided refuge from Sunni rigor. The towns of Jezzine and Karak Nuh replaced the former urban centers of Shiite learning in the Levant, and Shiite scholars enjoyed protection under Shia chiefs starting from Husam ad-Din Bishara in 1187 until

4165-448: The early days of the French mandate. During the 1920s and 1930s, educational institutions became places for different religious communities to construct nationalist and sectarian modes of identification. Shia leaders and religious clergy supported educational reforms in order to improve the social and political marginalization of the Shia community and increase their involvement in the newly born nation-state of Lebanon. This led to

4250-592: The eighteenth century. What repression there was did not always target the Christian community per se. The Shiite ‘Usayran family, for example, is also said to have left Baalbek in this period to avoid expropriation by the Harfushes, establishing itself as one of the premier commercial households of Sidon and later even serving as consuls of Iran. Says a contemporary Christian historian of the siege of Zahle' in 1841: "The harfushes did not credit Zahle' only, but also all Christians in Lebanon. The Christians would have been humiliated if they had lost their battle (Zahle’) against

4335-549: The establishment of several private Shia schools in Lebanon, among them The Charitable Islamic ʿĀmili Society ( al-Jamʿiyya al-Khayriyya al-Islāmiyya al- ʿ Āmiliyya ) in Beirut and The Charitable Jaʿfari Society ( al-Jamʿiyya al-Khayriyya al-Jaʿfariyya ) in Tyre . While several Shia educational institutions were established before and at the beginning of the mandate period, they often ran out of support and funding which resulted in their abolishment. The primary outlet for discussions concerning educational reforms among Shia scholars

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4420-434: The establishment of the Ja'fari court further strengthened communal ties and validated a sense of particularism otherwise denied under the Ottomans. Consequently, the establishment of Ja'fari shari'a courts during the French Mandate period in Lebanon complicated the understanding of citizenship by intertwining it with sectarian identification, while also reinforcing sectarian divisions within the legal and political framework of

4505-434: The faith founded one of its first da'wah outposts in the city of Salamiyah (the supposed resting place of the Imam Isma'il) in the 8th century, it has been present in what is now Lebanon for centuries. Early Lebanese Isma'ilism showed perhaps an unusual propensity to foster radical movements within it, particularly in the areas of Wadi al-Taym , adjoining the Beqaa valley at the foot of Mount Hermon , and Jabal Shuf , in

4590-421: The girls and teach them in his own home. The boys' school was known as al-Ja'fariyya , and was able to continue despite financial difficulties. In January 1926, the French High Commissioner officially recognized the Shia community as an "independent religious community," which was permitted to judge matters of personal status "according to the principles of the rite known by the name of Ja'fari." This meant that

4675-472: The heroic defenders of region and its people. Shia Islam in Lebanon Lebanese diaspora : Europe Overseas Middle East Lebanese Shiite Muslims ( Arabic : المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيون ), communally and historically known as matāwila ( Arabic : متاولة , plural of متوال mutawālin ; pronounced as متوالي metouali or matawali in Lebanese Arabic ), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon , which plays

4760-545: The highlands of Mount Lebanon . The syncretic beliefs of the Qarmatians , typically classed as an Isma'ili splinter sect with Zoroastrian influences, spread into the area of the Beqaa valley and possibly also Jabal Shuf starting in the 9th century. The group soon became widely vilified in the Islamic world for its armed campaigns across throughout the following decades, which included slaughtering Muslim pilgrims and sacking Mecca and Medina—and Salamiyah. Other Muslim rulers soon acted to crush this powerful heretical movement. In

4845-455: The late 18th century, traditional Shiite feudatories and mukataa-based familial system had largely become redundant and weak, and Shia influence diminished in favor of an increasingly powerful Maronite-Druze alliance which reached heights under the Sunni (and later Maronite) Shihab dynasty . Decline amplified in 1781 following the death of Nasif al-Nassar in battle against Jazzar Pasha who brought Jabal Amel under his suzerainty, concurrent with

4930-483: The law in the end. Ignored in a post-independence law passed in 1951 that defined only Judaism and Christian sects as official, Muslims continued under traditional Ottoman law, within the confines of which small communities like Isma'ilis and Alawites found it difficult to establish their own institutions. The Aga Khan IV made a brief stop in Beirut on 4 August 1957 while on a global tour of Nizari Isma'ili centres, drawing an estimated 600 Syrian and Lebanese followers of

5015-423: The love you show to yourselves. Protect their lives and possessions as you do to your own. Only by this can you face the conspiracy and put an end to the civil strife. This period of unrest ended in 1921 with a political amnesty offered by the French mandate authorities for all Shiite rebels who had taken part in the fighting, with the intention to bind the Shia community in Lebanon to the new Mandate state. When

5100-424: The main cemetery of Baalbek and two villages are left in their memory, the Harfouche village and the Mrah el Harfouch village. The name of Yunus al-Harfouche is also engraved on the oldest mosque in the city of Baalbek . Nowadays, in the city it is more frequently referred to as Al Harfouch family instead of Harfouch dynasty. However, in the local families of the bekkaa still hold Al Harfouch to their high standards as

5185-467: The nation-state. Instead of armed rebellion and uprisings, protests and civil strikes in Shia areas became the medium to protest French policies and tobacco prices. Shiites were later active in providing ammunition, manpower and assistance to Palestinian rebels during the 1936–1939 revolt in Palestine , which was co-administered from Bint Jbeil . In the 19th century, Lebanon saw dramatic changes when missionaries started establishing schools throughout

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5270-448: The notion that the governor of Damascus simply ‘paid no heed’ to the offer or ignored the Sublime Porte's orders to instate him. Fakhr al-Din's offer was matched by Yunus, and the iltizam was reconfirmed to his son ‘Ali Harfush by the kadıs of Damascus and Baalbek immediately after the battle of ‘Anjar. There was at least one Imami scholar from the Bekaa by the name of Harfush in the Ottoman period: Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Harfushi (died 1649),

5355-456: The other hand, Jabal Amel was inhabited by Banu Amilah , its namesake, who have particular importance for the Lebanese Shia for adopting and nurturing Shi'ism in the southern population. The Banu Amilah were part of the Nabataean Arab foederati of the Roman Empire , and they were connected to other pre-Islamic Arabs such as Judham and Balqayn , whose presence in the region likely dates back to Biblical times according to Irfan Shahîd . As

5440-405: The perpetual inconveniences this produces. War in the region has also caused pressures on Lebanese Isma'ilis. In the 2006 Lebanon War , Israeli warplanes bombed the factory of the Maliban Glass company in the Beqaa valley on 19 July. The factory was bought in the late 1960s by the Madhvani Group under the direction of Isma'ili entrepreneur Abdel-Hamid al-Fil after the Aga Khan personally brought

5525-570: The post of Speaker of Parliament . The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Lebanese people is a blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. In a 2013 interview the lead investigator, Pierre Zalloua , pointed out that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions: "Lebanon already had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, and religions came as layers of paint on top. There

5610-488: The pre-Islamic tribes of Amilah and Judham were part of the Nabataean foederati of the Romans , whose presence in the region dates back to Biblical times. Banu Amilah, according to tenth century historian al-Tabari , were also affiliates of the Ghassanids who supplied troops to the Byzantines . During the early Islamic period, Jabal Amel and the adjacent areas likely hosted several disgruntled groups or communities that were susceptible to Twelver Shia doctrine, and

5695-421: The province of Tripoli , the Hamada family were charged with multiple tax collection assignments in the hinterland of Mount Lebanon . Further south, the Shiites of Jabal Amel retained their tax farms well into the mid-18th century, greatly benefiting from the foreign demand for dyed cotton and good commercial contacts with the French, and by the 1750s the area provided more tax revenues than Mount Lebanon. In

5780-501: The reconstruction timeframe indefinite due to instability and government hesitation. Lebanese Shiite Muslims are concentrated in south Beirut and its southern suburbs, northern and western area of the Beqaa Valley, as well as Southern Lebanon. Note that the following percentages are estimates only. However, in a country that had last census in 1932, it is difficult to have correct population estimates. Iltizam An iltizam ( Arabic : التزام , romanized :  iltizām )

5865-409: The region. Beginning in 1618, for example, around the time of Fakhr al-Din's return from Tuscany, Yunus Harfush came under pressure to renounce the income normally due to the emin of Baalbek from the village of ‘Aytha, after the mufti of Damascus (a native of ‘Aytha) had petitioned for it to be set aside for himself in the supposed interest of reviving and repopulating the area. Even in later years, after

5950-481: The regions of Damascus and Aleppo are said to have fled west during the 12th century. Some settled in the mountains of Lebanon, while others settled further north along the coastal ridges in Syria , where the Alawites had earlier taken refuge—and where their brethren in the Assassins were cultivating a fearsome reputation as they staved off armies of Crusaders and Sunnis alike for many years. Once far more numerous and widespread in many areas now part of Lebanon,

6035-486: The religion to the Beirut Airport in order to welcome him. In the mid-1980s, several hundred Isma'ilis were thought to still live in a few communities scattered across several parts of Lebanon. Though they are nominally counted among the 18 officially-recognised sects under modern Lebanese law, they currently have no representation in state functions and continue to lack personal status laws for their sect, which has led to increased conversions to established sects to avoid

6120-626: The scholastic heritage of Jabal Amel, had become fertile ground for Twelver Shi'ism under the reign of the Hamdanids (944–991), and cultural and material interactions between Aleppo and Jabal Amel may have reinforced nascent local development of Twelver Shi'ism in the area prior to Isma'ili Fatimid ascent in Egypt (969–1174). Before Fatimid Ismaili da'wa took hold in Syria, cultural exchange between scholars in Jabal Amel and Iraq contributed to

6205-662: The selection of church officials and the running of local monasteries. Tradition holds that many Christians quit the Baalbek region in the eighteenth century for the newer, more secure town of Zahle on account of the Harfushes’ oppression and rapacity, but more critical studies have questioned this interpretation, pointing out that the Harfushes were closely allied to the Orthodox Ma‘luf family of Zahle (where Mustafa Harfush took refuge some years later) and showing that depredations from various quarters as well as Zahle's growing commercial attractiveness accounted for Baalbek's decline in

6290-456: The south in an effort to pacify the Shiite rebels, devastating their villages and crushing Shiite rebels by June 1920. The defeat dispersed thousands of peasants who feared harsh reprisals, and the high fines imposed on the villagers contributed to financial hardship in the region. The armed effort was paralleled by the nonviolent resistance movement led by Abdul Husayn Sharafeddine since 1919, who demanded US support for Syrian unity during

6375-405: The state and integrated into the imperial military administrative hierarchy. Yet their success would also depend on their ability to hold sway locally, to transcend their narrow parochial bases, raise revenues and capitalize on western Syria's changing economic situation. The Harfush emirs were among the first in the region to be co-opted by the Ottoman state, but would in the long run not stand up to

6460-482: The two cities were Shiite. Ibn Asakir (1106–1175), during his ten-year residence in Tyre, noted strong opposition to his views from some of the rafida , a pejorative term denoting Shiites. Tripoli was ruled by Banu Ammar from 1079, who invested large sums in turning the city into a famous center for learning, founding a "House of Knowledge" that attracted scholars as well as a notable library of 100,000 volumes. By

6545-429: The two into contact. It had expanded over the next few decades from an ailing relic to the largest glass manufacturer in the Levant, with 300 locally hired workers producing around 220,000 tons of glass per day. Al-Fil closed the plant down on 15 July just after the war broke out to safeguard against the deaths of workers in the event of such an attack, but the damage was estimated at a steep 55 million US dollars, with

6630-418: Was a clandestine affair before the 1920s and 1930s, led to its transformation into a public ceremony. On the other hand, the official recognition of legal and religious Shiite institutions by the French authorities strengthened a sectarian awareness within the Shia community. Historian Max Weiss underlines how "sectarian claims were increasingly bound up with the institutionalization of Shi'i difference." With

6715-533: Was a form of tax farm that appeared in the 15th century in the Ottoman Empire . The system began under Mehmed the Conqueror and was abolished during the Tanzimat reforms in 1856. Iltizams were sold off by the government to wealthy notables, who would then reap up to five times the amount they had paid by taxing the peasants and extracting agricultural production. It was a system that was very profitable and

6800-570: Was appreciated by the local Christian clergy. What the Shi'ites did for the Christians in the south will be cherished in our hearts for as long as Lebanon and the Christians remain. What happened should be written in gold. Long live Lebanon, Long live Lebanese unity and long live the Shiites. The region experienced a decade of stability following the revolt. Shiites had become largely accepting of Greater Lebanon for sectarian and non-sectarian reasons, and

6885-552: Was in a conflict with the Lebanese Druze lord Fakhr al-Din in the early 1600s because of that conflict Fakhr al-Din decided to pull into the Bekaa valley. The Harfush dynasty wanted to take over the Ma'an family realm during Fakhr al-Din's exile. Yunus had an ally, Mustafa Pasha who was the governor of Damascus . Yunus and Pasha wanted to take the sanjak of Safad from Fakhr al-Din. Fakhr al-din returned from Italy, marched across

6970-513: Was later also settled by Itureans , who were likely Arabs themselves. These Itureans inhabited the hills above Tyre in Southern Lebanon , historically known as Jabal Amel , since at least the times of Alexander the Great , who fought them after they blocked his army's access to wood supply. During Roman rule , Aramaic became the lingua franca of the entire Levant , including what is nowadays known as Lebanon, replacing spoken Phoenician on

7055-510: Was of great benefit to the Egyptian aristocracy under the Mamluks , and helped create a large and powerful elite. In Egypt, it was abolished by Muhammad Ali as part of his centralization efforts in the early nineteenth century. After confiscating the iltizam lands of the ulema, Muhammad Ali imposed a tax on their significant (and previously tax-exempt) waqf revenues. The holder of an iltizam

7140-643: Was the monthly Shiite journal a l-'Irfan , founded in 1909. In order to bring their demands ( muṭālabiyya ) to the attention of the French authorities, petitions were signed and presented to the French High Commissioner and the Service de l'Instruction Publique. This institution – since 1920 headquartered in Beirut- oversaw every educational policy regarding public and private school in the mandate territories. According to historian Elizabeth Thompson, private schools were part of "constant negotiations" between citizen and

7225-488: Was transferred to Cairo . The abrupt disappearance of the Harfush emirate left the Shiite community of Baalbek bereft of any anciently rooted, indigenous social leadership, making it that much more of a likely venue for the rise of foreign-inspired, ideological mass movements such as Communism, Nasirism and the Hizb Allah in Lebanon's tumultuous 20th century. Today, Al Harfouch still own large acres of lands in Baalbek,

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