Lebanese people in Germany
Lebanese people in Germany include migrants from Lebanon to Germany, as well as their descendants. Although there has been sporadic migration from the Middle East to Germany since the 20th century, the real growth of the German Lebanese population began in 1975, with the start of the civil war in Lebanon which drove thousands of people away. No concrete data exists on the religious affiliations, however it is assumed that Maronite Christians, Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the Lebanese population in Germany. See List of Lebanese people in Germany Arabs in Germany Arabs in Berlin Arabs in Europe Arab diaspora Lebanese diaspora Immigration to Germany Germany–Lebanon relations Syrians in Germany Iraqis in Germany
Maronite Church
The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic sui iuris particular church in full communion with the Pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. It is headed by Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi since 2011. Known as the Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch, it is part of Syriac Christianity by liturgy and heritage. Traditionally, the Maronite Church ministers to the Levant around Mount Lebanon, where its headquarters Bkerke is located north of Beirut. Other centers of historical importance include Kfarhay, Yanouh and Qadisha Valley. However, due to emigration since the 19th century two-thirds of church members are located outside "The Antiochian's Range" and live within the worldwide Lebanese diaspora in Europe, the Americas and Africa. Establishment of the Maronite Church can be divided into three periods, from the 4th to the 7th centuries. A congregation movement, with Saint Maroun as an inspirational leader and patron saint, marked the first period.
The second began with the establishment of the Monastery of Saint Maroun on the Orontes, built after the Council of Chalcedon to defend the doctrines of the Council. This monastery was described as the "Greatest Monastery" in the region of Secunda Syria, with more than 300 hermitages around it, according to ancient records. After 518, the monastery de facto administered many parishes in Prima Syria, Cole Syria and Phoenicia; the third period was when Sede Vacante followed the Islamic conquest of the region and bishops of the Saint Maroun Monastery elected John Maron as Patriarch around 685 AD, according to the Maronite tradition. The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch re-established their patriarchate in 751 AD. Although reduced in numbers today, Maronites remain one of the principal ethno-religious groups in Lebanon, with smaller minorities of Maronites in Syria, Cyprus and Jordan. Over 3,000,000 Maronites practice the faith; the Maronite Church is known as the Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch.
St Maroun is considered the founder of the spiritual and monastic movement now called the Maronite Church. This movement has had a profound influence in Lebanon, to a lesser degree in Syria and Palestine. Saint Maroun spent his life on a mountain in Syria believed to be "Kefar-Nabo" on the mountain of Ol-Yambos in the Taurus Mountains, contemporary Turkey, becoming the cradle of the Maronite movement established in the Monastery of Saint Maron; the six major traditions of the Catholic Church are Alexandrian, Armenian, Constantinopolitan, Latin. The Maronite Church follows the Antiochene Tradition. A Roman Catholic may attend any Eastern Catholic Liturgy and fulfill his or her obligations at an Eastern Catholic Parish; that is, a Roman Catholic may join any Eastern Catholic Parish and receive any sacrament from an Eastern Catholic priest since all belong to the Catholic Church. Maronites who do not reside within a convenient distance to a local Maronite Church are permitted to attend other Catholic churches while retaining their Maronite membership.
The Maronite Patriarchal Assembly identified five distinguishing marks of the Maronite Church: It is Antiochene. It is Chalcedonian, in that the Maronites were strong supporters of the Council of Chalcedon of 451, it is Monastic. It is faithful to the See of Peter in Rome, it has strong ties to Lebanon. Saint Maron, a fourth-century monk and a contemporary and friend of St. John Chrysostom, left Antioch for the Orontes River in modern-day Syria to lead an ascetic life, following the traditions of Anthony the Great of the Desert and of Pachomius. Many of his followers lived a monastic lifestyle. Following Maron's death in 410 AD, his disciples built Beth-Maron monastery at Apamea; this formed the nucleus of the Maronite Church. In 452, after the Council of Chalcedon, the monastery was expanded by the Byzantine emperor Marcian; the Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St. Maron's first disciple, Abraham of Cyrrhus, called the "Apostle of Lebanon", set out to convert the non-Christians by introducing them to St. Maron.
The Maronites subscribed to the beliefs of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Monophysites of Antioch slew 350 monks and burned the monastery, although Justinian I restored the walls. Correspondence concerning the event brought the Maronites papal and orthodox recognition, indicated by a letter from Pope Hormisdas dated 10 February 518. Representatives from Beth-Maron participated in the Constantinople synods of 536 and 553. An outbreak of civil war during the reign of Emperor Phocas brought forth riots in the cities of Syria and Palestine and incursions by Persian King Khosrow II. In 609, the Patriarch of Antioch, Anastasius II, was killed either at the hands of some soldiers or locals; this left the Maronites without a leader, which continued because of the final Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628. In the aftermath of the war, the Emperor Heraclius propagated a new Christological doctrine in an attempt to unify the various Christian churches of the East, who were divided over accepting the Council of Chalcedon.
This doctrine, the unity of Christ's will with God's, was meant as a compromise between supporters of Chalcedon, such as the Maronites, opponents, such as the Jacobites. The doctrine was endorsed by Pope Honorius I to win back the Monophysites but problems soon arose. Instead, the unity of Christ's will wit
Lebanese Sunni Muslims
Lebanese Sunni Muslims refers to Lebanese people who are adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam in Lebanon, the largest denomination in Lebanon tied with Shia Muslims. Sunni Islam in Lebanon has a history of more than a millennium. According to a CIA study, Lebanese Sunni Muslims constitute an estimated 27% of Lebanon's population; the Lebanese Sunni Muslims are concentrated in west Beirut, Sidon, Western Beqaa, in the countryside of the Akkar. Under the terms of an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, Sunni notables traditionally held power in the Lebanese state together, they are still the only sect eligible for the post of Prime Minister; the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Lebanese people is a blend of both indigenous Phoenician elements, Arab culture and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. In a 2013 interview the lead investigator, Pierre Zalloua, pointed out that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions:"Lebanon had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, religions came as layers of paint on top.
There is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries more Phoenician than another."Genealogical DNA testing has shown that 27,7% of Lebanese Muslims belong to the Y-DNA haplogroup J1. Although there is common ancestral roots, these studies show some difference was found between Muslims and non-Muslims in Lebanon, of whom only 17.1% have this haplotype. As haplogroup J1 finds its putative origins in the Arabian peninsula, this means that the lineage was introduced by Arabs beginning at the time of the 7th century Muslim conquest of the Levant and has persisted among the Muslim population since. On the other hand, only 4.7% of all Lebanese Muslims belong to haplogroup R1b, compared to 9.6% of Lebanese Christians. Modern Muslims in Lebanon thus do not seem to have a significant genetic influence from the Crusaders, who introduced this common Western European marker to the extant Christian populations of the Levant when they were active in the region from 1096 until around the turn of the 14th century.
Haplogroup J2 is a significant marker in throughout Lebanon. This marker found in many inhabitants of Lebanon, regardless of religion, signals pre-Arab descendants, including the Phoenicians; these genetic studies show us there is no significant differences between the Muslims and non-Muslims of Lebanon. The Sunnis of Lebanon have close ties with Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the stronghold of the Lebanese Sunnis, is the birthplace of Lebanon's Salafi Movement, a puritanical Sunni movement from Saudi Arabia; the Lebanese Sunni Muslims opposed the creation of the Lebanese state separated from Syria, where the majority of the population was Sunni Muslim, wanted the territory of present-day Lebanon to be incorporated within the so-called Greater Syria. Sunni Muslims and Alawites have been in conflict with each other for centuries; the Alawites of the Levant were oppressed by the Sunni Ottoman Empire, but gained power and influence when the French recruited Alawites as soldiers during the French mandate of Syria.
After independence from France, their co-religionists the Assad family came to power in Syria in 1970. Over the years, there have been numerous clashes between the Sunni and Alawi communities in Tripoli over the past 14 months since Syria's uprising began, as part of the Arab Spring that started in Tunisia; the deadliest exchange took place last June, when seven people were killed and more than 60 wounded, after Sunni Muslims staged a protest against the Syrian government. At the best of times, the Alawites are regarded by Sunnis as heretics, and when a popular Salafist figure is strangely abducted and arrested by Lebanon's General Security Service – an organization linked to the Hezbollah militia that, in turn, is linked to the Syrian government – the Alawites become the whipping boys. Lebanese Sunni Muslims are concentrated in west Beirut, Sidon and in the countryside of the Akkar district, located in Northern Lebanon, Northeastern Beqaa Valley around the city of Arsal; the last census in Lebanon in 1932 put the numbers of Sunnis at 22% of the population.
A study done by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1985 put the numbers of Sunnis at 27% of the population. Sunni Muslims constitute 27% of Lebanon's population, according to a 2012 estimate. Emir Khaled Chehab, former Prime Minister of Lebanon and Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon. Riad Al Solh, the first Prime Minister of Lebanon, after the country's independence Rafik Hariri, assassinated former Prime Minister of Lebanon Saad Hariri, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Fouad Siniora, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Abdul Hamid Karami, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Omar Karami, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rashid Karami, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Najib Mikati, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Saeb Salam, who served as Prime Minister six times between 1952 and 1973 Tammam Salam and current Prime Minister of Lebanon Walid Toufic, singer Al-Waleed bin Talal, Saudi-Lebanese businessman and grandson of Riad Al Solh, Lebanon's first Prime Minister Marwa, singer Suzanne Tamim, the late singer Fadl Shaker, singer Hassan Khaled, late former leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim community Wissam al-Hassan, assassinated brigadier general at the Lebanese Internal Security Forces Mohamad Chatah, assassinated Lebanese
Phoenicia
Phoenicia was a thalassocratic, ancient Semitic-speaking Mediterranean civilization that originated in the Levant Lebanon, in the west of the Fertile Crescent. Scholars agree that it was centered on the coastal areas of Lebanon and included northern Israel, southern Syria reaching as far north as Arwad, but there is some dispute as to how far south it went, the furthest suggested area being Ashkelon, its colonies reached the Western Mediterranean, such as Cádiz in Spain and most notably Carthage in North Africa, the Atlantic Ocean. The civilization spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC. Phoenicia is an ancient Greek term used to refer to the major export of the region, cloth dyed Tyrian purple from the Murex mollusc, referred to the major Canaanite port towns, their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to those of ancient Greece, centered in modern Lebanon, of which the most notable cities were Tyre, Arwad, Berytus and Carthage. Each city-state was a politically independent unit, it is uncertain to what extent the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality.
In terms of archaeology, language and religion there was little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other residents of the Levant, such as their close relatives and neighbors, the Israelites. Around 1050 BC, a Phoenician alphabet was used for the writing of Phoenician, it became one of the most used writing systems, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it evolved and was assimilated by many other cultures, including the Roman alphabet used by Western civilization today. The name Phoenicians, like Latin Poenī, comes from Greek Φοίνικες; the word φοῖνιξ phoînix meant variably "Phoenician person", "Tyrian purple, crimson" or "date palm" and is attested with all three meanings in Homer. The word may be derived from φοινός phoinós "blood-red", itself related to φόνος phónos "murder", it is difficult to ascertain which meaning came first, but it is understandable how Greeks may have associated the crimson or purple color of dates and dye with the merchants who traded both products.
Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a pre-Greek origin of the ethnonym; the oldest attested form of the word in Greek may be the Mycenaean po-ni-ki-jo, po-ni-ki borrowed from Ancient Egyptian: fnḫw, although this derivation is disputed. The folk etymological association of Φοινίκη with φοῖνιξ mirrors that in Akkadian, which tied kinaḫni, kinaḫḫi "Canaan" to kinaḫḫu "red-dyed wool"; the land was natively known as its people as the knʿny. In the Amarna letters of the 14th century BC, people from the region called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani, in modern English understood as/equivalent to Canaanite. Much in the sixth century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus writes that Phoenicia was called χνα khna, a name that Philo of Byblos adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna, afterwards called Phoinix"; the ethnonym survived in North Africa until the fourth century AD. Herodotus's account refers to the myths of Europa. According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel.
These people, who had dwelt on the shores of the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria... The Greek historian Strabo believed. Herodotus believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Bahrain; this theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In the Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos, Aradus, which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, exhibited relics of Phoenician temples." The people of Tyre in South Lebanon in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon. The Dilmun civilization thrived in Bahrain during the period 2200–1600 BC, as shown by excavations of settlements and Dilmun burial mounds. However, some claim there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during the time when such migration had taken place.
Canaanite culture developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture. Ghassulian itself developed from the Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, which in turn developed from a fusion of their ancestral Natufian and Harifian cultures with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B farming cultures, practicing the domestication of animals, during the 6200 BC climatic crisis which led to the Neolithic Revolution in the Levant. Byblos is attested as an archaeological site from the Early Bronze Age; the Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically though the Ugaritic language does not belong to the Canaanite languages proper. The Canaanite-Phoenician alphabet consists of all consonants. Starting around 1050 BC, this script was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, it is believed to be one of the ancestors of modern alphabets. B
Lebanese Canadians
Lebanese Canadians are Canadians of Lebanese origin. According to the 2011 Census there were 190,275 Canadians who claimed Lebanese ancestry, having an increase compared to those in the 2006 Census, making them by far the largest group of people with Arabic-speaking roots. Lebanese immigration began in 1882; the first Lebanese immigrant to Canada was Abraham Bounadere from Zahlé in Lebanon. He settled in Montreal; because of situations within Lebanon and restrictive Canadian laws these immigrants were 90% Christian. These immigrants were economic migrants seeking greater prosperity in the New World. In more recent years this pattern has changed, large numbers of Lebanese Muslims and Druze have come to Canada. Immigration laws were liberalized after the Second World War, immigration increased in the 1950s and 1960s; the greatest influx of Lebanese was during the Lebanese Civil War, this period saw a number of Lebanon's wealthiest and best educated move to Canada to flee the violence in their homeland.
Canada and Australia were the only western countries to set up special programs to enable Lebanese to more emigrate. Canada set up an office in Cyprus to process Lebanese refugees. Many Lebanese speak French and preferred to settle in francophone Montreal rather than anglophone Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia. About half the Lebanese-Canadian community is located in and around Montreal, most Lebanese-Canadian organizations religious ones, are based in that city. Lebanese Canadians account for a larger share of the population of Ottawa than that of any other census metropolitan area across the country, constituting over 2% of the total population of the National Capital Region. Canadians of Lebanese origin made up more than 1% of the total populations of both Montreal and Halifax, while the figure was close to 1% in both Calgary and Edmonton. In Toronto, people of Lebanese origin made up less than a half a per cent of the total population. There are substantial Lebanese populations in Vancouver, London, Edmonton and Charlottetown.
Media reported that as many as 50,000 of Lebanese-Canadians were in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, with about half this number permanently residing there. During 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict the large number of Canadians led rise to a major effort to evacuate them from the war zone, it led some pundits to accuse some of those holding Canadian citizenship of being Canadians of convenience. Canada–Lebanon relations The Canadian Encyclopedia - Arabs Lebanese immigration to Montreal history
Religion in Lebanon
Lebanon has several different main religions. The country has the most religiously diverse society of all states within the Middle East, comprising 18 recognized religious sects, it is estimated that a large proportion of its population are refugees which affects statistics. The main two religions are Islam with 57.7% of the citizenry and Christianity with 36.7% of the citizenry. The Druze are about 5.2% of the citizens. The refugees Syrian or Palestinian are predominately Sunni but include Christians and Shia. Lebanon thus differs from other Middle East countries where Muslims are the overwhelming majority and more resembles Bosnia-Herzegovina and North Macedonia, both in Southeastern Europe, in having a diverse mix of Muslims and Christians that each make up half the country's population; the official constitution of Lebanon states that the president of the country must imperatively be a Maronite Christian. No official census has been taken since 1932, reflecting the political sensitivity in Lebanon over confessional balance.
As a result, the religious affiliation of the Lebanese population is difficult to establish with certainty and various sources are used to get the possible estimate of the population by religious affiliation. The following are different sources that do not pretend to be representative of the religious affiliation of the people of Lebanon. A 2012 study conducted by Statistics Lebanon, a Beirut-based research firm, found that Lebanon's population is estimated to be 54% Muslim, 5.6% Druze, 40.5% Christian. The CIA World Factbook estimates the following: Muslim 57.7%, Christian 36.2%, Druze 5.2% small numbers of Jews, Baha'is, Buddhists and Mormons. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems provides source for the registered voters in Lebanon for 2011 that puts the numbers as following: Sunni Islam 27.65 %, Shia Islam 27.35%, Maronite Catholic 21.71%, Greek Orthodox 7.34%, Druze 5.74%, Melkite Catholic 4.76%, Armenian Apostolic 2.64%, other Christian Minorities 1.28%, Alawite Shia Islam 0.88%, Armenian Catholic 0.62%, Evangelical Protestant 0.53%, other 0.18% of the population.
Lebanon has a Jewish population, estimated at less than 100. Registered Muslims form around 52% of the population. Legally-registered Christians form up to 44%. Druze form around 4%. Under the terms of an agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, the president of the country must be a Maronite, the Prime Minister must be a Sunnite, the Speaker of Parliament must be a Shiite. Although Lebanon is a secular country, family matters such as marriage and inheritance are still handled by the religious authorities representing a person's faith. Calls for civil marriage are unanimously rejected by the religious authorities but civil marriages conducted in another country are recognized by Lebanese civil authorities. Non-religion is not recognized by the state; the Minister of the Interior Ziad Baroud made it possible in 2009 to have the religious sect removed from the Lebanese identity card. This does not, deny the religious authorities complete control over civil family issues inside the country.
Lebanese Muslims are divided into many sects like Sunnites, Druze and Ismailis. Lebanese Sunnites are residents of the major cities: west Beirut and Sidon. Sunnis are present in rural areas including Akkar, Ikleem al Kharoub, the western Beqaa Valley. Lebanese Shiites are concentrated in Southern Lebanon, Baalbek District, Hermel District and the south Beirut. Lebanese Druze are concentrated south of Mount Lebanon, in the Hasbaya Chouf District. Under the Lebanese political division the Druze community is designated as one of the five Lebanese Muslim communities, despite the Druze and Muslims having different beliefs Lebanese Christians are divided into many sects, several types of Catholics for instance the Maronites and Greek Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East and Protestants. Lebanese Maronites are concentrated in the north Beirut, northern part of Mount Lebanon Governorate, southern part of North Governorate, parts of Beqaa Governorate and South Governorate.
Greek Catholics are found everywhere but in particular in districts on the eastern slopes of the Lebanese mountain range and in Zahle where they are a majority. Lebanese Orthodox are concentrated in the north Beirut, Lebanese North areas including Zgharta, Bsharre and Batroun. Lebanese Protestants are concentrated within the area of Beirut and Greater Beirut; the other Lebanese Christians are concentrated in similar areas like in east Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Zahlé, Jezzine. Christianity in Lebanon Islam in Lebanon History of the Jews in Lebanon Secularism in Lebanon
1860 Mount Lebanon civil war
The 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war was the culmination of a peasant uprising, which began in the north of Mount Lebanon as a rebellion of Maronite peasants against their Druze overlords and culminated in a massacre in Damascus. It soon spread to the south of the country where the rebellion changed its character, with Druze turning against the Maronite Christians. Around 20,000 Christians were killed by the Druze and 380 Christian villages and 560 churches destroyed; the Druze and Muslims suffered heavy losses. On 3 September 1840, Bashir Shihab III, a distant cousin of the once-powerful Emir Bashir Shihab II, was appointed emir of Mount Lebanon by Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I. Geographically, the Mount Lebanon Emirate corresponded with the central part of present-day Lebanon, which has had a Christian and Druze majority. In practice, the terms "Lebanon" and "Mount Lebanon" tend to be used interchangeably by historians until the formal establishment of the Mandate. Bitter conflicts between Christians and Druzes, simmering under Ibrahim Pasha's rule resurfaced under the new emir.
Hence, the sultan deposed Bashir III, on 13 January 1842, appointed Omar Pasha as governor of Mount Lebanon. This appointment, created more problems than it solved. Representatives of the European powers proposed to the sultan that Lebanon be partitioned into Christian and Druze sections. On 7 December 1842, the sultan adopted the proposal and asked the governor of Damascus to divide the region into two districts: a northern district under a Christian deputy governor and a southern district under a Druze deputy governor; this arrangement came to be known as the "Double Qaimaqamate". Both officials were to be responsible to the governor of Sidon; the Beirut-Damascus highway was the dividing line between the two districts. This partition of Lebanon was nurtured by outside powers, animosities between the religious sects increased; the French, for example, traditionally supported the Christians, while the British supported the Druze, the Ottomans fomented strife to increase their control over the administratively divided region.
These tensions led to conflict between Christians and Druzes as early as May 1845. The European powers requested that the Ottoman sultan establish order in Lebanon, he attempted to do so by establishing a new council in each of the districts. Composed of members of the various religious communities, these councils were intended to assist the deputy governor; this system failed to keep order when the peasants of Keserwan, overburdened by heavy taxes, rebelled against the feudal practices that prevailed in Lebanon. In 1858 Tanyus Shahin, a Maronite Christian peasant leader, demanded that the feudal class abolish its privileges; the demand refused, the peasants began to prepare for a revolt. In January 1859, an armed uprising headed by Shahin flared up; the uprising targeted the Maronite Khazen muqata'jis of Keserwan, pillaging their land and burning their homes. Having driven the Maronite feudal lords out of Keserwan and seizing their land and property, the insurgent peasants set up their own rule.
The Keserwan uprising, as it became known, had a revolutionary effect on other regions in Lebanon. The disturbances spread to central Lebanon. Maronite peasants supported by their clergy, began to prepare for an armed uprising against their Druze masters. In turn, the Druze lords, hesitant to confront the growing assertiveness of Maronite peasantry due to an awareness of the military imbalance in the Maronites' favor, began to arm the Druze irregulars. In August 1859, a brawl occurred between Druze and Maronite locals in the Metn area of the Double Qaimaqamate's Christian sector; the dispute enabled Maronite Bishop Tobia Aoun to mobilize his Beirut-based central committee to intervene in the matter. Soon after, a Druze muqata'ji of the Yazbaki faction, Yusuf Abd al-Malik, his fighters intervened in a brawl between young Maronite and Druze men in the vicinity of the Metn village of Beit Mery, which resulted in twenty fatalities; the Druze lords began making war preparations in coordination with the local Ottoman authorities, while Bishop Aoun oversaw the distribution of weapons to Maronite peasants.
According to historian William Harris, the Christians of Mount Lebanon felt "buoyed by their local numerical superiority, yet despondent because of the hostile Muslim mood in Syria" in the aftermath of the empire's reforms. In the months of March and May 1860, numerous acts of murder and skirmishing took place across the mixed Christian-Druze districts of southern Mount Lebanon, in the Druze run sector of the Double Qaimaqamate. According to historian Leila Terazi Fawaz, these initial acts were "random and unpredictable enough to seem more the acts of lawless men than a calculated war against other sects since banditry was always part of the objective". In March, the father of a Catholic monastery in Aammiq was killed and the monastery looted, shortly afterwards, a Druze man from Ainab killed a Christian man from Abadiyeh; these acts fuelled a cycle of revenge attacks that increased in frequency by April. In April, two Druze men were killed in the vicinity of Beirut, followed by the killing of three Christians outside of Sidon.
Two Christians from Jezzine were killed at Khan Iqlim al-Shumar by Druze from Hasbaya on 26 April and the next day another four Christians were killed in Katuli. On 11 May, Christians from Katuli killed two Druzes at the Nahr al-Assal river and
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