The Maronites of Lebanon Under Frankish and Mamluk Rule (1099-1516)

Bibliographic Data

ID16643271
AuthorsKamal S Salibi (corresponding author)
Year1957
Volume4
Issue3
Pages288-303
Publication date1957-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueArabica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0570-5398 • E-ISSN: 1570-0585
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/157005857x00057
OpenAlexW2047693921
LanguageEN
Citations received6

NORTHERN Lebanon, with its predominantly Maronite population, was an outpost of militant Western Christendom in Syria during the period that elapsed between the Crusader and the Ottoman conquests. Its history, a confused medley of localized events and seemingly insignificant internal struggles, can only be understood when viewed in relation to Crusader and Western Christian policy and interests in Syria. Were it not for the Crusades the Maronites might very well have remained the fossil peasant community which the Franks found in Mount Lebanon in the last year of the eleventh century. It was, in fact, the Frankish conquest of Syria that gave this fossil community of fugitive heterodox Christians, which had already been reduced to the mountain fastnesses of Lebanon by the Islamic conquest, a new lease of life and a new raison d'etre. While the Franks were in Syria the Maronites were their men; and after their departure, during the two centuries of Mamiluk rule, the Maronites remained faithful to the memory of their Western Christian patrons and lived in the almost messianic hope of their return. The history of the Maronite community before the advent of the Crusaders is a matter of conjecture. Maronite historians, starting with al-Duwayhl (i629-I704) 1, have identified their people as

Ancient history · Archaeology · CONQUEST · Eleventh · Islam · Mamluk · Peasant · Population · Theocracy · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Demography · History · Islamic Studies and History · Middle East Politics and Society

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