Lebanese Shia Muslims, communally and historically known as matāwila, are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role alongside Lebanon's main Sunni, Maronite and Druze sects. The vast majority of Shia Muslims in Lebanon adhere to Twelver Shi'ism, making them the only major Twelver Shia community extant in the Levant.
An 18th century copy of a miniature depicting Sheikh Baha'uddin al-Amili
Adham Khanjar and Sadiq Hamzeh, two prominent anti-French revolutionary figures
Shia Twelver (Metawali) woman in the Bekaa Valley in traditional clothes, 1950s
Alawite El-Zahra Mosque in Jabal Mohsen, Lebanon
The Lebanese people are the people inhabiting or originating from Lebanon. The term may also include those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state. The major religious groups among the Lebanese people within Lebanon are Shia Muslims (27%), Sunni Muslims (27%), Maronite Christians (21%), Greek Orthodox Christians (8%), Melkite Christians (5%), Druze (5%), Protestant Christians (1%). The largest contingent of Lebanese, however, comprise a diaspora in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa, which is predominantly Maronite Christian.
A Druze family of the Lebanon, late 1800s
Christian men from Mount Lebanon, late 1800s
Metouali (Shia) Woman of the Beqaa Valley, 1970's