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The Social and Political Identities of the Shi'i Community in Lebanon
Abstract
Since the early days of the Shi'i presence in Lebanon, the Shi'i community has been considered the most marginalized and underprivileged community. This had been the case of the Shi'ites during the Mamluk period, the Ottoman period, the French mandate period, and again during the post-independence period. This article addresses the Shi'ite presence in Lebanon until the eve of Lebanese Civil War (1975). The article will explore the various aspects of socio-political identities of the Shi'ites and how that changed and developed during the Ottoman period, the French mandate, and the independence period by elaborating on the main actors and processes/phases that shaped this change. It has been argued that the marginalization and the neglect policies that were applied against the Shi'ites opened the wide doors for the Shi'i community to migrate to the urban cities in Lebanon (mainly Beirut) starting from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and this had also been expanded to the rest of the world (mainly America and West Africa). This migration played a key role in developing their contemporary social and political identities in which Musa al-Sadr and his movement played an important part.
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Notes
Helena Cobban, The Making of Modern Lebanon ( London: Hutchinson & Co., 1985), p. 19.
It is important to note that there has not been any official census in Lebanon since 1932; estimates show that the Shi'i minority is the largest minority in Lebanon. In this manner, Michael Johnson's figures show that the Shi'i community population increased 11.2 percent between 1932 and 1984; specifically it went from 19.6 percent of the population in 1932 to 30.8 percent in 1984. However, the Maronite community of Lebanon was the largest community according to the 1932 census; its population decreased 3.6 percent between 1932 and 1984, specifically from 28.8 percent in 1932 to 25.2 percent in 1984. For more details, see Michael Johnson, All Honourable Men: The Social Origins of War in Lebanon ( London and New York: Centre for Lebanese Studies in association with I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001), p. 3. See also in this article the table of the Lebanese population according to the1932 census.
The term “Poverty Belts” others call it “Misery Belts” has been commonly used to describe the Shi'i social conditions in the 1950s and 1960s. See, e.g., As'ad Abu-Khalil, “Druze, Sunni and Shiite Political Leadership in Present-Day Lebanon,” Arab Studies Quarterly 7: 4 (Fall 1985), 43; or Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr, Shi'ite Lebanon: Transnational Religion and the Making of National Identities ( New York: Colombia University Press, 2008), p. 31.
Majed Halawi, A Lebanon Defied: Musa al-Sadr and the Shi'a Community ( Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992), p. 29.
Ferdinand Smit, The Battle for South Lebanon: The Radicalisation of Lebanon's Shi'ites 1982–1985 ( Amsterdam: Bulaaq, 2000), p. 35.
Halawi, A Lebanon Defied , p. 29.
Halawi, A Lebanon Defied , p. 29.
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, “Factors Conducive to the Politicization of the Lebanese Shi'a and the Emergence of Hizbu'llah,” Journal of Islamic Studies 14: 3 ( 2003), 278.
Waddah Charara, Al-Umma al-Qaliqa: Al-Amiliyun wa al-Assabiya al-Amiliya Ala Atabat al-Dawla al-Lubnaniya ( Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Nahar, 1996), p. 33.
Rosemary Sayigh, Too Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon ( London & New Jersey: Zed Books, 1994), p. 158.
Sayigh, Too Many Enemies , p. 158.
Albert Hourani, Political Society in Lebanon: A Historical Introduction (Papers on Lebanon, Center for Lebanese Studies, Oxford), p. 6.
Rodger Shanahan, The Shi'a of Lebanon: Clans, Parties and Clerics ( London and New York: Tauris Academic Studies, an imprint of I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2005), p. 15.
Kamal S. Salibi, The Modern History of Lebanon ( Delmar, NY: Caravan Books, 2004), pp. xv– xvi.
Salibi, The Modern History of Lebanon , p. xvi.
Halawi, A Lebanon Defied , p. 31.
Sayigh, Too Many Enemies , p. 158.
Muhammad-Ali Pasha's was the ruler of Egypt and Sudan (1805–1848). His official title was Khedive. He started attacking the Ottomans through Palestine in 1831. His son Ibrahim Pasha was leading the troops and then became the ruler of Mount Lebanon between 1832 and 1840. Muhammad-Ali's role in Mount Lebanon terminated in October 1840. Since then the Ottomans took full control over the territory of Mount Lebanon. See Bingbing Wu, “Shi'ite Collective Identity and the Construction of the Nation-State of Lebanon,” Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (in Asia) 3: 4 ( 2009), 53– 64.
Wu, Shi'ite Collective Identity and the Construction, 54.
Wu, Shi'ite Collective Identity and the Construction, 54. See also Hanna Ziadeh, Secterianism and Inter-communal Nation-Building in Lebanon ( London: Hurst & Company, 1st ed., 2006), p. 57.
Wu, “Shi'ite Collective Identity and the Construction,” p. 54.
Joseph Olmert, “The Shi'is and the Lebanese State,” cited in Martin Kramer, ed., Shi'ism, Resistance and Revolution ( Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987), p. 192.
Nawal Fayyad, Safahat Min Tarikh Jabal Amil fi al-Ahdayn al-Uthmani wa al-Faranci ( Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Jadeed, 1998), p. 32.
Jihad Bannout, Harakat al-Nidal fi Jabal Amil ( Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Mizan, 1993), pp. 162– 163.
Fayyad, Safahat Min Tarikh Jabal Amil fi al-Ahdayn al-Uthmani wa al-Faranci , p. 34. See also Muhammad Jaber Al'Safa, Tarikh Jabal Amil ( Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Nahar, 4th ed., 2004), pp. 211– 212.
Sabrina Mervin, Harakat al-Islah al-Shi'i: U'lama Jabal Amil min Nihayat al-Dawla al-Osmaniya ila Bidayat al-Istiklal , translated by Haytham al-Amein ( Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Nahar, 2003), p. 406.
For more information see Mervin, Harakat al-Islah al-Shi'i , pp. 407– 411.
Al'Safa, Tarikh Jabal Amil , pp. 213– 215.
Ahmed Beydoun, Interview by the author in Arabic. Beirut, Tuesday, 9 January, 2007.
Ahmed Beydoun, Interview by the author in Arabic. Beirut, Tuesday, 9 January, 2007.
Ali Rafiq al-Mousawi, “Al-Shi'a wa al-Uruba fi Lubnan (2): Dawra'hom fi al-Mashrouh al-Nassiri wa al-Moq'awama al-Falistiniya,” al-Safir Newspaper , 24 August 1985.
Mervin, Harakat al-Islah al-Shi'i , p. 425.
Mervin, Harakat al-Islah al-Shi'i , p. 425.
Yasser al-Hariri, “Mina al-Najaf al-Ashraf Wosolan Ela Qom wa Lubnan, Tareikh wa Siyouf wa Fatawa: no 16,” al-Diyar Newspaper , 30 May 1999.
Shanahan, The Shi'a of Lebanon , p. 29.
Shanahan, The Shi'a of Lebanon , p. 29.
Sayigh, Too Many Enemies , p. 158.
Halawi, A Lebanon Defied , p. 40.
Halawi, A Lebanon Defied , p. 97.
Ali Fayyad, Interview by the author in Arabic. Beirut, Thursday, 14 July 2005.
Ahmed Beydoun, Interview by the author in Arabic. Beirut, Tuesday, 9 January 2007.
Elizabeth Picard, Lebanon: A Shattered Country—Myths and Realities of the Wars in Lebanon ( New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., rev. ed., 2002), p. 66.
Picard, Lebanon: A Shattered Country , p. 66.
Here we can use the term “colonial occupation” as it was an occupation and not a mandate; later this occupation became known as the mandate, so specifically it goes back to the period between 1920 and 1948.
Tabitha Petran, The Struggle over Lebanon ( New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987), p. 66.
Amin Mustafa, Al-Muqawama fi Lubnana 1948–2000 ( Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Hadi, 1st ed., 2003), p. 116.
Mustafa, Al-Muqawama fi Lubnana 1948–2000 , p. 127.
Omri Nir, “The Shi'ites during the 1958 Lebanese Crises,” Middle Eastern Studies 40: 6 (November 2004), 110.
B. J. Odeh, Lebanon: Dynamics of Conflict ( London: Zed Books, 1985), p. 6.
Odeh, Lebanon: Dynamics of Conflict , p. 6.
See President Fouad Chehab official website: http://www.fouadchehab.com/en.
Munzer Jaber, Al-Sharit al-Lubnani al-Muhtall: Masalik al-Ihtilal, Masarat al-Muwajaha, Masa'ir al-Ahali [The Occupied Lebanese Border Strip: The Paths of Occupation, the Lines of Confrontation, the Fate of the Population] ( Beirut, Lebanon: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1999), p. 520.
As'ad Abu-Khalil, “Druze, Sunni and Shiite Political Leadership in Present-Day Lebanon,” 43.
Augustus Richard Norton, Hizbullah of Lebanon: Extremist Ideas vs. Mundane Politics ( New York: Council of Foreign Relations, 1999), pp. 6– 8.
Halawi, A Lebanon Defied , p. 106.
Musa al-Sadr was born in Qom, Iran, on March 15, 1928, to a family that originated from Lebanon. He spent the early periods of his life in Iran and Iraq. He moved to Najaf in Iraq in 1954; in 1955, he visited Lebanon for the first time where he met his Lebanese relatives in Tyre and Chour. In 1957, he accepted the invitation of his relative Sayyid Abed al-Hussein Sharafeddine and visited Lebanon again. Musa al-Sadr's years in Najaf were associated with lack of financial support, mainly after the death of his father, and these financial problems can be linked to his decision to move to Lebanon. Shortly before his arrival to Lebanon, in summer 1958, Musa al-Sadr had to leave Iraq and return to Iran in the wake of the 1958 (Iraqi) coup d'etat. He did not stay for long in Iran, and thus in November 1959 Musa al-Sadr left Iran back to Najaf and remained there for a few weeks; (in Najaf) Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim urged Musa al-Sadr to accept the standing invitation to go to Tyre in South Lebanon. For further information about his life see Saqir Youssef Saqir, Al' Al-Sadr wa Usulahom wa A'lamahom , pp. 10– 12, cited in The Vanished Imam Musa al-Sadr Encyclopedia , vol. 1 ( Beirut, Lebanon: Edito Creps International, 2007). See also H. E. Chehabi and Majid Tafreshi, Musa Sadr and Iran , pp. 143– 151, citied in H. E. Chehabi, ed., Distance Relations: Lebanon and Iran in the Last 500 Years ( New York and London: Centre for Lebanese Studies in association with I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2006).
Vali Nasr, The Shi'a Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future ( New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd, 2006), pp. 110– 111.
Kamel al-As'ad (1932–2010) is a zaim from the village of Taibeh in Southern Lebanon. To differentiate, Kamel al-As'ad is the relative of the pro-Ottoman zaim Kamel al-As'ad whose name appeared earlier in this article.
Shanahan, The Shi'a of Lebanon , pp. 76– 77.
Soubhi Munzir Yaghi, “Sab'a wa Ishruna Aman Ala Taghyeib al-Imam Musa al-Sadr, Mouasis al-Majlis al-Islami al-Shi'i al-A'la wa Harakat Amal,” al-Nahar Newspaper, 31 August 2005.