power in the 16th century. Facing oppression by
the various conquering forces, marginalized reli-
gious groups (for example, Maronites, Shiis, and
Druze) found refuge in the difficult terrain and
remote heights of The Lebanon, thereby ensuring
their ongoing participation in the diverse sectar-
ian makeup of the population.
The Lebanon had been considered part of
Greater Syria since ancient times, and, in the
wake of World War I, in 1920, France received
the mandate over much of Greater Syria. Later
the same year the French established Greater
Lebanon with its modern borders and with the
capital at Beirut. Officially the Lebanese Republic,
the country gained independence from France in
1943 with a government based on a confessional
system of power sharing between its many reli-
gious sects. Per the last official census, from 1932,
when Christians were the majority, the president
is always a Maronite Christian, the prime minister
a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a
Shii Muslim. While the demography has shifted
and given rise to a Muslim majority, Lebanon’s
relatively high percentage of Christians continues
to be unique among Arab countries.
Muslim sects include Sunnis, Twelve-Imam
Shiis, Ismaili Shiis, Alawis, and Druze. Christian
sects include Maronite, Greek Catholic, Roman
Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Jacobite (Syrian Ortho-
dox), Armenian Orthodox (Gregorian), Armenian
Catholic, Assyrian (Nestorian), Chaldean, and
Protestant. Large numbers of Palestinian refugees
fled to Lebanon after the Arab-Israeli wars of
1948 and 1967, and southern Lebanon became an
important base for the palestine liberation orga-
nization (PLO). Jews played an integral role in Leb-
anese society until they emigrated in large numbers
under increasing pressures fomented especially by
the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Israeli invasion of
Lebanon in 1982, which ended PLO control in the
south and gave rise to hizbUllah, a Lebanese Shii
guerrilla and social welfare organization.
Underlying dissatisfactions with the sectar-
ian power balance coupled with a long history
of foreign meddling that was increasingly fueled
by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to the Civil
War of 1975–90. The brutality and chaos of this
notorious war shattered any image of the tolerant
pluralistic society for which Lebanon had been so
well known. While resolution of the underlying
causes of the war has remained elusive, substan-
tial reconstruction was undertaken in Beirut, and
Lebanon regained its attraction as a tourist des-
tination in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This
situation, however, began to deteriorate with the
assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime
minister (1992–98, 2000–04), in February 2005
by unknown assailants. A hostage-taking incident
at the Lebanese-Israeli border in summer 2006
resulted in a short-lived Israeli-Lebanese war that
involved Hizbullah missile attacks on Israel and
Israeli airstrikes and troop movements in Leba-
non. The Lebanese infrastructure was seriously
damaged, especially in the south. United Nations
troops were introduced into the country to facili-
tate peace-keeping efforts in the war’s aftermath.
See also alaWi; arab-israeli conFlicts; arme-
nians; christianity and islam; colonialism;
crUsades; mamlUk; ottoman dynasty; shiism;
sUnnism.
Kenneth S. HabibFurther reading: Asad AbuKhalil, Historical Diction-
ary of Lebanon (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1998);
Helena Cobban, The Shia Community and the Future
of Lebanon (Washington, D.C.: American Institute for
Islamic Affairs, 1985); Lara Deeb, An Enchanted Modern:
Gender and Public Piety in Shii Lebanon (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 2006); Philip Khuri Hitti,
Lebanon in History: From the Earliest Times to the Pres-
ent, 3d ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1967); Michael
Johnson, Class and Client in Beirut: The Sunni Muslim
Community and the Lebanese State, 1840–1985 (Atlantic
Highlands, N.J.: Ithaca Press, 1986).legal schools See fiqh; sharia.
K 442 legal schools