Lebanese Shia Muslims

Lebanese Shia Muslims
المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين

Distribution of Shi'a Muslims in Lebanon
Languages
Vernacular: Lebanese Arabic
Religion
Islam (Shia Islam)

Lebanese Shia Muslims (Arabic: المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين), historically known as matāwila (Arabic: متاولة), refers to Lebanese people who are adherents of the Shia branch of Islam in Lebanon, which is the largest Muslim denomination in the country. Shia Islam in Lebanon has a history of more than a millennium. According to the CIA World Factbook, Shia Muslims constituted an estimated 30.5% of Lebanon's population in 2018.

Most of its adherents live in the northern and western area of the Beqaa Valley, Southern Lebanon and Beirut. The great majority of Shia Muslims in Lebanon are Twelvers. However, a small minority of them are Alawites and Ismaili.

Under the terms of an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, Shias are the only sect eligible for the post of Speaker of Parliament.

History

Lebanon religious groups distribution

An estimate of the area distribution of Lebanon's main religious groups

Origins

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 is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries significantly more Phoenician than another."

Haplogroup J2 is also a significant marker throughout Lebanon (29%). This marker found in many inhabitants of Lebanon, regardless of religion, signals pre-Arab descendants. These genetic studies show us there is no significant differences between the Muslims and non-Muslims of Lebanon. Genealogical DNA testing has shown that 21.3% of Lebanese Muslims (non-Druze) belong to the Y-DNA haplogroup J1 compared with non-Muslims at 17%. Although Haplogroup J1 is most common in Arabian peninsula, studies have shown that it has been present in the Levant since the Bronze age (3300–1200 BC) and does not necessarily indicate Arab descent, with the main exception being the Arabian subclade of J1-FGC12 occurring at no more than 3% among Shias and Sunnis. Other haplogroups present among Lebanese Shia include E1b1b (19%), G-M201 (10%), R1b, and T-L206 occurring at smaller, but significant rates.

In a 2020 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Authors showed that there is substantial genetic continuity in Lebanon since the Bronze Age interrupted by three significant admixture events during the Iron Age, Hellenistic, and Ottoman period, each contributing 3%–11% of non-local ancestry to the admixed population.

Genetics aside, the population of Lebanon was mainly Canaanite who began to speak Aramaic. Under Byzantine rule, this population had adopted aspects of Hellenistic culture and Koine Greek as the language of administration while maintaining their local languages and culture. It is important to note that most villages and towns in Lebanon today have Aramaic names, reflecting this heritage. Lebanon was also a home for many other historic peoples; the Bekaa valley, known as Amqu in the Bronze Age, was part of Qatna, and later Amurru kingdom and local city-state of Enišasi. Aramaeans, who formed kingdoms nearby in Damascus and Hamath, came to dominate in the Bekaa and established the kingdom of Aram-Zobah, where Hazael the Aramaean king might have been born. While Aramaic was spoken by the rural populations, Greek was spoken in the urban communities and among traders; Beirut became the only fully Latin speaking city in the whole east. Alongside the natives, minor pockets of Greeks, Arabs, Persians, and other populations from the Near East and Mediterranean world assimilated into the native population living in Lebanon, over the course of history. Among these pre-Islamic Arabs, Banu Amela has importance for the Lebanese Shia for adopting and nurturing Shi'ism in the southern population. Other famous Arabs include Banu Bahra' & Tanukhids. As the Islamic expansion reached Lebanon, these Arab tribes received the most power which encouraged the rest of the population to adopt Arabic as the main language.

Early history

Early Islamic period

See also: Hamdanids

See also: Banu Ammar

See also: Tyre, Lebanon

Early period

After the First Fitna, Bilad al-Sham, which includes present-day Lebanon, became the stronghold of Umayyad power over the Islamic world, which Shia Muslims believe is the divine right of Ahlulbayt. The Umayyads derived their military largely from the Syrian Arab community, who divided themselves along the Qays–Yaman division. Some oral folk tradition attributes the spread of Shi'ism in Southern Lebanon to the companion of the Prophet, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari who was exiled to the Levant by Uthman and proselytized the natives. However, the spread of Shia Islam, and particularly the Twelver denomination, in the Levant is a complex historical phenomenon that cannot be specifically tied to a certain historical character. Nevertheless, the Twelve Imams Imams had several disciples and companions from the Levant, including Khulayd bin Awfa ash-Shami and Ubaidallah bin Ali al-Halabi, a merchant from Kufa who traded in Aleppo, both companions of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. In the assessment of historian Jaafar al-Muhajir, from the mid-8th century onward, attested presence of pro-Alid (and Alid) tribes throughout Syria and Palestine likely helped facilitate Shiism among the native population, where anti-Abbasid sentiment was common due to the ongoing marginalization of the region under the Abbasids. According to Yaqut al-Hamawi, the people of Homs, who were strong supporters of the Umayyads and vehemently anti-Alid, became adamant, ghulat Shiites after the demise of the Umayyads in 750. Prominent Homs-based Shiites, some of whom assuredly belonged to the Twelver denomination, appear in the late 700s and 800s.

Ismailism formed as a separate denomination of Shia Islam in 775, and Isma'ili leadership based itself in Salamiyah, Syria. During the late 9th century, millennialist expectations increased in the Muslim world, coinciding with a deep crisis of the Abbasid Caliphate during the decade-long Anarchy at Samarra, the rise of breakaway and autonomous regimes in the provinces, and the large-scale Zanj Rebellion, whose leader claimed Alid descent and proclaimed himself as the mahdī. In this chaotic atmosphere, where the Abbasids were preoccupied with suppressing the uprising, the Isma'ili daʿwa spread rapidly, especially among dissatisfied Twelver adherents due to the political quietism of their leadership and the recent disappearance of the twelfth imam. From Salamiyah, Isma'ili leadership sent missionaries to promote Isma'ili dawah in Iraq, Yemen, Khuzestan, Khorasan and Maghreb, the latter where Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i found success in converting the Kutama Berbers. Simultaneously, Zaidism also took hold in Raqqa, Syria, the town of Sulayman bin Jarir ar-Raqqi (fl. 790 CE) the founder of Jaririyyah Zaidi doctrine, and the city's inhabitants are also described as Shiites two centuries later by Al-Maqdisi (c. 966–985). Relating to this, a late controversial account is made by Ibn Jubayr (c. 1183–1185 CE), when he mentions Zaidi Shiites in the countryside of Damascus, possibly alluding to presence of Zaidism in the Bekaa valley, during the late 12th century, but al-Muhajir discredits the account of Ibn Jubayr as possibly inaccurate.

Hamdan Qarmat, the eponymous founder the Qarmatian sect of Isma'ilism, joined Isma'ili da'wah efforts in Iraq in 874 CE, pledging allegiance to the leadership at Salamiyah. Hamdan Qarmat split after a dispute in 899 CE with the Isma'ili Imam Sa'id ibn al-Husayn, who was based in Salamiya, and disappeared, but his followers continued in existence in pockets of the Levant and in al-Bahrayn for several decades. In 902–903, the Qarmatians overran Homs and the Bekaa valley, where Muslims resented the Abbasids and Tulunids, and they managed to capture Baalbek for some time. The faith was reportedly embraced by the Banu Kilab, the ancestral tribe of the Shiite Mirdasid and Munqidhite dynasties of 11th & 12th century Syria, while the urban Sunni population largely rejected the movement. Moreover, adjacent to Jabal Amel, early Alid and Sayyed families lived in nearby Tiberias, one of the reportedly Shia cities of Palestine mentioned by Al-Maqdisi, in the late 800s, some of whom were accused of being Qarmatian sympathizers and killed. Interestingly, after the Abbasids kicked the Qarmatians from Syria in 903, a Qarmatian revolt on the coast took place. Contemporaneously, some of the early Shia figures from Tyre and Tripoli are mentioned during this period, including Muhammad bin Ibrahim as-Souri (fl. 880 CE), and Khaythama bin Sulayman bin Ḥaydara at-Tarabulsi (864–955 CE), who was described as a Shia only by some narrators. Abbasid-era Tyre was notable for one of its poets, Abdul Mohsin as-Souri (b. 950 CE), a Shiite poet who composed his own diwan of more than five thousand poetic verses, and also famously composed a poem for the Twelver scholar Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, mourning his death in 1022 CE. Thus, while not possible to allude which specific denominations of Shia Islam were dominant in Lebanon and the Levant as a whole, Isma'ilism and Twelver Shia Islam had both been present by the 9th century, with Twelver Shia Islam assuming primacy later.

The Hamdanids, a dynasty of Twelver Shia Muslims, took control of Aleppo and most of northern Syria by 944, further expanding their territory into Anatolia. Aleppo prospered significantly under the Hamdanids, who appointed a Hanafi Sunni qadi for the city. Muslims and non-Muslims alike served in Hamdanid courts. In Lebanon, aside from the coast, some of the earlier accounts for inner Jabal Amel are given by Al-Maqdisi (c. 966–985), who mentions that half of Hunin and Qadas inhabitants were Shia Muslims. Al-Maqdisi also relays important accounts regarding Shiites living in the Palestinian cities of Tiberias, Nablus and Amman. Further east in the Bekaa valley, sources are scarce and generally uninformative. According to historian al-Muhajir, Arab tribes which lived in the surroundings of Baalbek before 872, that were historically known for their pro-Alid and para-Shiite sympathies, likely played a role in facilitating Shia Islam in the Bekaa valley. In the late 9th century, a splinter group of Twelver Shia Muslims had followed Ibn Nusayr who claimed to be the representative (bab) of Imam al-Mahdi, and whose doctrines were deemed unorthodox by the great majority of Twelvers. The Aleppo-based Al-Khasibi (874–969 CE), who was given protection by the Hamdanids, claimed to possess Ibn Nusayr's doctrines, a counter claim to the sect of Ishaqiyya who claimed to possess the real teachings of Ibn Nusayr, and his efforts, combined with the patronage of notable families of Banu Muhriz, Banu'l-Arid and Banu'l-Ahmar in 1030s, eventually lead to the establishment of the Alawite community in Syria as an offshoot group from Twelver Shia Islam.

Fatimid (970–1070) and Seljuk (1070–1099) eras

The Fatimids, ruling from Cairo, conquered most of the region c. 970, but political turmoil ensued when the Byzantines and Qarmatians re-entered the region. Between the Byzantine reconquest of Syria and the twice-attempted Qarmatian invasion of Egypt, backed by local Arab tribes including Jarrahids and Banu Kilab, the Fatimids finally managed to recapture most of the Levant by 1000, nominally controlling it with occasional disturbances until 1070. The Fatimids, who were Isma'ilis, generally tolerated the different Islamic denominations, including Twelver Shiites, which were prevalent among the non-Shiite majority populace. In North Africa, the Kutama Berber tribe provided the mainstay of the Fatimids when they established themselves North Africa in 909, while the majority of Berbers were Kharijites and Sunnis. A fusion of Isma'ili and Twelver Shiites can be seen in predominantly Shiite cities of the time, such as Tripoli, Tyre and Aleppo, and Ismailism experienced a significant revival under the Fatimids. Writings from this period indicate that the Shia scholars of Lebanon famously received treatises from Twelver Shia scholar Sharif Murtada known as al-Masa'il al-Tarabulsiyyah and al-Masa'il al-Saidawiyyah, sent for the scholars of Tripoli and Sidon respectively, and some of the students of Shaykh Tusi, one of the most prominent Twelver Shia scholars and considered as the founder of Shia jurisprudence, came from Tripoli and Tyre, and Tripoli-based prominent Shiite scholar and debater, Abu'l-Fadl at-Tarabulsi, wrote of the disagreements between Shafi'i Sunnis and Twelver Shiites, and was appointed the qadi of Tripoli by Banu Ammar. Furthermore, the two cities also participated in Isma'ili revival and supplying of missionary activity. Isma'ili missionaries included Abul-Fawaris at-Tarabulsi (971–1022 CE), who met Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and taught in Isma'ili town of Al-Qadmus, and Muhammad bin Ali bin Hasan as-Souri (1029–1094 CE), a missionary sent to Jabal Summaq during Al-Mustansir Billah's reign. The former, Abu'l-Fawaris of Tripoli is known to have written treatises against Twelver Shiism, while Tripoli's prominent resident Twelver, al-Karajiki (fl. 1025 CE), wrote treatises against Isma'ilism, forming an Isma'ili-Twelver dialectic that surely ensued throughout the period. In one event, Al-Mustansir Billah crucified and executed a Twelver Shia scholar of Aleppo, Abu'l-Hasan al-Halabi, for his elaborate refutation of Isma'ili doctrines, and burned the library of Aleppo which reportedly contained around ten thousand books.

From this period, Muslim traveler Nasir Khusraw gives an early account of Tripoli and Tyre (c. 1045–1047), noting that both cities were predominantly Shiite-inhabited and had a population of approximately 20,000 each. To the east, Baalbek was a Sunni-majority city, but had a single Shi'i qadi during this period, Abu'l-Maḥasin al-Tanukhi (fl. 1046 CE), a "Mu'tazili Shiite" grammarian originally from Maarat al-Numan.

Political map of the Levant (c. 1090), highlighting the territories of Tripoli and Tyre

Tripoli was initially governed by the Shia Ibn Ḥaydara qadi, who was followed by the Twelver Shia Banu Ammar family of qadis. Ibn Ḥaydara served as Tripoli's qadi for fifteen years, participating in the suppression the revolt of Allaqa in Tyre, and successfully resisting a Byzantine siege during his term in 999. When the city once again came under the Banu Ammar in 1070, who's family members had also ruled over Tyre in 940 and Jbeil in 990, they declared its independence. Banu Ammar fought off Fatimid, Seljuk and Byzantine attempts to control the city and expanded their territory from Jableh and Tartus in the north to Jbeil in the south, and built Dar al-'ilm, one of the biggest libraries of the region, making Tripoli an important destination for Muslim scholars, especially for Shiites, visiting from as far as Baghdad and al-Andalus.

Further south, Tyre was first governed by Badr bin Ammar, who apparently also served as the qadi of Tripoli and Tiberias, in 940 CE, prior to Fatimid arrival in the region. In 996, a Tyrian revolt was launched against the Fatimids led by a local sailor named Allaqa. With the aid of rebels, he kicked out Caliphal employees and minted his own coin noted with "glory after poverty, prince Allaqa". The city was besieged by the Fatimids for two years until 998, when the Fatimids managed to re-secure Tyre, evicting the rebels to Cairo and capturing Allaqa, who was flayed alive and crucified. After the revolt, Tyre and its surrounding villages were handed over to the descendants of Nasir al-Dawla al-Ḥamdani, who had participated in suppressing the revolt and ruled it until early 11th century. In late 1030s–early 1040s, Tyre was subsequently seized by a Sunni, Ibn Abi Aqil.

In the rest of the Levant, several localized Twelver Shia dynasties succeeded the Hamdanids after their demise by 1002. The Mirdasids (1024–1080) under the dynasty's founder, Salih ibn Mirdas, launched a rebellion against the Fatimids and managed to assume control of all territory between Al-Rahba in the east, Aleppo in the north and Sidon, Tripoli and Baalbek in the south. The Numayrids (990–1081 CE) based themselves in Harran, conquering Saruj, Raqqa and al-Qarqisiyah, even controlling al-Rahba for some time. Munqidhites, a Twelver Shia family, established themselves in the Orontes valley in Kafartab in 1025 and later shifted their headquarters to the fortress town of Shaizar in 1081, which they subsequently held until 1157 CE.

After a little less than a century of Fatimid rule, they were replaced by the Seljuk Empire, who espoused and promoted Sunni Islam. Nevertheless, the Seljuks indiscriminately attacked cities, Sunni and Shia, that disobeyed their demands for the purpose of bringing them under their control. Before entering Aleppo in 1070, Alp Arslan demanded Rashid al-Dawla Mahmud that the Friday sermon be done in his honour, and for Shias to stop using their adhan; the demand was turned down by the citizens of Aleppo and the city was laid to a costly siege that caused inflation in the city. Tyre and its surrounding villages were also attacked and ruined in 1071, when it was ruled by the Sunni Nafis ibn Abi Aqil. In Palestine, the army of Atsiz ibn Uwaq burned Ramleh and Tiberias in 1071 and 1075 respectively, thereby depopulating the cities from their Shia inhabitants.

Later period

See also: Seljuk Empire

Crusader period

In 1097, as the First Crusade arrived in the Levant it swept across until it captured Jerusalem in 1099. The Crusaders then started a swift campaign to capture the main cities along the Levantine coast. In Tripoli, coinciding with Fakhr al-Mulk's rise to power, Raymond de Saint-Gilles besieged the city on 1102 but the two sides agreed on a truce; the city later fell in 1109 after a continuous 4-years siege. Ibn al-Athir relates that Tripoli was heavily pillaged, many of the inhabitants' treasures were seized, and others fled to different places to avoid the Crusaders' attacks. Sidon fell in 5 December 1110, roughly a year after Tripoli fell, after a two months siege in which Abu'l-Fadl at-Tarabulsi, a prominent Shia scholar from Tripoli who had moved to Sidon a year earlier, was killed in action, although some other accounts place him in the cities of Haifa or Damascus. Tyre initially paid tribute to the crusaders, but was laid to siege on 1111 by Baldwin I of Jerusalem. An account of the brutal siege is given by Ibn al-Athir, who writes that the Franks advanced three siege towers with a thousand man each until one tower had reached the city walls, when subsequently a group of a thousand Tyrians led by a Sheikh from Tripoli mounted the stone towers of the city and repelled the Franks, destroying the siege equipment by adding pitch, sulphur, wax, and fat, mixed together with tow to a big tree, then burning it and letting it fall onto the wooden siege engines, while digging tunnels underground so that the siege towers collapse once over them. According to Ibn al-Qalanisi, Izz al-Mulk, the Fatimid governor of Tyre, persuaded Toghtekin, ruler of Damascus, to come to join its defense. Hence, Toghtekin dispatched a contingent of two hundred horsemen and five hundred archers, joined by volunteer foot-soldiers from Jabal Amel who managed to reach the city and spread across its ramparts. On 10 April 1112, with pressure from Toghtekin's newly arrived twenty thousand cavalry, the Franks were forced to lift the unsuccessful siege. The crusader defeat did not eliminate future attempts to capture the city. On 7 July 1124, in the aftermath of the First Crusade, Tyre was the last city to be taken by the Franks, supported by the Venetian Crusade fleet from the sea side, following a six months siege that caused great suffering from hunger to the population, and the citizens were given the choice to stay or leave the city. Tyre and its surrounding villages thereafter formed the Lordship of Tyre.

Genesis of Shia communities

In social terms, Tripoli and Tyre experienced a drastic upheaval with the crusader conquests. Many Muslims were killed or departed for the interior, who were replaced by tens of thousands of Franks through several decades. The years-long siege of Tripoli and the brutal aftermath of its fall caused many of Tripoli's notables to flee, with some scholars fleeing to nearby Tyre and Sidon, Fakhr al-Mulk seeking refuge at the Banu Munqidh, later settling in Damascus and being granted land near Bekaa valley in Al-Zabadani, while others fled to Egypt and Sabzevar. Tripoli was once again subject to a purge in 1152 when the Assassins killed Raymond II in Tripoli's southern gate, whereby the Franks "put to the sword everyone differing in customs to them". The population flux out of Tripoli likely inaugurated the Shia community of Mount Lebanon and specifically Keserwan, per historian al-Muhajir, or possibly mixed with a pre-existing rural community. An early Twelver Shia scholar in Mount Lebanon is mentioned in biographical excerpts written by Ibn Abi Tayyi, As'ad al-Jabali (fl. 1120 CE), a student of prominent Abu'l-Fadl at-Tarabulsi (d. 1110 CE), who wrote treatises against Isma'ilis and Nusayris, possibly alluding to the presence of Isma'ilism and Alawite faith in Mount Lebanon early on. Accounts by foreign travelers, such as John Phocas (c. 1177–1195) and Ernoul (c. 1180–1230), mention "Saracens" living in Mount Lebanon all along the borders of Tyre to Tripoli, likely implying the Shia Muslim community of Keserwan and Tripoli highlands. Saladin's secretary, Imad ad-Din, observed in 1187 that Jbeil's population was predominantly Muslim, likely Shiites.

Further south, the swift and brutal crusader advance in Palestine in 1099 and the coastal campaign that followed most likely displaced Shiites in Palestine and the Transjordan, most notably in Tiberias and Nablus and their countrysides, to join the Jabal Amel hinterland in the north, where an influx from Tyre may have also penetrated. Jabal Amel thus came under direct Frankish rule of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The relation between the crusaders and the Shiites in Jabal Amel seems to have been the same as that of non-Frankish inhabitants of the territories under crusader control. For their part, as historian al-Muhajir suggests, the incoming Shia would have been demoralized and preoccupied with settlement, uninterested in disturbing the Franks, and so were generally left alone in the exercise of their religion and application of personal status law. Following the assessment, when the Franks were their peak in the mid-12th century, a reconfigured Shia community would still have been crystallizing. Over the decades, fugitives from the Galilee quietly integrated with local Shia to create a well-developed countryside.

On the other hand, the highlands of Keserwan seemed impregnable against crusader attempts of establishing a permanent hold there. The Bekaa valley remained in Muslim hands, being subject to Frankish raids from time to time. At the time, Baalbek was a Sunni-majority city with a relative Shiite minority, with Shiites inhabiting mainly the countryside throughout the Bekaa valley. Shiites were on good terms with Bahramshah, the Ayyubid emir of Baalbek between 1182–1230, who welcomed Shiite scholar Ibn Ma'qal al-Homsi (b. 1174 CE) in Baalbek in 1210s, a gesture that "gave morale" to the Shiites living in the surroundings of Baalbek, per al-Dhahabi. Ibn Jubayr, who visited the region c. 1183–1185, notes the presence of Shia Muslims in Islamic Syria. Notable Shiites from the Bekaa during this period include hadith narrator and merchant Hamad bin Tariq ibn Sinan (b. 1134 CE) from Karak Nuh, and muqaddam Muhammad bin Abi al-Hasan (b. 1198 CE) from Baalbek, a battle-hardened emir of twenty fāris.

In the rest of Syria, Aleppo was one of the few Syrian cities to still house a significant Shiite population at the time. Ibn al-Khashshab, the Shi'i qadi and rais of Aleppo, born to a notable Aleppan Shia family, was one of the first to preach jihad against the Crusaders. Ibn al-Khashshab became the de facto governor of Aleppo after 1113, and personally led Aleppan troops in the Battle of Ager Sanguinis in 1119, and the Siege of Aleppo in 1124. He also massacred the Nizari Assassins and expelled their chief missionary out of Aleppo, Ibrahim, who then sought refuge among Banu Munqidh. Banu Munqidh of Shayzar were yet another Shia notables who stood ground against crusader conquest attempts. The family often provided asylum for refugees and exiles. Usama ibn Munqidh, the best-known member of the family, went on to have a proficient career in literature and diplomacy, serving the courts of the Fatimids, Zengids and Artuqids. Usama was a well-respected and experienced fāris, the Arab equivalent of a knight, who had fought not only his foes in County of Tripoli and Principality of Antioch, but also hostile Muslim neighbours in Hama, Homs, and elsewhere, and even against the Assassins, whom the Banu Munqidh had granted asylum to in 1113, who had now established a base near Shaizar. Over decades of political turmoil, conflict and the Mongol invasions of 1258, Shiite fugitives from Aleppo likely integrated in the reconfigured Shiite societies of Lebanon.

Most of Jabal Amel regained its autonomy under Husam ad-Din Bechara, a presumably local officer of Saladin who participated in the Battle of Hattin and the capture of Jabal Amel and became its lord from 1187 until 1200. One of the few sources that mention Husam ad-Din is the history of an anonymous Ibn Fatḥun, likely a local chronicler whose work is now lost. Husam ad-Din inaugurated the semi-feudal order of rural bosses of Jabal Amel who patronized religious scholars. Between 1187 and 1291, the Shiites of Jabal Amel were divided between the newly autonomous hills and a coast still subject to the Franks. In 1228, some Shias from the territory of Tyre joined the army of Frederick II; these dissidents were likely from the Frankish-controlled areas. In contrast, Shias from the autonomous areas Jabal Amel participated in blocking several Frankish sieges, raids and incursions. During Saladin's siege of Beaufort castle, military units from Jabal Amel, likely those of Husam ad-Din Bechara, came to his aid and replaced his forces as he marched to repel a crusader invasion of Acre. In 1217, a Hungarian contingent of 500 elite troops attacked Jezzine, a Shia locality at the time, in an attempt to control and secure the town but was attacked by maneuvering local archers, who virtually annihilated the garrison and paraded the remaining Franks throughout Damascus, while only 3 returned to Sidon. This event prompted the Franks to prepare for a campaign to bring the town under the control, but was later cancelled. Again in 1240, the two, likely local, overseers of the Beaufort castle, Hajj Musa and Ahmad al-Chaqifi, were ordered by the Ayyubid emir Al-Salih Ismail to surrender the castle to the crusader forces in opposition to his Ayyubid rival in Cairo, which they vehemently refused. Hajj Musa was executed, and Ayyubid forces besieged Ahmad in the castle for his refusal to surrender.

The Mamluks managed to finally capture Tripoli and Tyre in 1289 and 1291 respectively, abandoning Tripoli's old city and destroying Tyre entirely to prevent crusaders from potentially retaking the city.

Mongol invasion

After the devastation of Baghdad in 1258, the Mongol invasions of the Levant commenced. Najmeddine ibn Malli al-Baalbeki (b. 617 AH/1221 CE), who was one of Baalbek's few prominent Shia scholars at the time, led a resistance movement against the Mongols. Najmeddine, who came to be known by his pseudonym "the bald king", based himself in the slopes of Mount Lebanon, where he was joined by thousands of volunteer guerilla fighters who ambushed and kidnapped Mongols at night, often sneaking into Baalbek with their identity concealed. Other prominent citizens from Baalbek, such as Shuja'uddine Ibrahim, the appointee over the city's castle, also took refuge in the mountains of Keserwan. After Mongol defeat at Ain Jalut, Najmeddine went to Egypt and taught there, but later came back to Lebanon and settled in Dinniyeh. Shiite fugitives fleeing the Mongol onslaught in Baghdad, Hillah and Aleppo quietly integrated within the Shiite communities in present-day Lebanon, particularly in Mount Lebanon. Thus, from the 13th & 14th centuries onward, the towns of Karak Nuh, Jezzine and Machghara were to become important centers of Shia learning in Lebanon, incorporating Hawzas and madrasas that were visited by scholars from Iraq, al-Ahsa, Bahrain and Iran, and lasted until the late 18th century.

Mamluk period and 1305 campaign

See also: Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) and Keserwan campaigns (1292–1305)

Bahri dynasty (1250–1382)

During the start of the 14th century, the Mamluks were involved in a rivalry with another recently-converted Islamic power, the Mongol Ilkhanate. Specifically during the rule of Öljaitü (1304–1316), the Ilkhan was influenced by prominent Shia theologians such as Allamah Al-Hilli and Maitham Al Bahrani which lead to Shia sympathies and ultimately his conversion in 1305, contrary to the Mamluks who were interested in promoting the Sunni schools of thought. Subsequently, the Mamluks might have become wary of the loyalty of Shias living in the rural mountainous region of Keserwan. Keserwan was described as a "hard terrain" region which oversaw the strategic roads between Damascus and Beirut, and the people of Keserwan were described as having battled the Franks and the Mamluks alike, hindering their efforts to subjugate the region to their control. Ibn Taymiyyah harshly criticized what he saw as religiously deviant, unorthodox dissidents and called for the Mamluks to take action to enforce Sunni Islam on the "mountaineers". However, Shi'ism was not subject to a formalized inquisition in fourteenth-century Levant. The persecution of individual "Rafidi Shias" followed from populist initiatives. Once accused, whether rightly or wrongly, of having insulted the feelings of the majority, the member of a minority, inherently dissident faith was left defenseless against his prosecutors. The region of Keserwan had communities of multiple faiths and denominations. As inferred by a letter of Ibn Taymiyyah to the Mamluk sultan, the most prominent faith was Twelver Shia Islam with presence of Alawites, Druze and possibly Isma'ilis ("Batiniyya"). Contemporary historian Abu al-Fida includes a group which he calls "al-dhanniyyin" (الظنيين), a name seemingly related to the region of Dinniyeh which likely had a Shia or Alawite population during the time of the campaigns, as evidenced by the survival of Shia villages in Dinniyeh until the early 15th century. It is assumed there was Christian community living in Keserwan as well.

The origins of the Shia community of Keserwan "are shrouded in mystery, with no clues in Arabic chronicles", according to historian William Harris. Twelver Shia Muslims of Keserwan and Tripoli's highlands are vaguely implied by late-12th/13th century foreign travelers, such as John Phocas and Ernoul, who mention that the "Saracens" living in Mount Lebanon highlands along Tyre to Tripoli had divided the villages between themselves and Christians. Various hypotheses propose Shiites or Shiite-leaning Muslims may have been established in Keserwan since the 10th century, or formed as a result of relocatees fleeing the crusader Siege of Tripoli which ended in 1109, or possibly as a mixture of both an earlier, rural Shia population and mass relocatees fleeing Tripoli. Abu'l-Fath al-Yunini's chronicles make mention of a Shiite Tanukhid emir, Muhammad bin al-Muwaffaq al-Tanukhi (d. 1273 CE), whose father was one of the "Emirs of the Mountains". The treatises of early Mount Lebanon-based Twelver scholar, As'ad al-Jabali (fl. 1120 CE), which attempted to refute "Nusayri" (Alawite) and Isma'ili doctrines, possibly hint at a contemporaneous Alawite and Isma'ili presence in Keserwan. Alawites had been established in the nearby coastal Syrian mountains, where Alawite doctrine had gained ground by the 1030s and was further patronized by the princely families of Banu Muhriz, Banu'l-Ahmar and Banu'l-Arid, Alawite presence might have seeped into Keserwan or Dinniyeh during this period. On the other hand, the origin of Isma'ili presence in Keserwan is not clear, if present at all. Isma'ili presence in urban centers was especially fused in urban centers with a Twelver Shia population, as evident in Aleppo, Tyre and possibly Tripoli. After the Musta'li-Nizari schism, Nizari dawah of Assassins first based itself in Aleppo, and later seeped into the coastal Syrian mountains and established a stronghold in them where the infamous Order of Assassins branch in Syria came to be based at the start of the 12th century, forming the Nizari Ismaili state until their fortresses were completely devastated at the hands of the Mongols by 1267.

The Mamluks had launched several campaigns before, in 1292 and 1300, which failed to subdue the people of Keserwan. In 1305, Mamluks accused Keserwanis of attacking their army while returning from the defeat at Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar and launched a final, destructive campaign against Keserwan led by the deputy of Damascus Aqqush al-Afram, leading an army of an estimated 50,000 soldiers against reportedly 14,000 Keserwanis, defeating the people of Keserwan and causing total destruction of the region, mass killing of Keserwan natives and a great number of them fleeing to Jezzine and Bekaa valley, while a humbled minority stayed. This is recalled in later chronicles. Early 15th century Tanukhid historian, Salih ibn Yahya, narrates the settlement of fleeing Keserwanis in Jezzine and the Bekaa valley, and mid-14th century waqfs document of An-Nasir Hasan includes names of land owners in Karak Nuh originally hailing from Keserwan and Dinniyeh, who were likely the descendants of the Shiites who fled the Mamluk campaign of 1305. After the campaign, Alawites and Ismailis disappear from record, possibly assimilating into the bigger Twelver Shia community, which remained as the region's imperative force until the 18th century.

Al-Qalqashandi relates a decree by Mamluk officials in 1363 prohibiting the "people of Beirut, Sidon and their surrounding villages from practicing Shiism", threatening punishment and military campaign against the cities and villages. In 1364, in a similar manner to the campaign of Keserwan almost six decades earlier, the Mamluk na'ib of Damascus attacked and destroyed the towns of Machghara and Thalthiyata for disobedience and "corruption on earth". Machghara had been the home of multiple noted Shiite scholars since before, including Yusuf bin Hatim al-Machghari al-Amili (fl. 1260 CE), a contemporary and student of Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (1205–1277 CE).

Burji dynasty (1382–1516)

The early Burji period saw the death of the prominent scholar Muhammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-Amili, also known as al-Shahid al-Awwal ("the first martyr"). At the age of 16, he went to study at the city of Hillah in Iraq, and returned to Lebanon at the age of 21 to establish the madrasa of Jezzine. Ash-Shahid al-Awwal's most famous works included The Damascene Glitter, an extensive corpus of Shia jurisprudence. In 1383, he was imprisoned by the Mamluks in the Citadel of Damascus on charges of being a ghali. In 1384, after one year of imprisonment, he was trialed and sentenced to execution. Al-Shahid al-Awwal was beheaded by sword, his corpse was crucified and stoned and then burned and his ashes were discarded into air. Also in 1384, Mamluk-era chroniclers report of an armed rebellion by Shiites of Beirut against the Mamluks, which was peacefully settled through mediation by the Buhturids.

During the early 15th century, Shiites appear involved in the political affairs of the Mamluk state in the Levant. Most of Jabal Amel was ruled by the Bechara family. Parts of Mount Lebanon, specifically Keserwan and Bilad Jubayl, were ruled by multiple feudal Shia clans in the late 14th and 15th centuries, of which the Hamada family appear as tax collectors in 1471 and are traditionally ascribed as feudal lords in Dinniyeh in Bishnata. In the east, members of Harfush dynasty of the Bekaa are mentioned as muqaddams in 1483 in Ibn Tawq's 15th century chronicles. Before 1407, Bilad Beirut's muqaddam was Ibn 'Aqil, a Shia.

In Jabal Amel, the Becharas had ruled over it since 1383. In 1381, Ahmad ibn Bechara was appointed by Qalawun as a vizier of al-Sham. In 1385 he had an important position of administration of military affairs in Damascus. In later mentions, Ahmad appears to be in conflict with other magistrates of al-Sham. The family also seems to have earned recognition by Sultanate officials after they helped repel a crusader attack on Sidon. However, the Becharas were not without rivals. In 1407, the Becharas were in conflict with the na'ib of al-Sham, Noruz al-Hafizi. Conflict renewed in 1408, when the Becharas raided Wadi al-Taym and Safed; the catastrophic fighting rendered most of the villages burnt. In 1420, Husayn ibn Bechara rebuilt Tyre, repopulated the city and fortified it against raids. Tyre's rebuilding re-asserted the importance of the city's position, prior to its total destruction in 1291, when Franks raided Tyre in 1424, but were repelled by the locals.

In 1497, in rebellion and civil strife, battle spread in Damascus between Mamluk governors. Two Shiite muqaddams, Ibn Harfush and Ibn Bechara, came to the aid of ad-Dawdar Aqbardi in battle, and Ibn Tulun mentions that a significant amount of Shiites came to the aid of the rebels. The Bechara family are last mentioned in the "Battle of Chihine" in 1503 between Emir Abdelsater ibn Bechara and the Bedouin Emir Ibn al-Hanash of the Beqaa, which ended in a defeat for the Becharas.

Under Ottoman rule

In 1516, the Levant fell to the Ottomans after the decisive Ottoman victory in the Battle of Marj Dabiq. The relations between Shias and Ottomans were rather changing and volatile. However, although considered Heretics, the Ottomans granted iltizam to and relied on local Shia families in Jabal Amel, Bekaa and northern Mount Lebanon for tax-collecting. These families often revolted against the Ottomans on several occasions for independence, often only with short-term success, and sometimes yielding a catastrophic aftermath. Comte Volney, who visited Lebanon between 1783–1785, writes that the "metoualis were almost annihilated due to their revolts". Unlike rival Ottoman governors and their local allies, leading Shia clans obtained most of their military support from farmers, mostly Shiites, which placed them at numerical and strategic disadvantages of possessing little to no full-time soldiers or mercenaries and not being able to mobilize troops for a long period of time. At times of war with the Safavids, the Ottomans were generally wary of Shias due to their special relations with the Safavids, who hosted Shia scholars from Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain to help with the conversion of the empire into Twelver Shia Islam, with several receiving official state posts. Nevertheless, the Ottomans integrated leading Shia families well in the political system and affairs. Despite the sometimes disadvantaged political atmosphere, Jabal Amel, in the eyes of historians, during this period was the site of a sustained intellectual and literary movement with schools of Shiite higher learning and rich private libraries that were only entirely destroyed by al-Jazzar in the late 18th century. Multiple Shia scholars rose to prominence during this period, including Zayn al-Din al-Juba'i al'Amili who authored the first commentary of The Damascene Glitter by Shahid Awwal and studied under Sunni and Shia scholars in Jabal Amel, Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem, but on his way to Hajj, on orders of the Grand vizier to perform Hajj, was beheaded by Turkmen, thus becoming known as al-Shahid al-Thani, "the second martyr"; and Sheikh Baha'i, a prominent religious scholar and polymath who prospered in Safavid Iran and received the official post of Shaykh al-Islam of the state, the teacher of the famous Islamic philosopher Mulla Sadra, and the author of multiple treatises on architecture, mathematics and astronomy, including the possibility of the Earth's movement prior to the spread of the Copernican theory.

Mount Lebanon

Keserwan and Jubayl were ruled by multiple Shia families reportedly since the 15th century, of which the Hamade clan came to be the most known. The Hamadas had been responsible for the tax collection in Mamluk Tripoli nahiyah in the later half of the 15th century, and were traditionally said to have been feudal lords in Dinniyeh. After the Ottoman takeover, the Hamadas were able to rise in the ranks of the Sayfa emirs, eventually earning iltizam for themselves. By 1668, Ottoman archival documents indicate the Hamadas had earned iltizam of a large swath of land including Keserwan, Jubayl, Batroun, Bsharri, Dinniyeh, Akkar, and Hisn al-Akrad and Safita in present-day Syria.

In the mid-15th century, the Assaf Sunni Turkmen whom the Mamluks appointed as overlords of the area in 1306 and in 1517 by the Ottomans, had started encouraging Maronite settlement to the south of Nahr al-Kalb and in Keserwan. Among Maronites, the Khazens emerged as the prominent family in Keserwan, gradually purchasing Shia lands and founding churches and monasteries, and later allying with the Shihabs. The heavy Maronite presence in those areas was used as a counterweight to the power of the Hamadas by rival feudal families, the Maans and the Shihabs, who utilized Maronites and further sponsored their settlements in the predominantly Druze Chouf region.

Between 1685 and 1700, the Hamadas were in a state of rebellion against Ottoman authorities. The Hamadas had seized tax money and refused to pay it to the Ottoman treasury. In 1686, the Hamadas and Harfush joined forces and rebelled against Ottoman governors of Sidon and Tripoli. The Ottoman forces invaded Baalbek and Keserwan with an army of mostly Turkmen, Kurdish, Druze and Bedouin irregulars, and inaugurated the base of operations in a town called Ain al-Batiniyyah. In 20th of November 1686, the united forces attacked the base and defeated the forces, who fled away from Keserwan leaving the Ottoman Pasha and Tripoli susceptible to raiding. After the victory, iltizam was reconfirmed for the Hamadas in Mount Lebanon and for the Harfush in Baalbek, who once again seized tax money for themselves and refrained from paying it to Ottoman treasury. However, hostilities renewed once again in 1692. The Ottoman court historian Rashid (d. 1735) telescopes several important events into his official account but omits the atrocities committed against the Shiite villagers. The Hamadas, who were supported by other Shiite families, were caught in heavy snows while fleeing toward Baalbek, in which an estimated 150 men perished. However, Ottoman governor Ali Pasha was not satisfied. A manhunt began for the Hamadas and their confederates, Shiite or otherwise. Untold villages were torched, women enslaved, and severed heads brought back to Tripoli. In late August, he sent another army into the Ftuh just to pillage the farmsteads. In the course of an attempt to retrieve some of their animals, Husayn Sirhan Hamada, his cousin Hasan Dib Hamada 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".

By the end of the eighteenth century, only a few Shia villages survived in Keserwan. Growing marginalization and political turmoil in 1770s caused the Hamade clan to eventually fall out of the favor of the Ottomans and were forced to relocate to Hermel and Bekaa valley along many of their supporters in 1773, which came to be known as the second exodus of Shias from Mount Lebanon after the Mamluk campaign of 1305.

Bekaa Valley

See also: Harfush clan

In the Bekaa, the Harfush dynasty of Baalbek received the iltizam concession for the region as well as a rank in the provincial military hierarchy in recognition of their long-standing position of dominance within local Shiite society since the 15th century. A member of the dynasty, Ibn Harfush, appears in Ottoman archival records as early as 1516, when he and several other local notables signed a letter offering their submission to Selim I. Ibn Harfush was the Mamluk na'ib of Baalbek in 1497, and is mentioned along the Becharas of Jabal Amel participating in battle in Damascus in 1497. The Harfush-Ottoman relations first proved problematic in 1518 when Ibn Harfush was executed by the governor of Syria for his rebellion against Selim I along with a Sunni chieftain of the Bekaa, Ibn Hanash. Later, Musa Harfush emerged as one of the most powerful Harfush leaders. In the spring of 1568, the Harfush ruler of Baalbek, Musa Harfush, was assigned to lead a unit of 1,000 archers in the imperial campaign to pacify Yemen, and received the governorship of Sanjak of Sidon in return, although information about his participation isn't further disclosed. Later on, the Harfush emirs would be made Sanjak-beys of Tadmur and Homs. The Harfush were also granted temporary iltizam of Sidon-Beirut as beylerbeys at the request of Ali ibn Musa Harfush in 1585. During the 1585 Ottoman expedition against the Druze, Emir Ali Harfush was deported, the Harfushes became involved in a bitter war against another Shia from a notable family, Abu Ali Aqra', who had the title of imperial sergeant, and who had been left in charge of Baalbek during Ali Harfush's deportation; Abu Ali Aqra' was executed by Ali Harfush in 1589 upon his return.

In the seventeenth century, the Harfushe emirate of the Bekaa valley rivaled the territorial extension and power of the Ma'an emirate of the Chouf. However, unlike the Druze Ma'ans, the Shiite Harfush emirs were regularly denounced for their religious identity and persecuted by the Ottomans under the definition of Qizilbash heretics. During Fakhreddine II's exile in Tuscany before 1618, Yunus Harfush appears in local records mediating his returnal with the Ottoman governor of Damascus, to which the governor eventually agreed to. Yunus first assumed power in 1607-8 after driving his cousin, Musa, out of Baalbek with the help of Ali Janbulad and Fakhreddine. Unlike Musa, Yunus had taken a pro-rebellion stance regarding the rebellion of Ali Janbulad and along Fakhreddine had sided with him. Furthermore, it appears Yunus' son, Ahmad, had married Fakhreddine's daughter. Rivalry between the two intensified when Yunus Harfush decided to build a palace in Machghara as a way of further strengthening ties between the Shia chiefs in Jabal Amel and the Harfush of the Bekaa. In 1623, Yunus Harfush was defeated by Fakhreddine in the Battle of Anjar and the iltizam of Baalbek and the Bekaa was reconfirmed to his son Ali Harfush by the qadis of Damascus and Baalbek immediately after the battle. However, only a few weeks later, the court took away the tax farm for the Bekaa al-Azizi (southern Bekaa) and adjoining areas from Ali's brother Husayn Harfush, on allegations of oppression and ruining the land before deserting his office altogether, and gave it instead to Fakhr al-Din's son Ali Ma'an.

In 1711, French consular reports suggest that Husayn Harfush gave shelter to Haydar Shihabi and then supplied 2,500 troops to help him wipe out his Druze rivals in the Battle of Ain Dara, and establish himself as sole emir of Chouf, curiously not addressed in H.A. al-Shihabi's history or any other chronicles of the period. From the late 18th century onward, the Harfush grew marginalized in the 19th century, but nevertheless represented a symbol of an indigenous leadership within the Bekaa valley, and retained political importance until their deportation in 1865. In 1773, the Harfush welcomed the ousted Hamade family and their supporters from Mount Lebanon, and granted the family a residence in Hermel.

Curiously, the rule of Muhammad Ali of Egypt over Ottoman Syria was opposed by not only the Harfush but the Shiites as a whole. Whereas Shiites had welcomed previous governor rebellions as a means to reinforce their own autonomy, the centralization, intrusive reforms and decision of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt to ally with Bashir Shihabi engendered opposition on their part. As early as 1834 the leading Harfush emirs, as well as members of the Hamada family, were in contact with the Ottoman expeditionary commander Mehmed Reshid Pasha to coordinate the resistance against the Egyptians. Despite efforts by some members of the Harfush family to collaborate with Ibrahim Pasha in order to retain control of Baalbek, by 1839 the Shiites as a whole, in the Bekaa and Jabal Amel, were playing a leading part in the uprising that would break his grip on the coastal highlands and help return the region to Ottoman rule. In 1839, Ibrahim Pasha marched with 12,000 of his troops against Khanjar Harfush, the leader of the anti-Egyptian uprising in Keserwan and Bekaa who had also reinforced Hasan al-Shabib's rebellion in Jabal Amel. Khanjar confronted the Egyptian troops and fighting spread all over Keserwan, the Bekaa valley, Nabak, Safed, Acre and the coast. The Harfush appear back in military confrontation against the Druze forces besieging Zahle in 1841, which the Harfush played a major role in defeating.

The Harfush rule came to an end in 1865 when they were deported to Edirne.

Jabal Amel

See also: El Assaad Family

See also: Nasif al-Nassar

See also: Ahmad al-Jazzar § Destruction of Shia autonomy

Jabal Amel had been largely governed by the Bechara family, the rulers of Bilad Bishara, Sidon and Safed, until 1516, when they disappear from records. By the time of the Ottoman conquest, Jabal Amel was divided into multiple regions ruled by different Shiite feudatories. These family included the Sudun family of Qana, Sa'bs of Shaqif Arnun, Munkars of Jbaa, Ali al-Saghirs of Bilad Bishara, Shukrs of Aynata and Mishtahs. The Sa'bs of Shaqif Arnun, probably figure earliest in 1571, and are mentioned as partners in Korkomaz Maan's rebellion in 1583–1585. The Munkars of Jbaa are first mentioned in 1613 as being in conflict with Fakhreddine II, who ransacked their homes due to complaints of oppression. The year after, their chiefs, Nasir al-Din and Ali Munkar, lead a punitive campaign at the request of the governor of Sidon against the Ma'ans at Bisri. After Fakhreddine II's return in 1618, the Shia chiefs of sanjak of Safed, the families of Ali al-Saghir, Munkar, Jallaq, Daghir and Shukr, came in conflict with him. Fakhreddine was granted iltizam over Safed by the Ottoman governors to supervise over the growing ties between the Shia chiefs of Safed-Bilad Bishara and Yunus Harfush. Shia chiefs opposed Fakhreddine and sought refuge at Yunus Harfush, but later conceded his iltizam and joined his army in his later military campaigns.

Illustration of a courtyard in Chamaa castle by Louis Lortet. Chamaa castle was renovated by Nassif al-Nassar, and became a property of his family

Out of all, Ali al-Saghirs constituted the most known Shiite taxlordship of Jabal Amel. They controlled most of the land south of the Litani River, collectively known as the Bilad Bishara for much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to Amili tradition the family went on to eliminate other rival families in 1639 and 1649 respectively, and therewith established a single-family Shiite reign over the entire southern Jabal Amel that would last until the tyrannical rule of Cezzar Ahmed Paşa in the eighteenth century. The Ali al-Saghirs had been engaged in wars with the Shihabis and Ottoman governor of Sidon on multiple occasions, and the latter granted iltizam of several tax farms to the Shihabis in 1699. However, Ottoman tax documents suggest that the Bishara, Shaqif and Shumar fiefs of Jabal Amel continued to be in the hands of local sheikhs in 1710 and in 1714, French consular dispatches from Sidon give evidence of the Shiites' importance and relative autonomy in the area. Moreover, French consular reports mention that French merchants at Sidon had numerous direct dealings with the Shiite sheikhs, from whom they purchased and cotton and wheat, and go at lengths of describing the power and autonomy these Sheikhs had attained.

In the 1749/50, Nassif al-Nassar assumed leadership of the Ali al-Saghir clan and became the most powerful Shia sheikh in the South. The chronicle of Haydar Rida al-Rukayni (d. 1784), a local Shia chronicler, presents a unique picture of the years of Nassif's rise to power, and that they were marked by numerous battles not only against Bedouin and Druze opponents but also between and within the Shiite clans. By late 1760s, Nassif appears to have forged a formidable alliance with Zahir al-Umar, the multezim of Galilee who extended his control to much of Palestine later on. Chronicler al-Rukayni confirms that Nassif acted very closely with Zahir in the next years, accompanying him on punitive campaigns as far away as Nablus on several occasions. Zahir was significantly reliant on military support from the Shiites at Jabal Amel, and during this period of close alliance, French consuls report Zahir's ability to mobilize up to 6,000 Shiite fighters, sometimes fielding as many as 10,000 Shiite cavalry, and of the "grand security" they succeeded in imposing on the whole region.

In 1771, a famous battle occurred when a coalition of Ottoman forces as large as 10,000 soldiers led by Uthman Pasha al-Kurji launched an offensive against Nassif and Zahir, the forces of the latter two routed them in Lake Hula, with only three of Uthman Pasha's troops returning back to Damascus with him, where he along others were dismissed from governorship. According to Baron Francois de Tott, a French mercenary of the Ottoman Army, Nassif's cavalry "put them to flight at the first onset". Their occupation of Sidon as allies of Zahir al-'Umar probably marked the apex of their power, with Zahir's territory extending from as south as Gaza. Furthermore, economic prosperity ensued during Nassif's reign, due largely to the revenues from dyed cotton cloth exports to European merchants.

Beaufort castle, also known as Shaqif Arnoun, where the Shia leaders made a last stand against al-Jazzar's forces

This prosperity, however, ended with the Ottoman appointment of Ahmad al-Jazzar as governor of Sidon province (1775–1804). Jazzar crushed the military power of the Shia clan leaders and burned the libraries of the religious scholars. On 23–24 September, al-Jazzar's forces routed Nasif's forces, killing Nasif and 470 of his cavalrymen in a three-hour-long battle at Yaroun, marking the virtual end of Shia autonomy in Jabal Amil. Most of the leading Shia sheikhs of Jabal Amil were killed during a subsequent series of assaults against Shia-held fortress towns, the last being the Beaufort Castle (Shaqif Arnun), where the Shia clans made a last stand. Beaufort's inhabitants were not harmed following their surrender, and al-Jazzar coordinated their flight to the Beqaa Valley. Al-Jazzar ordered for severed heads to be displayed in Sidon, and, according to tradition, after destroying their libraries, gathered a great amount of books and took them to Acre where they were used as fuel for the ovens for three consecutive days. This destruction of Shia autonomy was celebrated in Ottoman sources as a 'defeat of the Qizilbash'.

Jabal Amel came under Muhammad Ali of Egypt during the peak of Egyptian power in 1831, who allied with the Shihabs, yielding opposition on the part of Shiites. During the Egyptian-Ottoman war of 1839–1841, in 1839, the grandson of Nasif, Hasan al-Shabib, rebelled against the Egyptian rule with 600 of his men with support from Khanjar Harfush, with demands of reestablishing the autonomy of Jabal Amel as it was before al-Jazzar, among other demands. The Egyptian authority initially seemed to show compliance with the demands, but later became clear they were secretly preparing a military campaign, which put down the rebellion that same year. Again in 1840, in similar action with the Shiites in Bekaa and Keserwan, Hamad al-Beik, Nassif al-Nassar's grandnephew, joined Ottoman efforts to recapture Ottoman Syria and single-handedly defeated Egyptian troops in several battles, driving the Egyptians away further into Palestine and capturing Safed and Tiberias in the process.

Nahda (Arab renaissance)

After the catastrophic rule of al-Jazzar, scholarly life in Jabal Amel subsided. Nevertheless, certain Shia figures took part in the Nahda; these include Ahmad Rida, who created the first modern monolingual dictionary of the Arabic language, Muhammad Jaber Al Safa, who was known for his founding role in the anti-colonialist Arab nationalist movement in turn-of-the-century Levant., and Ahmed Aref El-Zein, who attempted reconciliation of Islamic values with the Western ideas of liberty and democracy and founded the educational journal Al-Irfan. Among the lesser known figures, Zaynab Fawwaz in the late 19th century was one of the pioneering female novelists and writers who spoke openly about female rights and advocated gender equality.

Relations with Iranian Shias

During most of the Ottoman period, the Shia largely maintained themselves as 'a state apart', although they found common ground with their fellow Lebanese, the Maronites; this may have been due to the persecutions both sects faced. They maintained contact with the Safavid dynasty of Persia, where they helped establish Shia Islam as the state religion of Persia during the Safavid conversion of Iran from Sunni to Shia Islam. Since most of the population embraced Sunni Islam and since an educated version of Shia Islam was scarce in Iran at the time, Isma'il imported a new Shia Ulema corps from traditional Shiite centers of the Arabic speaking lands, such as Jabal Amil (of Southern Lebanon), Bahrain and Southern Iraq in order to create a state clergy. Isma'il offered them land and money in return for their loyalty. These scholars taught the doctrine of Twelver Shia Islam and made it accessible to the population and energetically encouraged conversion to Shia Islam. To emphasize how scarce Twelver Shia Islam was then to be found in Iran, a chronicler tells us that only one Shia text could be found in Isma'il's capital Tabriz. Thus it is questionable whether Isma'il and his followers could have succeeded in forcing a whole people to adopt a new faith without the support of the Arab Shia scholars.

These contacts further angered the Ottoman Sultan, who had already viewed them as religious heretics. The Sultan was frequently at war with the Persians, as well as being, in the role of Caliph, the leader of the majority Sunni community. Shia Lebanon, when not subject to political repression, was generally neglected, sinking further and further into the economic background. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the Comte de Volmy was to describe the Shia as a distinct society.

French mandate period

Following the official declaration of the French Mandate of Greater Lebanon (Le Grand Liban) in September 1920, anti-French riots broke out in the predominantly Shia areas of Jabil 'Amil and the Beqaa Valley. In 1920 and 1921, rebels from these areas, led by Adham Khanjar and Sadiq Hamzeh, attacked French military bases in Southern Lebanon. During this period of chaos, also several predominantly Christian villages in the region were attacked due to their perceived acceptance of French mandatory rule, including Ain Ebel. Eventually, an unsuccessful assassination attempt on French High Commissioner Henri Gouraud led to the execution of Adham Khanjar. At the end of 1921, this period of unrest ended with a political amnesty offered by the French mandate authorities for all Shi'is who had joined the riots, with the intention to bind the Shia community in the South of Lebanon to the new Mandate state.

Education

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 the establishment of several private Shia schools in Lebanon, among them The Charitable Islamic ʿĀmili Society (al-Jamʿiyya al-Khayriyya al-Islāmiyya al-ʿĀmiliyya) 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 was the monthly Shiite journal al-'Irfan. 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 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 the League of Nations.

Ja'fari shar'ia courts

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 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 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 the Ja'fari shar'ia courts in practice, the Shia community was deliberately encouraged to "practice sectarianism" on a daily basis.

Sub-groups

Shia Twelvers (Metouali)

Shia Twelver (Metawali) woman in the Bekaa Valley in traditional clothes, 1950s

See also: Shia villages in Palestine

Shia Twelvers in Lebanon refers to the Shia Muslim Twelver community with a significant presence all over Lebanon including the Mount Lebanon (Keserwan, Byblos), the North (Batroun), the South, the Beqaa, Baabda District coastal areas and Beirut.

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 the Shia Twelvers. Metawali, Metouali, or Mutawili, is an archaic term used to specifically refer to Lebanese Twelver Shias in the past. Although it can be considered offensive nowadays, it 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 Twelver (Mutawili) villages that were reassigned from French Greater Lebanon to the British Mandate of Palestine in a 1924 border-redrawing agreement were depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and repopulated with Jews. The seven villages are Qadas, Nabi Yusha, al-Malikiyya, Hunin, Tarbikha, Abil al-Qamh, and Saliha.

In addition, the Shia Twelvers in Lebanon have close links to the Syrian Shia Twelvers.

Alawites

Alawite El-Zahra Mosque in Jabal Mohsen, Lebanon

There are an estimated 40,000 Alawites in Lebanon, where they have lived since at least 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'ilis

Isma'ilism, or "Sevener Shi'ism", 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 Shias, Alawites, and Druzes. However, Muslims collectively rejected being classified as divided, and so were left out of 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 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 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 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 the reconstruction timeframe indefinite due to instability and government hesitation.

Geographic distribution within Lebanon

Lebanese Shia Muslims are concentrated in south Beirut and its southern suburbs, northern and western area of the Beqaa Valley, as well as Southern Lebanon.

Demographics

Lebanese Shia Muslims (CIA est.)
Year			Percent
1932			20%
1985			41%
2012			27%
2018			30.5%

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.

The last census in Lebanon in 1932 put the numbers of Shias at 19.6% of the population (154,208 of 785,543). A study done by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1985 put the numbers of Shias at 41% of the population (919,000 of 2,228,000). However, a 2012 CIA study reports that the Shia Muslims constituted an estimated 27% of Lebanon's population. And more recently, in 2018 the CIA World Factbook estimated that Shia Muslims constitute 30.5% of Lebanon's population.

Percentage growth of the Lebanese Shia Muslim population (other sources est.)

Year	Shiite Population	Total Lebanese Population	Percentage
1932	154,208	785,543	19.6%
1956	250,605	1,407,868	17.8%
1975	668,500	2,550,000	26.2%
1984	1,100,000	3,757,000	30.8%
1988	1,325,000	4,044,784	32.8%
2005	1,600,000	4,082,000	40%
2012	1,102,000	4,082,000	27%
2018	1,245,000	4,082,000	30.5%

Notable Lebanese Shia Muslims

Baha' al-din al-'Amili	Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din al-Musawi	Emir Khanjar al-Harfushi	Adham Khanjar	Adel Osseiran	Sabri Hamadeh	Ahmad Rida	Zaynab Fawwaz
Musa al-Sadr	Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah	Hussein el-Husseini	Nabih Berri	Ali Eid	Hanan al-Shaykh	Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah	Roda Antar

• Muhammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-ʿĀmili (1334–1385) – A Shi'a scholar, born in Jabal A'mel in Southern Lebanon, known as "Shahid Awwal"/"First Martyr"
• Nur-al-Din al-Karaki al-ʿĀmilī (1465–1534) – Shiite scholar and a member of the Safavid court
• Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī (1547–1621) – Shia Islamic scholar, philosopher, architect, and polymath
• Nassif al-Nassar (c. 1750) – Feudal "Sheikh" from Jabal 'Amil
• Musa al-Sadr – Spiritual leader and founder of the Amal movement, philosopher and Shi'a religious leader
• Hussein el Husseini – Statesman, co-founder of the Amal movement and Speaker of Parliament
• Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah – Spiritual Leader and Shia Grand Ayatollah
• Hassan Nasrallah – Leader of the group Hezbollah
• Imad Mughniyah – Lebanese, Hezbollah's former Chief of Staff
• Ahmad Rida – Shiite scholar who participated in the creation of the Kingdom of Syria under Faisal
• Adham Khanjar – Lebanese revolutionary who attempted to assassinate Henri Gouraud and as a result he was executed in 1923
• Tawfiq Hawlo Haidar – Lebanese revolutionary who took part in the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–1927)
• Youssef Al Harakè – Brigadier General in the Lebanese Security Forces. Awarded 16 medals during his career.
• Mustafa Badreddine – Military leader in Hezbollah and both the cousin and brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyah
• Adel Osseiran – Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, and one of the founding fathers of the Lebanese Republic
• Sabri Hamade – Speaker of the Parliament and political leader
• Ahmed al-Asaad – Speaker of the parliament and political leader
• Kamel Asaad – Speaker of the parliament and political leader
• Nabih Berri – Speaker of the Parliament and political leader of Amal Movement
• Abbas Ibrahim – General director of the General Directorate of General Security
• Wafiq Jizzini – Former General director of the General Directorate of General Security
• Jamil Al Sayyed – Former General director of the General Directorate of General Security
• Hussein al-Musawi – Founder of Islamic Amal militia in 1982
• Assem Qanso – Former leader of the Lebanese Ba'ath
• Ali Qanso – Member of cabinet, former president of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
• Muhsin Ibrahim – Lebanese Communist and leader of the Communist Action Organization in Lebanon
• Ragheb Alama – Singer, composer, television personality, and philanthropist
• Assi El Helani – Famous singer
• May Hariri – Model, actress, and singer
• Alissar Caracalla – Lebanese Dance choreographer
• Okab Sakr – Lebanese journalist
• Rammal Rammal – Lebanese Physicist
• Ali Chamseddine – Lebanese Physicist
• Husayn Muruwwa – Marxist philosopher
• Zaynab Fawwaz – Pioneering novelist, playwright, poet and historian of famous women
• Hanan al-Shaykh – Lebanese author
• Amal Saad-Ghorayeb – Lebanese writer and scholar
• Hassan Bechara – Lebanese wrestler, won the bronze medal in the men's Greco-Roman Super Heavyweight category
• Roda Antar – Lebanese football manager, Former captain of Lebanese national team and player who currently coaches Racing Beirut in the Lebanese Football League.
• Moussa Hojeij – Lebanese football player and manager at Nejmeh SC
• Malek Maktabi – Lebanese journalist and television presenter husband of Nayla Tueni
• Mouhamed Harfouch – Brazilian-Lebanese actor
• Fouad Ajami – university professor and writer on Middle Eastern issues
• Rima Fakih – winner of the 2010 Miss USA title; later converted from Shia Islam to Maronite Christianity

See also

• Religion in Lebanon
• Islam in Lebanon
• Lebanese Sunni Muslims
• Lebanese Druze
• Banu Amela, Shia tribe in Lebanon
• Jabal Amel, region in Lebanon
• Lebanese Maronite Christians
• Lebanese Melkite Christians
• Lebanese Greek Orthodox Christians
• Lebanese Protestant Christians

External links

• The Shia Rulers of Banu Ammar, Banu Mardas and the Mazidi