Mutesarriflik Mount Lebanon

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The Mutessariflik Lebanon 1914
Mutessariflik Lebanon 1893 on a contemporary map in red

Das Mutessariflik Lebanon ( Turkish Cebel-i Lübnan Mutasarrıflığı , French Moutassarifiate du Mont-Liban , Arabic متصرفية جبل لبنان, DMG Mutaṣarrifīya Ǧabal Lubnān ) was a province of the Ottoman Empire , which emerged in the course of the Tanzimat reforms. After 1861 there was an autonomous area in the Lebanon Mountains with a Christian governor ("Mutasarrif") under European diplomatic pressure as a home for the Maronites because of the discrimination against Christians and as a result of the massacres of 1860 .

The area of ​​Mutessariflik, which in 1870 still had 110,000 inhabitants, had Beit ed-Din near Dair al-Qamar as its capital. The official languages ​​were Ottoman and French , the common language Lebanese and Syrian Arabic .

history

background

As the power of the Ottoman Empire began to wane, the administrative structure also came under pressure. Because of the ongoing hostilities against the Christian minority and fighting between Druze and Maronites, representatives of European powers suggested to the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I that Lebanon could be divided into Christian and Druze administrative areas. The Sublime Porte finally decided to give up direct rule of Lebanon. On December 7, 1842, the Sultan accepted Prince Metternich's proposal and asked Assad Pasha , the governor ( wali ) of Beirut , to divide the region of Lebanon into two districts: a northern district under a Christian Kaymakam and a southern district under one Druze Kaymakam, elected by tribal leaders. Both officials were subordinate to the governor of Sidon , who resided in Beirut.

Civil War of 1860

On May 22, 1860, at the entrance to Beirut, an armed conflict broke out between Maronites and a group of Druze , in which one was killed and two wounded. This sparked the civil war in the Lebanon Mountains , in which 60 villages in the vicinity of Beirut were initially destroyed in less than three days, from 29 to 31 May 1860. 33 Christians and 48 Druze were killed. In June, the turmoil in the religiously mixed areas of the expanded southern Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon from and to Sidon, Hasbaja , Rascheiya, Deir al-Qamar and Zahle . The Druze peasants launched a siege of Catholic monasteries and missions, burned them down and killed the monks. After the massacres in which over 10,000 Christians were killed, France intervened on behalf of the local Christian population and Britain intervened for the Druze.

Establishment of the Mutasarrifat

Lebanese soldiers during the Mutessariflik

On September 5, 1860, an international commission composed of France, Great Britain, Austria , Prussia , Russia and the Ottoman Empire met to determine the causes of the events of 1860 and to propose a new administrative and judicial system for Lebanon, which would Should prevent recurrence of such events. The commission members found that the division of Lebanon into Druze and Christians was partly responsible for the massacres. Therefore, in the Lebanon statute of 1861, Lebanon was split off from Syria and placed under a non-Lebanese Christian Mutasarrif (governor) by the Ottoman Sultan - with the consent of the other European powers. The Mutasarrif was to be supported by a board of twelve members who came from the various religious communities of Lebanon. Each of the six religious groups that populated Lebanon ( Maronites , Druze , Shiites , Sunnis , Greek Orthodox and Greek universities ) elected two members to the council.

This Mutessariflik system existed from 1861 to 1918 when France was granted the area. It was later converted to Greater Lebanon as part of the League of Nations mandate for Syria .

designation

The members of the International Commission searched for a name for the new administrative unit and a corresponding title for its governor. Many variants were considered; Emir (أمير) was quickly abandoned because he was too offensive against the Ottoman Porte and too close to the emirate system that the Ottomans wanted to abolish. Wāli (والي) also dropped out because the commissioners wanted to convey the importance of the rank of this new title, which was above that of the Ottoman governors of the neighboring Vilayets; Governor (حاكم) was also discarded as the title was commonplace and widespread. The committee members also considered the title "President" (رئيس جمهورية), but this proposal was not accepted by the Ottoman Empire. After two weeks of deliberation, the French term plénipotentiaire was agreed, and its Arabic translation mutasarrif was adopted as the new title for the governor and for the administrative unit Mutessariflik Lebanon.

Mutasar rifles

A total of eight Mutasarrifen were appointed and governed according to the Mutessariflik regulations that adopted in 1861 and by the Tanzimat - Reform of 1864 have been adjusted.

  • Daoud Pacha 1861-1868
  • Franko Pacha 1868–1873
  • Rustom Pacha 1873-1883
  • Wassa Pascha 1883-1892
  • Naoum Pacha 1892-1902
  • Mozafar Pacha 1902-1907
  • Youssef Pacha 1907-1912
  • Johannes Pascha (Ohannes Pascha Kouyoumdjian) 1912–1915

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Cemal Pasha occupied Lebanon militarily and abolished the Mutessariflik system. He appointed Mutasarrif against the regulations. These governors were: Ali Mounif Beik, Ismail Beik and Moumtaz Beik.

Black dashed lines show the boundaries of the territory on a religious map of today's Lebanon

population

The total population in 1895 was estimated at 399,530, of which 319,296 (79.8%) were Christians , and 80,234 (17.8%) were Muslims and Druze . In 1913 the population was estimated at 414,747, including 329,482 (79.5%) Christians, and 85,232 (19.1%) Muslims and Druze. The majority of the Muslims were Shiite .

Religious groups 1895 and 1913
religion 1895 proportion of 1913 proportion of
Maronites 229,680 57.5% 242308 58.3%
Greek Catholic 34,472 8.5% 31,936 7.7%
Greek Orthodox 54.208 13.5% 52,536 12.8%
Other Christs 936 0.3% 2,882 0.7%
Druze 49,812 12.5% 47,290 11.3%
Shiites 16,846 4.3% 23,413 5.5%
Sunnis 13,576 3.5% 14,529 3.6%
Total population 399,530 100% 414,747 100%

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Fisk , Malcolm Debevoise, Samir Kassir: Beirut . University of California Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-520-25668-2 , pp. 94 .
  2. ^ Salwa C. Nassar Foundation: Cultural resources in Lebanon . Librarie du Liban, Beirut 1969, p. 74 .
  3. ^ Winslow, Charles: Lebanon: war and politics in a fragmented society . Routledge, 1996, ISBN 978-0-415-14403-2 , pp. 291 .
  4. ^ Reports by Her Majesty's secretaries of embassy and legation on the ... Great Britain. Foreign office, p. 176 ( here in the Google book search).
  5. Abel Pavet de Courteille: État présent de l'empire ottoman . J. Dumaine, 1876, p. 112-113 ( online (fr.)).
  6. a b c d e Wladimir Borisowitsch Luzki: Modern History of the Arab Countries. Progress Publishers, 1969, accessed November 12, 2009 .
  7. United States Library of Congress - Federal Research Division (Ed.): Lebanon A Country Study . Kessinger Publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-1-4191-2943-8 , pp. 264 .
  8. ^ Caesar E. Farah: The politics of interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon, 1830–1861. IBTauris, 2000, ISBN 1-86064-056-7 , p. 564.
  9. ^ Leila Tarazi Fawaz: Occasion for War: Civil Conflict in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860 . illustrated edition. IBTauris & Company, 1995, ISBN 978-1-86064-028-5 , pp. 320 .
  10. a b Lebanon - Religious Conflicts. In: countrystudies.us. US Library of Congress, accessed November 23, 2009 .
  11. a b Abdallah el-Mallah: The system of Moutasarrifiat rule. (university) (No longer available online.) In: abdallahmallah.com. Archived from the original on December 31, 2010 ; Retrieved November 16, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abdallahmallah.com
  12. ^ A b c Religion and Fertility: Arab Christian-Muslim Differentials, Joseph Chamie, p. 29