#1-ancient origins	#9-Resources	#17-independence
#2-a nation of traders	#10-population	#18-the civil war
#3-contributions	#11 religion & language	#19-major cities
#4-phoenician art	#12-education	#20-maronites
#5-canaanites	#13-culture	#21-druses
#6-carthage	#14-economy	#22-mountains/rivers
#7-land and resources	#15-government	#23-lebanon/pennsylvenia
#8-climate	#16-History	SEND ME AN E-MAIL

 

ancient designation of a narrow strip of territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, now largely in modern Lebanon. The territory, about 320 km (about 200 mi) long and from 8 to 25 km (5 to 15 mi) wide, was bounded on the east by the Lebanon Mountains. The southern boundary was Mount Carmel; the northern boundary was generally accepted to be the Eleutherus River, now called the Kebir, which forms the northern boundary of Lebanon.

Ancient Origins
Although its inhabitants had a homogeneous civilization and considered themselves a single nation, Phoenicia was not a unified state but a group of city-kingdoms, one of which usually dominated the others. The most important of these cities were Simyra,Sarephath (Sarafand), Byblos, Jubeil, Arwad (Rouad), Acco (Acre), Sidon (Sayda), Tripolis (Tripoli), Tyre (Sur), and Berytus (Bayrut). The two most dominant were Tyre and Sidon, which alternated as sites of the ruling power.
The Phoenicians, called Sidonians in the Old Testament and Phoenicians by the Greek poet Homer, were Semites, related to the Canaanites of ancient Palestine. Historical research indicates that they founded their first settlements on the Mediterranean coast about 2500 BC. Early in their history, they developed under the influence of the Sumerian and Akkadian cultures of nearby Babylon. About 1800 BC Egypt, which was then beginning to acquire an empire in the Middle East, invaded and took control of Phoenicia, holding it until about 1400 BC. The raids of the Hittites against Egyptian territory gave the Phoenician cities an opportunity to revolt, and by 1100 BC they were independent of Egypt.
 

The Phoenicians lived in loosely federated city-states on a narrow strip of land on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The cities of Sidon and Tyre alternately dominated the region. With the decline of the Mycenaeans after 1200 BC, the Phoenicians
merged as the greatest seagoing traders in the world. Their galleys were powered by sail and by oars, arranged in two banks at different levels.

The Phoenicians sailed these vessels to Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, and Gibraltar. Some even went into the Atlantic and journeyed on to Britain. In a famous description of Tyre, the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel declared: “Thy rowers have brought thee into
reat waters.” And indeed they did. The Greek historian Herodotus even claimed that the Phoenicians sailed around Africa.

The Phoenicians established trading posts and colonies throughout the western Mediterranean, including Utica and Carthage in northern Africa and Tarshish in southern Spain. Phoenician ships carried locally manufactured glassware, embroideries, wine, metal  articles, and cloth colored with a celebrated Tyrian purple dye. Ezekiel wrote that in Tyre there were “merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar.” The Phoencians are best known today for their invention in about 1000 BC of the phonetic alphabet, which was named after them. Adapted by the Greeks and the Romans, it is the basis for our modern alphabet.

The Phoenician city-states were fiercely independent. Although most were conquered by the Babylonians, Tyre withstood the assault, including a 13-year siege from Babylon. Tyre finally fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC after a seven-month siege. The victors put 10,000 inhabitants to death and sold 30,000 more into slavery.

  

With self-rule, the Phoenicians became the most notable traders and sailors of the ancient world. The fleets of the coast cities traveled throughout the Mediterranean and even into the Atlantic Ocean, and other nations competed to employ Phoenician ships and crews in their navies. In connection with their maritime trade the city-kingdoms founded many colonies, notably Utica and Carthage in north Africa, on the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, and Tarshish in southern Spain. Tyre was the leader of the Phoenician cities before they were subjugated, once again, by Assyria during the 8th century BC. When Assyria fell during the late 7th century BC, Phoenicia, except for Tyre, which succeeded in maintaining its independence until about
8 BC, was incorporated into the Chaldean Empire of Nebuchadnezzar II and, in 539 BC, became part of the Persian Empire. Under Persian rule Sidon became the leading city of Phoenicia.
When Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded Asia and defeated Persia in 333 BC, Sidon, Arwad, and Byblos capitulated to Macedonia. Tyre again refused to submit, and it took Alexander a 7-month siege in 332 BC to capture the city. After this defeat the phoenicians gradually lost their separate identity as they were absorbed into the Greco-Macedonian empire. The cities became Hellenized, and, in AD 64, even the name of Phoenicia disappeared, when the territory was made part of the Roman province of Syria
 

  

The most important Phoenician contribution to civilization was the alphabet. Purple dye, called Tyrian purple, and the invention of glass, are also ascribed to the Phoenicians. Their industries, particularly the manufacture of textiles and dyes, metalworking, and glassmaking, were notable in the ancient world, and Phoenician cities were famous for their pantheistic religion. Each city had its special deity, usually known as its Baal, or lord, and in all cities the temple was the center of civil and social  life. The most important Phoenician deity was Astarte.

Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine were on the land route between Asia Minor and Africa, and the ancient art of this area always shows the influence of those who conquered, passed through, or traded with its inhabitants. Mesopotamian-style cylinder seals from the Jamdat Nasr period were found at Megiddo in Israel and at Byblos, the capital of Phoenicia; in a later period the Hurrians of northern Syria specialized in seal cutting. Pottery, works in stone, and scarabs were influenced by dynastic Egypt begining in the 29th century BC. Bronze figurines from Byblos of the early 2nd millennium are more distinctly Phoenician, as are daggers and other ceremonial weapons found there. Although the motifs used by local artisans came from beyond the immediate region—Crete, Egypt, the Hittite Empire, and Mesopotamia—the technique embodied in crafted objects found at Byblos and Ugarit (with its Hurrian and Mitanui cultural strains) is distinctly Phoenician. Phoenician goldsmiths and silversmiths were skilled artisans, but the quality of their work depended on their clientele. Ivory work was always of the highest standards, probably because of Egyptian competition. Phoenicians sold their wares all over the Middle East, and the spread of Middle Eastern style and iconography, like the alphabet, can be attributed to these great traders of antiquity.
 

Canaanites

in the Old Testament, original inhabitants of the land of Canaan. According to the Book of Judges, the Israelites, during the 2nd millennium BC or earlier, gradually subjugated the Canaanite cities. By the end of the reign of Solomon, king of Israel, the Canaanites had virtually been assimilated into the Hebrew people, among whom they appear to have exerted a reactionary religious influence. The Canaanite religion itself was based on the worship of the divinities Baal and Ashtoreth. Biblical scholars now believe that the Hebrew language was derived from Canaanite sources, and that the Phoenician language was an early form of Hebrew. Recent discoveries indicate that, before the Hebrew conquest of the south of Canaan, the Canaanites and the Phoenicians constituted a single nation, and that the people now known as the Phoenicians subsequently developed as a separate nation.

Carthage (Latin Carthago)

great city of antiquity, on the northern coast of Africa, near modern Tunis, Tunisia. Dido was the legendary founder and queen of Carthage; the city was probably established as a trading post toward the end of the 9th century BC by Phoenicians. The earliest artifacts unearthed by archaeologists at the site date from 800 BC. The city was known to its Punic or Phoenician inhabitants as the “new city,” probably to distinguish it from Utica, the “old city.” Built on a peninsula jutting into the Gulf of Tunis, Carthage had two splendid harbors, connected by a canal. Above the harbors on a hill was the Byrsa, a walled fortress.

  

Lebanon (Arabic Lubnan)

Republic in southwestern Asia, bounded on the north and east by Syria, on the southeast and south by Israel, and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea. The area is 10,400 sq km (4015 sq mi). The capital and leading port is Bayrut

Land and Resources
Lebanon is about 217 km (about 135 mi) long and 40 to 80 km (25 to 50 mi) wide. A very narrow coastal plain extends along the Mediterranean Sea. Inland the terrain is dominated by two major mountain ranges, which are separated by the fertile Bekaa (al-Bekaa) Valley. The Lebanon range rises abruptly from the coastal plain; it is cut by numerous deep gorges and in the north contains the country's highest peak, Qurnat as-Sawda (3083 m/10,115 ft). The other major range, the Anti-Lebanon, lies along the Syrian border in the east. Lebanon's major, and only navigable, river, the Litani, is in the Bekaa Valley. Many of the other rivers flow only during the rainy winter season.
 

Climate

The climate varies from a Mediterranean-type subtropical climate along the coast and in the Bekaa Valley to a generally cool one in the upper mountains. Summers are hot and dry; winters are mild and humid. Frost is rare at lower elevations. The mean temperature in the lowlands is 26.7° C (80° F) in summer and 10° C (50° F) in winter. The mountainous region is somewhat cooler. Annual precipitation, occurring mainly in winter, is 889 mm (35 in) along the coast, 635 mm (25 in) or less in the Bekaa Valley, and more than 1270 mm (more than 50 in) in the mountains.

Most of Lebanon has been deforested. Stands of oak, pine, cypress, and cedar of Lebanon are found in the higher mountains. A Mediterranean brush vegetation, with some trees, is found in most other areas. A few species of wild animals survive, including jackal and wolf, wild ass, and gazelle

Soils
Much of Lebanon is of the reddish-brown soil called terra rossa. Richer alluvial soils occur along the coast and in the Bekaa Valley and the northeast. Erosion is common, however, and the upper mountains are rocky and barren.

Natural Resources
With the exception of some fertile soils and the remaining forests, the natural resources of Lebanon are negligible. Iron ore exists, but is difficult to mine. Other minerals found in small quantities are coal, copper, asphalt, and phosphates.

Waterpower
In the late 1980s hydroelectric power generated was 246 million kilowatt-hours annually, which constituted about 30 percent of the total power produced. The Litani River hydroelectric project in the Bekaa Valley is the largest in the country.

Population

The Lebanese are descended from many ethnic strains, mainly Semitic, and may be traced to the ancient Phoenicians, Hebrews, Philistines, Assyrians, and Arabs. Among relative newcomers are an Armenian minority of about 6 percent and a large number of Palestinian Arabs, many of whom are confined to refugee camps.

Population Characteristics
According to a 1993 estimate, the population of Lebanon was 3,552,369; the overall density was about 341 people per sq km (about 884 per sq mi). About 81 percent of the people lived in urban areas. No census has been taken since 1932.

Principal Cities
The capital and leading port is Bayrut, with a population of 1,500,000 (1988 estimate). Tripoli (Tarabulus), with 160,000 inhabitants, and Sidon (Sayda), with a population of 38,000. Both cities are important ports and oil pipeline terminuses in Lebanon

Language
Arabic is the official language of Lebanon. French and English have wide official and commercial use, and Armenian is spoken by that minority group.

Primary education is free but not compulsory in Lebanon. The literacy rate, higher than 75 percent, is among the highest in the Arab world. In the mid-1980s about 329,300 pupils attended some 2100 primary schools and approximately 230,900 students were
rolled in 1400 secondary schools. The government operates a number of trade, agricultural, and other specialized schools.
Bayrut is the location of five Lebanese universities: the government-supported Lebanese University (1951), the American University of Bayrut (1866), the Jesuit-affiliated Saint Joseph University (1881), Bayrut Arab University (1960), and a university operated by the Lebanese Maronite Order. Their total annual enrollment in the late 1980s was about 63,600. The country also has a variety of specialized schools and several teacher-training colleges.

Culture
Blending traditional Arabic and recent Western influences, mainly French and U.S., Lebanon reached a high level of cultural achievement, exemplified in the works of the poet-painter Kahlil Gibran. In recent decades, however, that cosmopolitan spirit has broken down, and separate ethnic and religious groups have become violently competitive.
The National Library, in Bayrut, is a depository for United Nations documents. The library of the Saint John monastery in Khinsharah (Khonchara) dates from 1696 and has on display one of the first printing presses (with Arabic and Greek fonts) of the Middle East. The American University Museum and the National Museum, in Bayrut, house regional antiquities and artifacts.
 

Lebanon has an economy dominated by banking and other commercial services. Before the civil war of the 1970s, Bayrut was the leading financial capital of the Middle East. The combined legacies of the war, the Israeli invasion of 1982, and the factional fighting since that time have been rising unemployment, rampant inflation, the collapse of foreign investment and tourism, and the destruction of many factories and businesses. In the late 1980s annual budget estimates showed about $117 million in revenue and about $259 million in expenditure.
 
 Agriculture

About 29 percent of the Lebanese land area is arable. The intensively cultivated coastal plain, scarcely 6 km (4 mi) wide, produces tobacco and fruit, including oranges, bananas, grapes, figs, and melons. Cereals and vegetables are grown in the Bekaa Valley, portions of which are irrigated. Apples, cherries, plums, potatoes, wheat, and barley are produced in cooler areas. Sheep, goats, and cattle are grazed in the uplands, contributing to soil erosion and the nearly total destruction of the forests, once renowned for their cedars.

Manufacturing
Oil refining, the only heavy industry in Lebanon, was crippled by the conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s. Important products of light industries include silk, cotton textiles, footwear, matches, and soap.

Currency and Banking
The unit of currency in Lebanon is the Lebanese pound, divided into 100 piasters (1640 pounds equal U.S.$1; 1994). The Bank of Lebanon (1964) functions as central bank and sole bank of issue.

Commerce and Foreign Trade
Commerce is of major importance to the economy. Before the mid-1970s, many foreign firms had branches in Bayrut. The climate, scenery, and historical remains attracted tourists, with consequent benefits to the economy. Both commerce and the tourist industry suffered from the civil warfare of the 1970s and 1980s. In the late 1980s, annual imports were valued at about $1.9 billion and exports at some $591 million. Lebanon's chief trading partners are other Middle Eastern nations, as well as France, Germany  and the United States.

Communications
Radios in the late 1980s numbered about 2.2 million, and television receivers about 838,000. Two commercial television stations were operating. The telegraph system is privately owned. The country had nearly 40 daily newspapers, all published in Bayrut. most of them were in Arabic, but newspapers in Armenian and French were also published.

Labor
In the mid-1980s Lebanon's wage earners totaled about 694,000, of whom about half worked in service industries and approximately 19 percent in agriculture. By the late 1980s the unemployment rate was at least 33 percent.
 

Government

Lebanon is a republic governed under a constitution promulgated in 1926, as amended. The constitution was substantially revised in 1990.

Executive
The president of Lebanon is elected by the legislature for six years and may not serve two successive terms. In consultation with the National Assembly, the president designates the prime minister and other cabinet ministers. The president must be a Maronite Christian, and the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim. Nearly all executive decisions require the signature of both the president, who is head of state, and the prime minister, who heads the government.

Legislature
Under the revised constitution, the unicameral National Assembly has 128 members elected by universal suffrage. The speaker of the assembly is always a Shiite Muslim. Legislative seats are divided equally between Christians and Muslims. This system, strengthened by a tradition of rallying around strong leaders rather than platforms, has inhibited development of Western-style political parties. During August and September 1992, Lebanon held its first legislative elections in 20 years.

Judiciary
Lebanon has no single supreme court. Under the constitution of the country, a council of state hears administrative cases, and a five-member special court of justice deals with matters of state security. The judicial system also includes single-judge courts of first instance, three-judge courts of appeal, and courts of cassation. Religious courts have jurisdiction over personal matters such as marriages, deaths, and inheritances.
 

Local Government
In theory, Lebanon is divided into five governorates, each administered by a governor, who represents the central government. In practice, political and religious militias exercise most local government functions in the regions they control, and the central government has little influence. Throughout the late 1980s much of Bayrut was under the control of Syrian armed forces. In many villages, local elders and clan members wield considerable influence.

Defense
In the late 1980s, Lebanese government forces had about 21,800 men; Christian militias, 6000; Shiite militias, 8500; and the Druse militia, 5000. Also present in Lebanon during the same period were Syrian troops and the United Nations (UN) Interim Force in Lebanon, which had a peacekeeping role.
 

History

The mountains that have given Lebanon its name—sometimes referred to as Mount Lebanon, or the Mountain—have also shaped its history. The inaccessibility of its highlands has not only provided a refuge for dissident religious groups over the centuries, but  has also hampered unity among the region's distinctive populations.

Roman-Byzantine Rule
In 64 BC Pompey the Great conquered Phoenicia, which comprised the territory of modern Lebanon; he annexed it to the Roman Empire and administered it as part of the province of Syria. Aramaic, the dominant language of the East, began to replace Phoenician, marking the cultural integration of the territory with its neighbors. From the 4th century AD on, the Christianization of the Roman Empire and the subsequent emergence of a doctrinally intolerant orthodoxy in the Eastern, or Byzantine, part caused religious tension in Syria as a whole. By the 7th century, Maronites, a sect espousing the belief that Christ had both human and divine natures but only one will, sought refuge from persecution in the northern districts of Mount Lebanon.

Early Muslim Rule
In the 630s Arabs, inspired by a new religion, Islam, had conquered most of Syria, and Mount Lebanon was integrated into the Arab military district of Damascus. The conquerors allowed the indigenous Christian and Jewish populations to retain their religion—subject, however, to discriminatory taxes and regulations. In 759 and 760 Christian peasants revolted, but the rebellion faltered, surviving only in local legend. Enduring through the entire Islamic period, however, were the rivalries between the different Arab tribal groupings—the Qays (North) and Kalb, or Yemen (South)—who had settled in the area after the conquest.
The decline of the united caliphate and the rise of local dynasties formed the unsettling background to the next stage in the region's history. Early in the 11th century the Druses, an extremist Shiite Muslim sect, established themselves in southern Mount Lebanon, becoming sometimes partners and sometimes rivals of the heretofore dominant Maronites. In 1099 Crusaders from Christian Europe occupied the country and remained until the 13th century. Up until then the Maronites had been carrying on an increasingly lonely resistance to the processes of Islamization and Arabization. The Crusaders helped to ensure their religious and cultural survival by giving them ties to their coreligionists in the West.

The Ottomans
In 1516 the Ottoman Turks conquered the entire eastern Mediterranean coast. Two local dynasties successively came to dominate the Mountain under Ottoman rule: the Maans (1516-1697) and the Shihabs (1697-1842). The most ambitious of these rulers was Fakhral-Din II, who forged an alliance with the Italian duchy of Tuscany. Although of Druse origin, he ruled tolerantly, attracting Maronite peasants to his southern districts. With the end of the Maan line, local notables chose the Shihabs to be emirs (princes). After 1711, because of the defeat and expulsion of one Druse faction, the Maronites came to predominate. Reflecting this shift of power, members of the Shihab family converted to Christianity. In 1770 a Maronite Shihab became the emir. His successor Bashir II, who reigned from 1788 to 1840, subdued the Druses and emerged as master of Lebanon and a power in the Levant. Gaining support from the Ottomans, the European powers, and discontented Maronite peasants, the Druses ended Shihab rule in 1842.

The Later Ottoman Period
The turmoil of these years finished the Maronite-Druse cooperation upon which Lebanon's autonomy rested. The Ottomans now played a more direct role, but their administrative reforms proved unworkable. In 1858 the political, religious, social, and economic tensions between Druse and Maronite, Muslim and Christian, and landlord and peasant burst into a civil war that ended in 1860 after considerable bloodshed and an apparent Druse triumph. The Ottomans and the European powers, however, sent forces to restore order and to punish those Muslims they considered at fault in the war. In 1861 they established a new administration for Lebanon that lasted until World War I (1914-1918). The new regulations provided that the country be governed by a non-Lebanese Ott
an Christian, counseled by local notables but directly responsible to Istanbul. The World War I years brought famine and devastation, increasing the flow of Christian immigrants to the Americas.

Independence

French gerrymandering of Lebanon's frontiers created an economically viable state with politically explosive religious conflicts. In 1943 the predominant Maronites worked out a power-sharing arrangement, the National Pact (see “Government,” above), with the Sunni Muslims and smaller groups. Real power, however, rested not with elected leaders but with an increasingly wealthy elite and a class of almost feudal warlords, defended by their own armies. The presidents have often been at the mercy of forces and groups beyond their control, although both Camille Chamoun and Fuad Chehab, or Shihab, presidents of the 1950s and early 1960s who pursued opposing policies, were strong, effective leaders. Financiers and property speculators flourished, government policies encouraged business, and the amenities and climate attracted vacationers and investors from abroad. Little of this prosperity, however, touched the mass of the population—increasingly Shiite—and their discontent exploded in demonstrations, riots, and  after 1975, civil war.
 

Foreign Relations

Lebanon has followed a delicately balanced policy with its neighbors and the major powers. Maronites prefer close relations with the West and distance from the Arab world; many Muslims, on the other hand, advocate neutrality and Arab unity. Lebanon was practically nonbelligerent in the Arab-Israeli conflicts, but Palestinian refugees from Israel, despite attempts to segregate them in society, acquired influence in the country and caused problems by raiding Israel from Lebanese bases. Movements for Syrian and Arab unity also disrupted the country. In 1949 and 1961 coups were launched to promote union with Syria. In 1958 pro-Nasser Arabs led an insurrection that was ended by U.S. intervention and President Chamoun's retreat from anti-Arabist policies. Subsequent governments paid at least lip service to Arab unity.
 

The Lebanese Civil War

In 1975 fighting broke out between Lebanese Muslims and the Maronite-dominated Phalange faction. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) joined the Muslim side in early 1976, and Syria intervened against the PLO. In June the Arab League imposed a truce, creating a Syrian-led Arab force to keep the peace. Violence continued nonetheless, and in 1978 Israel invaded southern Lebanon in an attempt to eliminate Palestinian bases. Israeli troops were replaced by a UN force, but Israel continued to aid the maronites and to strike at PLO targets in Lebanon. In June 1982 Israel invaded again, overrunning the PLO. By mid-August, after U.S. mediation, the PLO fighters agreed to leave Bayrut, and many were evacuated to other countries. Later that month, with Israeli troops surrounding Bayrut, the Lebanese parliament elected the Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel as president; after Bashir was assassinated in September, his brother Amin Gemayel was elected to replace him. Subsequently, the Israelis withdrew in southern Lebanon, and an international peacekeeping force was stationed in Bayrut; after more than 300 U.S. and French troops were killed in terrorist bombings on October 23, 1983, the Western forces pulled out completely by February 1984. In the resultant power vacuum, factional strife persisted, and Westerners in Bayrut became the targets of radical Shiite Muslim kidnappers, apparently loyal to Iran. The Israelis continued to raid PLO installations in the south, and deteriorating conditions in Bayrut led Syrian troops to occupy its Muslim sector in 1987.
When Gemayel's presidential term expired in September 1988, he named the army commander General Michel Aoun, a Christian, to head an interim government. With Lebanese leaders unable to concur on a new president, rival Christian and Muslim factions then established their own administrations. In October 1989, Lebanese negotiators, meeting in Saudi Arabia, agreed on a new constitution providing increased power for the Muslims; the accord was rejected by Aoun. On November 5, legislators ratified the charter and elected René Moawad as president. He was assassinated 17 days later, and Parliament chose another Maronite, Elias Hrawi, to succeed him. In October 1990, Syrian troops clamped down on east Bayrut, defeating forces loyal to Aoun. Subsequently a faction of the Lebanese army, with Syrian backing, regained control over much of the country and ousted the PLO from strongholds in southern Lebanon. Nearly all the Western hostages in Lebanon were released in 1991. Voting for a new National Assembly in 1992 represented the nation's first legislative elections in 20 years of which many analysts criticised the Syrian influence, known for a long-standing dictatorship. In July 1993 Israeli air attacks against Iranian-backed Hizballah guerrillas caused 200,000 people to leave southern Lebanon and move north for safety. The attacks were in retribution for Hizballah rocket attacks on Israel.

In 1970 the PLO fought a short, bloody war with the army of Jordan, where most of the fedayeen were then stationed. Expelled, they settled in Lebanon, where they gradually became a state within the state, contributing to that country's disintegration after 1975. Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 greatly weakened the PLO presence there,
 

Since 1974 the Middle East has been an annual item on the UN agenda. Yet another peacekeeping force was set up in March 1978 to help stabilize the situation in southern Lebanon after Israeli forces crossed the border to retaliate against a Palestinian raid. A United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was established with 6000 troops from ten countries.
 

Bayrût or Beirut

(ancient Beyrtus), capital, largest city, and chief seaport of Lebanon, western Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea, at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains, near Tripoli. It is linked by railroad and highway to Damascus, Syria, and other major Middle East cities. It also has an international airport. Silk and cotton fabrics and gold and silver articles are the chief manufactures. Major exports are silk, cotton textiles, fruits, hides, livestock, wool, and silk cocoons. Imports include building materials, clothing, and foods.
Bayrût is an ancient town with modern suburbs. It has numerous mosques and Christian churches, several museums, and the American University of Bayrût (1866), Saint Joseph University (1881), Lebanese University (1951), and Bayrût Arab University (1960).

Bayrût was mentioned in the Tell el-Amarna tablets as early as the 15th century BC. Under the Roman emperors it was the seat of a school of law. In AD 635 it was conquered by the Arabs and in 1110 was besieged and captured by Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem
 In 1187 it was taken by Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, and in 1291 it fell to the Muslims. During the 16th century, the region became part of the Ottoman Empire, and control of the city was maintained by the Druzes, a Syrian religious sect. On October 8, 1918, during World War I, the city was captured by Allied forces under the command of the British general Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby. Since Lebanese independence in 1941, Bayrût has been the capital. The city suffered extensive damage during civil strife in the later 1970s and the 1980s, when it was effectively divided into Christian and Muslim zones. Population (1988 estimate) 1,500,000.
 

Sidon, also Sayda or Saida, city and seaport, southwestern Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea, near Bayrut. It is a center for the export of olive oil, oranges, and lemons and also for the cultivation of silk, tobacco, and figs. In ancient times it was a city of Phoenicia, famous for its wine and purple dyes. In the surrounding area are numerous rock-cut burial places of the ancient Phoenicians, in which have been found the sarcophagi of Eshmunazar, king of Assyria, and others. The city was badly damaged in warfare in the early 1980s. Population (1988 estimate) 38,000.

Byblos, ancient city of Phoenicia, on the Mediterranean Sea, near present-day Bayrut, Lebanon. Extensive archaeological investigations, begun in 1921, indicate that Byblos is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with remains of civilizations dating from about 5000 BC. The city was the principal city of Phoenicia and an important seaport during the 2nd millennium BC, when it exported cedar and other woods to Egypt. The name Byblos, applied by the Greeks to papyrus, which they imported from Byblos, is the source of the word Bible. Gebal was the biblical name for the city; the Book of Ezekiel (see 27:9) mentions the maritime pursuits of its inhabitants. The city of Byblos is now occupied by a Lebanese village called Jubayl.
 

Tripoli (city, Lebanon) or Tarabulus (city, Lebanon) (Arabic Tarabulus ; ancient Tripolis), city, northwestern Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a rail and highway center and is the terminal of an oil pipeline. The chief industries are soil  manufacturing, tobacco cultivation, sponge fishing, and oil refining. Citrus, oil, and wool are among the chief exports. Founded after 700 BC, Tripoli was the capital of a Phoenician federation. In AD 638 the city was taken by Muslims, and in 1109, it was captured by Crusaders. The city was destroyed in warfare with the Egyptians in 1289, but it was rebuilt and made a part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1920 it was incorporated into Lebanon. Population (1985 estimate) 500,000.
 

Tyre or Sur (Latin Tyrus; Hebrew Zor), town, southern Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea. Its name was first applied to a small island just off the coast, the site of the earliest settlement here. Tyre was the most important city of ancient Phoenicia. Herodotus, the Greek historian, records a tradition that traced the settlement of Tyre back to the 28th century BC. In the 7th century AD it came under the dominion of the Saracens. In the 12th century it was taken by the Crusaders, who kept it until 1291, then the town came under Muslim rule. It was badly damaged during Arab-Israeli Warfare in 1982. Population (1988 estimate) 120,000.
 

Tripoli (city, Lebanon) or Tarabulus (city, Lebanon) (Arabic Tarabulus ash-Sham; ancient Tripolis), city, northwestern Lebanon, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a rail and highway center and is the terminal of an oil pipeline. The chief industries are soil manufacturing, tobacco cultivation, sponge fishing, and oil refining. Citrus, oil, and wool are among the chief exports. Founded after 700 BC, Tripoli was the capital of a Phoenician federation. In AD 638 the city was taken by Muslims, and in 1109, it was captured by Crusaders. The city was destroyed in warfare with the Egyptians in 1289, but it was rebuilt and made a part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1920 it was incorporated into Lebanon. Population (1985 estimate) 500,000.
 

Hermon, Mount (Arabic Jabal ash-Shaykh, “mountain of the chief”), mountain, western Asia, in the Anti-Lebanon Range, on the Syrian-Lebanese border. The highest of its three summits is 2814 m (9232 ft) above sea level. Noted for its majestic beauty, Mount Hermon has been the inspiration for much Hebrew poetry. Remains of ancient temples, one probably dedicated to the Semitic deity Baal and several bearing Greek inscriptions, are on its slopes. Mount Hermon is believed to have been the site of the transfiguration of Christ.
 

Maronites

Christian community , centered in Lebanon and in communion with the pope. Smaller Maronite groups also exist in Cyprus, Palestine, Syria, and the United States; their total number throughout the world is about 1.3 million. In the 7th century the community adhered to the heresy of Monothelitism; in the 12th century the group reestablished communion with the Western church. It is ruled autonomously by a patriarch, called the patriarch of Antioch, in Lebanon. Their liturgy is an Antiochene rite recited in the Syriac language, with elements from the Latin rite. In 1966 the Holy See erected an exarchate (province) for the Maronites in the U.S. The exarch, or delegate of the patriarch of Antioch, resides in Detroit, Michigan. Maronites in the U.S. number about 150,000. According to the Oriental Code of Canon Law (1957), celibacy is not a general law for the Maronite clergy but is regulated in accordance with the particular law of the region or country.
 

Members of a Middle Eastern Muslim sect who live mainly in mountainous regions of Lebanon and southern Syria. Also called Druzes, they are an industrious people, who have terraced the mountainsides with soil brought from river valleys. They can be differentiated from their neighbors only by their religion, which completely dominates their habits and customs.
The basis of the Druse religion is the belief that at various times God has been divinely incarnated in a living person, and that his last, and final, such incarnation was al-Hakim (al-Hakim bi-Amrih Allah, 985-1021), the sixth Fatimid caliph, who announced himself at Cairo about AD 1016 as the earthly incarnation of God. In 1017 the new religion found an apostle in Hamzah ibn Ali ibn Ahmad, who became vizier to Hakim. Hamzah gave the religion form and content and coordinated its various dogmas into a single creed. The religion probably derives its name from al-Darazi (Muhammad ibn-Ismail al-Darazi, d. 1019), a follower of Hakim.
The Druses believe that in Hakim God made a final appeal to humans to redeem themselves; and that God, incarnated as Hakim, would again return to establish the primacy of his religion. The religion itself is an outgrowth of Islam, but is admixed with elements of Judaism and Christianity. The Druses believe in one God, whose qualities cannot be understood or defined, and who renders impartial justice. They do not believe in proselytizing. The seven cardinal principles to which they adhere are as follows:
1) veracity in dealing with each other; (2) mutual protection and assistance; (3) renunciation of other religions; (4) belief in the divine incarnation of Hakim; (5) contentment with the works of God; (6) submission to his will; and (7) separation from those in error and from demons. They believe in the transmigration of souls, with constant advancement and final purification. The teachings demand abstinence from wine and tobacco and from profanity and obscenity. The Druses do not pray in a mosque. Meetings for prayer and religious instruction, held on Thursday evenings, take place in inconspicuous buildings outside their villages. In order to protect their religion and not divulge its secret teachings, they worship as Muslims when among Muslims, and as christians when among Christians. Jesus Christ is acknowledged by the Druses as one of the divine incarnations.
 

The Druses were under the nominal rule of Turkey from the 16th century until 1918, during World War I, but they maintained virtual autonomy by their fierce opposition to any forces sent by the sultans to subjugate them. In 1860 a conflict broke out between the Maronites, Syrian Christians in communion with the pope, and the Druses, in the course of which several thousand Maronites were killed and large numbers driven from their homes. European powers intervened to protect the Christians, with a French force occupying Lebanon for nearly a year. A Christian governor-general was appointed administrator in 1864, and a large measure of autonomy was conferred on Lebanon. These events marked the end of the political importance of the Lebanese Druses, who until 1918 remained an aloof, conservative community. The Syrian Druses were engaged periodically in struggles against the Turkish government until 1910, mainly on the questions of taxes and military service. During World War I most of the Druses remained neutral. On September 1, 1918, however, an armed force of Syrian and Lebanese Druses gave assistance to the Arab leader Faisal, who in turn helped British forces capture the city of Damascus a month later. Late in 1920 the Druses entered into negotiations with the French government, which controlled Syria through a mandate from the League of Nations. On March 4, 1921, an agreement was concluded that granted autonomy to the Syrian plateau region of Jabal ad-Duruz. In April 1925 the Druses petitioned the French authorities for a hearing to discuss French breaches of the agreement. On July 11, 1925, General Maurice Sarrail, the high commissioner for the French mandate, ordered his delegate at Damascus to summon the Druse representatives. On arrival the petitioners  were seized and exiled by the French to the distant oasis of Palmyra, precipitating a Druse revolt that gave impetus to the independence struggles of Syria and Lebanon.
According to the latest available statistics, the Druses in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan number about 350,000. Because of the Druse practice of outwardly conforming to the faith of the people among whom they live, their exact number is difficult to determine.
 

Lebanon (mountains, Middle East), mountain range, southwestern Asia, extending along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea from southern Lebanon into southern Syria. The highest peak in the range, Qurnat as-Sawda, is 3083 m (10,115 ft) above sea level. In ancient times, the rocky slopes were covered with the famed cedars of Lebanon.
 

Anti-Lebanon or Anti-Liban (Greek Antilibanus; Arabic Jabal ash-Sharqi, “Eastern Mountain”), mountain range, southwestern Syria and eastern Lebanon, about 145 km (about 90 mi) long. The crest of the range forms much of the border between Syria and Lebanon. The range extends from the plain around the Syrian city of Homs in the north to Mount Hermon in the south. The Anti-Lebanon is separated from the Lebanon range to the west by a fertile valley, the ancient Coele-Syria (now Bekaa), which lies in both Lebanon and Syria. A railway and road connects Damascus, Syria, to Bayrut, Lebanon. Some geographers refer to the two ranges together as the Lebanons. The Anti-Lebanon has few trees and in the north is barren and rocky. The highest peaks are Mount Hermon (2814 m/9232 ft), which is the source of the Jordan River, and Tal at Musa (about 2669 m/8755 ft). East of the Anti-Lebanon range is the Helbun Valley, the site of the city of Helbon of the Old Testament.

Litani, river, Lebanon, about 145 km (about 90 mi) long. It rises in the central part of the country, west of Baalbek, and flows south between the Lebanon Mountains and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, through the fertile Bekaa (al-Biqa) Valley. It turns sharply southwest, cutting a deep gorge through the Lebanon Mountains, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Sporadic warfare between the Israelis and Palestinian Arabs occurred in the region of the Litani River in the 1970s and early '80s.
 

Orontes (Arabic ‘Asi; Turkish Asi), river, southwestern Asia, forming part of the border between Lebanon and Syria and between Syria and Turkey. It rises near the city of Baalbek, Lebanon, and flows in a northerly direction between the Lebanon and Anti-lebanon mountains into Syria. It flows north to the city of Antakya, Turkey, and then west to the Mediterranean Sea, through a total course of about 400 km (about 250 mi). The damming of the Orontes River in Syria provides irrigation water for the rich river valley. In ancient times the valley of the Orontes River formed a corridor between Asia Minor and Egypt.
 

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