The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1788

by Stefan Winter

• ISBN13: 9780521765848
• ISBN10: 0521765846
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule provides a new perspective on the previously ignored history of the Shiites as a constituent of Lebanese society. Winter presents a history of the community before the 19th century, based primarily on unpublished Ottoman Turkish documents. From these, he examines how local Shiites were well integrated in the Ottoman system of rule, and that Lebanon as an autonomous entity only developed in the course of the 18th century through the marginalization and then violent elimination of the indigenous Shiite leaderships by an increasingly powerful Druze-Maronite emirate. As such the book recovers the Ottoman-era history of a group which has always been neglected in chronicle-based works, and in doing so, fundamentally calls into question the historic place within 'Lebanon' of what has today become the country's largest and most activist sectarian community.

Author Biography

Stefan Winter is Professeur rTgulier at the UniversitT du QuTbec a MontrTal (UQ+M). His previous publications have included a number of articles for various journals including Oriente Moderno and the Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

Table of Contents

Lists of illustrations and maps	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. x
Note on transliterations	p. xi
List of abbreviations	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Sources	p. 2
Argument	p. 4
Shiism in the Ottoman Empire: between confessional ambiguity and administrative pragmatism	p. 7
Shiism in Turkish history	p. 8
The Ottoman emirate, the Janissaries and Bektasi sufism	p. 10
The Kizilbas challenge	p. 12
Ebu's-Suud: the formation of a persecuting society?	p. 15
Shiism in Ottoman thought	p. 17
The Shiites of Jabal 'Amil and the clerical migration to Iran	p. 20
The Shiite holy places in Iraq	p. 26
Urban Shiism and the ashraf	p. 28
Conclusion: what ideology?	p. 29
The invention of Lebanon: Ottoman governance in the coastal highlands, 1568-1636	p. 31
The 'classical system' of rule	p. 33
Ottoman sovereignty in Syria	p. 36
Emir titles and iltizam tax farming	p. 40
Shiism in the Bekaa Valley	p. 43
The Harfush emirs of Baalbek	p. 45
The nexus between imperial and local interests	p. 49
The contest with Fakhr al-Din ibn Ma'n	p. 53
Conclusion: what emirate?	p. 56
Mount Lebanon under Shiite rule: the Hamada 'emirate', 1641-1685	p. 58
Shiite tribalism in Mt Lebanon	p. 59
Ottoman tax regimes in Tripoli	p. 64
The rise of the Hamadas	p. 68
The narrative of Shiite tyranny	p. 71
The Köprülü era	p. 74
The Hamadas' iltizam commissions	p. 77
The Hamadas in court	p. 82
Conclusion: the fragile consensus	p. 85
The reshaping of authority: the Shiites and the state in crisis, 1685-1699	p. 88
The Shiite rebellion	p. 89
The Khazins and the Maronite 'recolonization' of the Kisrawan	p. 92
The expansion of the Druze emirate	p. 96
The imperial punitive campaign	p. 100
Changing paradigms of provincial administration	p. 104
Shiism and Ottoman tribal control	p. 109
Conclusion: a new era?	p. 114
Jabal 'Amil in the Ottoman period: the origins of 'south Lebanon', 1666-1781	p. 117
Sidon and Safad under Ottoman rule	p. 119
Shiism in Jabal 'Amil	p. 121
Retreat in the northern mukataas	p. 123
The 'Ali al-Saghirs of the Bilad Bishara	p. 126
The struggle against Shihabi hegemony	p. 128
Nasif Nassar and Zahir al-'Umar	p. 131
The forging of Lebanese history	p. 137
Cezzar and the Shiites	p. 139
Conclusion: a golden age?	p. 143
From dependence to redundancy: the decline of Shiite rule in Tripoli and the Bekaa, 1699-1788	p. 146
The Voyvodalik of the Bekaa	p. 147
The 'Kizilbas Mukataa' of Mt Lebanon	p. 151
The Hamadas and the Maronite Church	p. 156
The Lebanese Order	p. 159
The inversion of power	p. 161
The Shihabi emirate's Shiite subsidiary in Baalbek	p. 164
The 'national uprising'	p. 168
The Shiites under Shihabi rule	p. 171
Conclusion: the logic of Lebanon	p. 174
Conclusion	p. 176
The triumph of Lebanism	p. 179
Bibliography	p. 181
Index	p. 195
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