In
the Middle – Ages
a)
The
Arab Conquest
b)
The
Omeyyads and Abbassids
c)
The
Muslim States: Toulanids, Ikchidits, and Fatimids
d)
The
Crusaders and Mamelouks
Under
the Ottomans and the Emirs Maan and Chehab
a)
The
Emirs Maan
b)
The
Emirs Chehab
c)
The
bloody community conflicts
d)
The
Organic Rules: The "Mutassarifiah"
The
Republic and Independence
a)
The
French mandate
b)
The
Independence
c)
The
exercise of Independence
d)
The
war of the Lebanon (1975-1989)
The
Lebanon lies at the junction of the three ancient continents: Europe, Asia
and Africa.
This
social and confessional microcosm witnessed the development of the old
civilizations of the Middle East, and the very first traces that humanity
left on earth. The shiny and beautiful site, the marked configuration,
the shrubbery vegetation darkening the calcareous mountain, the narrow
coastal plains and the verdoyant interior plateau have gone through all
the history of humanity since the Paleolithic age.
Geography
The
name of the Lebanon (in Arabic Loubnan), which comes from Aramaic and designates
"White", is the name of its mountain. Mount Lebanon differs from the
neighboring countries in its aspect, its climate, its rain-fall, its vegetation,
and its 3000 m peaks that are continually covered with snow.
"Sea cliff", the Lebanon lies at the center of the gulf that runs between the Oriental Mediterranean Sea and Turkey and Egypt. This small country does not exceed the 10452 Km’, its length is about 250 km and its width varies from 40 to 70 km. Syria limits the Lebanon from the North and the East, and Israel (Palestine) from the South. The range of mountains (the Mount Lebanon) dominates a narrow alluvial coastal plain. At the East, another arid and dry range of mountains lies parallel to the first (Anti-Lebanon and Mount Hermon); the two ranges embrace the high plateau of the "Bekaa".
The climate is moderate (20 at the coast) and the country well watered (the annual precipitation varies between 800 to 900 mm). The estimated population, in 1970, was 3 100 000 inhabitants (264 to the km2), not mentioning thousands of foreigners, Palestinians and other Arabs. As for the Lebanese emigrants, they are scattered throughout the world and they count up to 5 million persons.
a)
Prehistory
Since
the Paleolithic age, the human being living on the Lebanese land, has gone
through the different steps of the prehistoric life. In the Mousterian
Age, around fifty thousand years ago, he took refuge in caves; later on,
in the Neolithic period, he founded boroughs of which we can state the
hill of Byblos. Individuals, living on this land, kept, as early as the
VIth and Vth millennial, a rich material that competes with Jericho’s.
History starts with the end of the IVth, or the beginning of the IIIrd millennial, with the arrival of the Canaanites, the ancestors of the Phoenicians.
In the Neolithic, age the Asiatics a people coming from the steppes of northern Asia, surged down the region and formed the Sumerians, the Hussites, and perhaps, a part of them the pre Phoenicians of the Lebanon.
b)
The
Canaanites – Phoenicians
The
Canaanites settled on the coast, from the mount of the Oronte up till Mount
Carmel. They were better known under the name of the Phoenicians. These
people skilled in contrading, in agriculture, and in metal work had internal
and external communication problems, so they aimed towards the sea.
The Canaanites founded, on the littoral, a number of harbors (foundation of Tyre, after Herodotus, in 750 B.C), that became autonomous, rival and rich (Ougarit, Rouad Island, Tripoli, Batroun, Byblos, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Cesarie, Askalon, and Jericho...).
c)
Phoenicians
and Egyptians
Since
the middle of the third millennial, the Phoenicians set up commercial relations
with Egypt that lasted up till the beginning of the second millennial,
and reached their acme between 1991-1786 BC
After the Hyksos occupied Egypt (end of XVIII century B,C.), the Egypt-Phoenician relationships put on a new face. The Egyptians set in the middle of the XVI century BC their protectorate upon the Phoenician citiesthat became the vassals of the Egyptian King in the middle of the XV century B.C.
During that period, the Phoenician alphabet was made up of 22 signs, and was carved on King Ahiram’s sarcophagus. Thus, Phoenicia spread its culture around the Mediterranean (legend of Europe and of her brother Cadmos who taught the Greeks the Phoenician alphabet).
d)
The
golden age of the Phoenicians
At
the beginning of the VIIth century, B.C., the Phoenician cities freed themselves
from Egypt’s tutelage. Under the control of Tyre, the Phoenicians witnessed
the golden age of their commerce. Their commercial counters spread on both
sides of the Mediterranean, and were slowly transformed into colonies.
In 1100 they established themselves at Gadir, Laroche, on the Atlantic
coast of Morocco, then founded Utic in Tunisia. Thanks to this expansion,
the Phoenician arts and crafts, specially the purple industry (in Greek
phoenix, after which the Phoenicians were dubbed), thrived.
e)
The
Domination of Mesopotamia
In
the middle of the IXth century B.C., Assyria thought of the Lebanon as
an outlet on the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians submitted themselves. But
an atmosphere of oppression prevailed and led, in 814 B.C., a part of the
population of Tyre, under the control of the royal pricess Didon (Elissa),
to flee to the coasts of Tunisia. There she founded Cartage (Qarat Hadash)
in other words "the new village". Thus, a new Phoenician Empire
(Punic Empire) was born in the West and replaced that of the East. After
the Assyrians, the Phoenicians succumbed to the power; however, they kept
their reputations of sailors even with the politico-military upsurges.
Pharaoh Nekao (609 – 594) entrusted them with the Egyptian fleet which
they had to take on a sea voyage. This expedition was the first in history;
it led the Phoenician sailors from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean after
they passed by Hercules’ columns.
Finally,
the conquest of Alexander in 333, after Tyre’s heroic resistance, put an
end to the maritime power of Phoenicia in the East.
With
the death of Alexander, Phoenicia became the stage of the conflict that
was going on between its successors: the Seleucides and the Lagides, without
stopping the Hellenization of the country.
f)
The
Roman peace
In
64 B.C., the country fell under the blow of Pompeii, so the "Roman Peace"
bear fruit. The lost economic prosperity flourished again, the harbors
prospered again, and Beirut became the military and commercial metropolitan
of the Romans in the East. A new city was built according to the Roman
concept. Byblos and Heliopolis (Baalbek) became famous for their temples,
Tyre became known as a philosophical study center, and Beirut for its school
of law.
Christianity spread as from the beginning of the first Christian century. Phoenicia became famous with its Christian martyrs before the edict of Milan was issued in 313.
When
the Roman Empire divided up into two parts Phoenicia became Byzantine and
Beirut held its fame for the teaching of the law. It offered the Emperor
Justinian (527-565), for the writing of its code, two eminent jurisconsults:
Dorothy and Anatolios. Hence, in ancient history, thinkers and schools
illustrated the Lebanon’s patrimony: Cosmogonia, Sanchoniaton; in philosophy:
Zenon od Citium, Philon of Byblos, Porphyre and Jambic; in poetry: Antipater
of Sidon; as for the jurists: Ulpien, Papinien, Dorothy and Anatolius.
Around
the middle of the VIth century, very strong earthquakes hit and destroyed
Beirut and other cities.
a)
The
Arab Conquest
In
628, the Muslim troops invaded the region. From the Byzantine defeat up
till the battle of "Yarmouk" in 636, the cities of the Lebanese
coast fell into the hands of the Arabs. The mountain, that was not invaded
by the Muslim army, had, in spite of the resistance of its inhabitants,
to give in before the authority of the new masters of the region, especially
when the project of a reconquest with the help of the Mardaits failed.
Henceforth, till the XVIIth century, the country does not constitute anymore a political entity for the same reason as the actual countries of the Middle East.
b)
The
Omeyyads and Abbassids
The
Omeyyads regime was tolerant with the Christian inhabitants of the country,
but when the Abbassids took hold of the Muslim power in 750, a Christian
mutiny burst in the Mountain. It was suppressed with savagery, inhabitants
were deported, and ownership seized, This repression incited the protestation
of "Imam al Aouza'ï" known for the tolerance of his Sunni school.
After the Arab conquest, the country became rural, the flourishing coastal towns became simple villages. The geography of the population changed in the Lebanon: Arabs, Persians, Jews, and other non-identified populations. The religious minorities Maronites, Shiites, then Druzes (in the following century, XI century) made of the Lebanon a home and refuge for their community presence, opposite to the central authority and the religious Orthodoxy.
c)
The
Muslim States: Toulanids, Ikchidits, and Fatimids
The
decline of the Abbassids’ authority entailed the parceling of the Muslim
authority. Thus, the Toulonids and the Ikchidits governed the Lebanon in
the IXth and Xth centuries respectively; the Fatimids followed between
969 and 1171.
Under the Fatimids’ reign Byzantine expeditions were undertaken against Northern Syria and the Lebanese coast. The Byzantine massacred the Maronites of the Oronte Plains and destroyed the famous monastery of St. Maron.
During the Fatimid era, the Druze sect was proclaimed. The Druze settled at the center of the Lebanese Mountain and near the Hermon.
d)
The
Crusaders and Mamelouks
At
the end of the eleventh century, the Crusaders took hold of the East. In
1090, in 1109, and in 1110, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Beirut and Sidon fell into
the hands of the Francs. The Francs ruled the Lebanon for two centuries.
In 1289 Tripoli, and 1291, the other Lebanese cities and regions went under
the Mamelouks authority,who governed the region for two centuries and a
half (from the end of the XIII century to 1516).
The Lebanese, Christian and Shiite, became the object of several repressive military expeditions, in the end of the XIIIth century and the beginning of the XIVth century. The Mamelouks attacked the Mountain, especially the Kesrouan and Metn; they destroyed the villages and pulled down the Kesrouan.
After a century of military administration, the country gained back its commercial activities; Beirut’s harbor flourished again and became the meeting point of several commercial nations of the Mediterranean.
Under the Ottomans and the Emirs Maan and Chehab
a)
The
Emirs Maan
In
1516, the Lebanon fell into the hands of the Turk-Ottomans. The Sultan
kept at their places the Lebanese Emirs and provided them with a certain
autonomy in the management of their regions. This autonomy and the weakening
of the Ottoman central power, encouraged the spirit of independence the
Emirs Maan of the Mountain have, especially Emir Fakhr-ed-Din II (1572).
Emir Fakhr-ed-din II took in hand the unity of the country by federating the eminent Druze. He concluded treaties with Toscany. The religious tolerance given to the Maronites encouraged them to spread in the Mountain from the North to the south of the country. The Lebanon knew a real economic and urban rise: the ports (Sidon and Beirut) opened on the western commerce, the roads spread, and Italian engineers built palaces and caravansaries.
The country reached a turning point in culture with the creation of the Maronite School of Rome in 1584. The Papacy established the school to instruct the young religious Maronites. This was the start of a cultural soaring, and the introduction of the XIX century Renaissance.
b)
The
Emirs Chehab
The
Emirs Chehab continued the work of the Maans. Under the Emir Bechir II,
converted to Christianity, the Lebanon knew calmness and prosperity. The
Egyptian troops reached the Lebanon in 1830 and broke the serene atmosphere.
Abusing of the protectorate of the troops of Mehamed-Ali, Bechir summoned the inhabitants to pay huge sums of money. The echoes of the French revolution probably inspired the Maronites who started a series of peasant revolts that have already started in 1820. These popular rebellions asked for equality among the citizens, the independence of the Emir vis-à-vis the Ottomans, and yearned to let the public property prevail over the private one.
In 1840, the popular revolts and the European foreign intervention obliged the Prince Bechir to resign, and to leave the country in a real and harsh vacancy of power. The choice of Bechir III to replace his cousin Bechir II at the head of the Emirate did not fill the gap.
c)
The
bloody community conflicts
Bloody
conflicts blew up between Druze and Maronites from 1841 to 1860. The Maronites,
who were the new power of the country by their number, their economic and
cultural power, and the conversion of the Emirs Chehab and Abu-L-Lam’a
to Christianity, believed in the legitimacy of their gaining the power.
The Druzes, who have become a minority and without any economic strength,
held on to their old prerogatives and opposed the Maronites by force.
These
conflicts, poked up by the Ottomans, weakened the country and deteriorated
to become bloody massacres.
The
Lebanon was divided into two administrative divisions (Caimacamat): one
Druze, lying south of Beirut, and directed by a Druze prince; the other
Christians lived in the Druze part, and a minority of Druze in the Christian
part.
At the heart of this administrative division, the Druzes kept their social structure, while the Maronite peasants, going back to the spirit of their popular movements (1820 – 1840), revolted in 1858 against the eminent persons (specially the Khazen) to reform their agrarian structures.
A real religious war started in 1860, to which, the Maronites and other Christians, disarmed by the Ottoman garrison, opposed a very small resistance and suffered heavy losses in lives and ownership. The massacre was interrupted thanks to the intervention of Napoleon III French troops.
d)
The
Organic Rules: The "Mutassarifiah"
An
international commission, consisting of representatives of the great European
powers (Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia), in collaboration
with the representative of the Ottoman Sultan, met in 1861, to talk about
the Lebanon. The result was the issuing of the Organic Rules of the "Mutassarifiah",
or the small Lebanon limited to the Mountain (Mount-Lebanon). The country
was amputated from its big coastal cities and from the great plain of the
"Bekaa", and from a big part of the South. However, an interior autonomy
was provided; a representative council had the role of counselor before
a Christian Catholic, non-Lebanese, Ottoman governor "Mutassarif’, who
had to administer the new organization of the Lebanese Mountain. During
the period of the "Mutassarifiaah", the Lebanon became the home of the
Arabic literature Renaissance "the Naha", The Renaissance spread over the
Mountain and also over Beirut. The city gained back the fame of the yesteryears
after the restoration, the enlargement, and the opening of its port (end
of the XIXth century), towards the big routes of international traffic.
Two universities (American and Jesuit), were founded in Beirut, the schools of missionaries and of local foundations and organizations multiplied; publishing houses and press organs became numerous, writers and poets grew famous and some (Gibran Khalil Gibran) shone in the international sky.
a)
The
French mandate
During
the First World War (1914 – 1918), famine, diseases and grasshoppers drowned
the Lebanon: thousands of its inhabitants died (l/4), especially in the
Christian regions (Jbeil, Batroun, Jezzine...).
After
this war, the Lebanon, as well as Syria, were placed under French mandate.
The French general Gouraud gave it back its territories amputated during
the "Mutassarifiah". Thus, September 1, 1929, the Great Lebanon received
its present borders.
This
was a reply to the aspiration of the Lebanese people, especially of the
Maronites, to create a Lebanese nation.
The country was submitted to the authority of a high French commissary. It received an administrative commission, heir of the ancient council that ruled the small Lebanon of the Mountain, and was provided with a local administration supervised by French counselors.
The 23 May 1926, an elected parliamentary council provided the Lebanon with a constitution and proclaimed the Republic of Lebanon. Henceforth, the Parliament elected or designated the Heads of State.
The return of the amputated territories, having a Muslim majority, swung the preceding equilibrium in the "Mutassarifiah" in which the Christians constituted 80% of the population. In 1922, out of 100 persons, only 55 were Christian.
During the Second World War, Free France proclaimed, in 1941, the independence of the Lebanon that was not due before the end of the war, and before the destiny of the Middle East was defined.
b)
The
Independence
Having
despaired of waiting for the independence, the Lebanese Parliament repealed
all the dispositions, in the constitution of the country, that made reference
to the mandate. The French authorities arrested the President of the republic
Mr. Bechara El-Khoury, the prime minister Mr. Riad As-Solh, ministers and
a deputy. The popular movement and the British intervention forced the
Free French to liberate the Lebanese persons in charge and to proclaim
a real independence on the 22 November 1943.
The French troops as well as the British army left the country in 1946. The Lebanon became a sovereign country that participated to the Arab League and became a member in the United Nations.
c)
The
exercise of Independence
Once
it won its independence, the Lebanon witnessed an economic "boom" and a
cultural, artistic and touristic renaissance that gave it back the jewel
twinkle of the Middle East.
The country had a promising and successful future: opening on civilizations, cultures, religions, community and cultural pluralism, political modernization (the Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East, save Israel, which practices a real parliamentary democracy), and on the economic "miracle" (Middle-East Switzerland).
The XIXth century Renaissance grows rich in the Lebanon: literary productions in Arabic, French and English; lexicographic and encyclopedic work; pieces of romance, poetry, theater, cinema, songs, painting, and sculpture. Bilinguism, the multiplicity of universities, private and public, as well as foreign and local schools have constantly fed this culture.
d)
The
war of the Lebanon (1975-1989)
Since
the country lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict, it had to pay
the price of the Arab wars with Israel, the Palestinian resistance against
Israel, the wars between Arabs, and of the rise of the Arab nationalism.
The Lebanese people were divided in front of each Arab problem, and ended
by rendering the country the stage of the wars of others: Arabs, Israelis,
great powers, Palestinians, Kurds, Chiites of Iran, Arab nationalist parties...
As from 1975, the country witnessed a bloody fratricide war. The external powers as well as the weight of the Palestinian armed forces stirred up the conflict.
An Israeli military intervention in 1982 complicated the whole matter, cast more powder on the fire, and helped to draw a clear confessional canton.
17 years of war were sufficient to alter the face of the Lebanon: 90 thousand were killed, thousands have disappeared, thousands were mutilated, half a million ousted, thousands of emigrants; villages, especially Christian, wiped off, people out of houses, Beirut cut into half and its city center destroyed, the touristic infrastructure hit, a devaluation of the national currency, a decline in the economy, this is the result and evaluation of the war in the Lebanon.
Taef
agreements, which put the country on the route of peace, were, perhaps,
the prelude to a peace that has spread since the Geneva conference. The
conference aimed at solving the contentious problem of the Middle East,
Lebanon being its first hostage. The Lebanese people are still expecting
the liberation of their national territory from the foreign and friendly
armies, and the upholding of the total independence and sovereignty of
their country. Do they still have the right to dream and watch their dreams
come true???