History of Lebanon
The history of Lebanon covers the history of the modern Republic of Lebanon and the earlier emergence of Greater Lebanon under the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, as well as the previous history of the region, covered by the modern state.
The modern State of Lebanon has existed within its current borders since 1920, when Greater Lebanon was created under French and British mandate, resulting from the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. Before this date, the designation "Lebanon" concerned a territory with vaguely defined borders, encompassing the mountain range of Mount Lebanon and its outskirts. The idea of an independent Lebanon, however, emerged during the end of the Mount Lebanon Emirate where Maronite clerics vowed for an independent nation.
Prehistory
, northeast of Beirut, is a large rock shelter below a steep limestone cliff where excavations have shown occupational deposits reaching down to a depth of with one of the longest sequences of Paleolithic flint archaeological industry is a very well tained Upper Levalloiso-Mousterian remains with long and triangular lithic flakes. The level above this showed industries accounting for all six stages of the Upper Paleolithic. An Emireh point was found at the first stage of this level, at around below datum with a complete skeleton of an eight-year-old modern human was discovered at, cemented into breccia. A fragment of a Neanderthal maxilla was also discovered in material from level XXVI or XXV, at around. Studies by Hooijer showed wild goat and fallow deer were dominant in the fauna along with the extinct narrow-nosed rhinoceros in later Levalloiso-Mousterian levels.It is believed to be one of the earliest known sites containing Upper Paleolithic technologies. Artifacts recovered from the site include Ksar Akil flakes, the main type of tool found at the site, along with shells with holes and chipped edge modifications that are suggested to have been used as pendants or beads. These indicate that the inhabitants were among the first in Western Eurasia to use personal ornaments. Results from radiocarbon dating indicate that the early humans may have lived at the site approximately 45,000 years ago or earlier. The presence of personal ornaments at Ksar Akil is suggestive of modern human behavior. The findings of ornaments at the site are contemporaneous with ornaments found at Late Stone Age sites such as Enkapune Ya Muto.
Ancient Near East
The earliest prehistoric cultures of Lebanon, such as the Qaraoun culture gave rise to the civilization of the Canaanite period, when the region was populated by ancient peoples, cultivating land and living in sophisticated societies during the 2nd millennium BC. Northern Canaanites are mentioned in the Bible as well as in other Semitic records from that period.Canaanites were the creators of the oldest known 24-letter alphabet, a shortening of earlier 30-letter alphabets such as Proto-Sinaitic and Ugaritic. The Canaanite alphabet later developed into the Phoenician one, influencing the writing systems of the entire Mediterranean region, and ultimately much of Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The coastal plain of Lebanon is the historic home of a string of coastal trading cities of Semitic culture, which the Greeks termed Phoenicia, whose maritime culture flourished there for more than 1,000 years. Ancient ruins in Byblos, Berytus, Sidon, Sarepta, and Tyre show a civilized nation, with urban centres and sophisticated arts.
Phoenicia was a cosmopolitan centre for many nations and cultures. Phoenician art, customs and religion reveal considerable Mesopotamian and Egyptian influence. The sarcophagi of Sidonian kings Eshmunazzar II and Tabnit reveal that Phoenician royalty adopted Egyptian burial customs.
Phoenician traders exported spices from Arabia, such as cinnamon and frankincense, to the Greeks. This trade likely led to the transmission of the Phoenician alphabet to Greece. Herodotus attests that the Phoenicians
"introduced into Greece upon their arrival a great variety of arts, among the rest that of writing, whereof the Greeks till then had, as I think, been ignorant."According to legend however, it is Cadmus, Prince of Tyre, who brought the alphabet with him to Greece in his search for his abducted sister Europa. Cadmus ultimately settles in Greece and founds the city of Thebes. Ancient Greek history accepts the Phoenician origin of the Greek alphabet. According to Herodotus,
" originally they shaped their letters exactly like all the other Phoenicians, but afterwards, in course of time, they changed by degrees their language, and together with it the form likewise of their characters."Herodotus attests the persistence of traces of the Phoenician alphabet in Greece on tripods in Delphi in what is now known as the 5th century BC.
The Phoenicians were equally reputed for their seafaring skills. They were allegedly the first to circumnavigate the African continent. Herodotus writes that Egyptian Pharaoh Necos,
" sent to sea a number of ships manned by Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules , and return to Egypt through them, and by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean sea , and so sailed into the southern ocean.The last phrase is usually regarded by modern historians as lending credibility to the Phoenician narrative, as they could not have otherwise known that the sun would be on their right hand side as they sailed southwards below the Equator line.
When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever they might happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail; and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage home. On their return, they declared — I for my part do not believe them, but perhaps others may - that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered."
The Phoenicians founded various colonies in the Mediterranean. The most famous of them are Carthage in today's Tunisia, Tripoli in today's Libya, Gadir and Barcelona in today's Spain, Palermo in today's Italy, Lisbon in today's Portugal.
Phoenicia maintained an uneasy tributary relationship with the neo-Assyrian and neo-Babylonian empires during the 9th to 6th centuries BC.
Classical Antiquity
After the gradual decline of their strength, the Phoenician city-states on the Lebanese coast were conquered outright in 539 BC by Achaemenid Persia under Cyrus the Great. Under Darius I, the area comprising Phoenicia, Canaan, Syria, and Cyprus was administered in a single satrapy and paid a yearly tribute of three hundred and fifty talents. By comparison, Egypt and Libya paid seven hundred talents. Many Phoenician colonies continued their independent existence—most notably Carthage. The Persians forced some of the population to migrate to Carthage, which remained a powerful nation until the Second Punic War.The Phoenicians of Tyre showed greater solidarity with their former colony Carthage than loyalty towards Persian king Cambyses, by refusing to sail against the former when ordered.
The Phoenicians furnished the bulk of the Persian fleet during the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus considers them as "the best sailors" in the Persian fleet. Phoenicians under Xerxes I were equally commended for their ingenuity in building the Xerxes Canal. Nevertheless, they were harshly punished by the Persian king following the Battle of Salamis, which culminated in a defeat for the Achaemenid Empire.
In 350 or 345 BC, a rebellion in Sidon led by Tennes was crushed by Artaxerxes III. Its destruction was described by Diodorus Siculus.
After two centuries of Persian rule, the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great, during his war against Persia, attacked and burned Tyre, the most prominent Phoenician city. He conquered what is now Lebanon and other nearby regions in 332 BC. After Alexander's death the region was absorbed into the Seleucid Empire and became known as Coele-Syria.
In 64 BC, the region was conquered by a Roman army under general Pompey and became a part of the Roman state. Christianity was introduced to the coastal plain of Lebanon from neighboring Galilee, already in the 1st century. The region, as with the rest of Syria and much of Anatolia, became a major center of Christianity. Mount Lebanon and its coastal plain became part of the Diocese of the East, divided to provinces of Phoenice Paralia and Phoenice Libanensis.
During the late 4th and early 5th centuries in Lebanon, a hermit named Maron established a monastic tradition, focused on the importance of monotheism and asceticism, near the mountain range of Mount Lebanon. The monks who followed Maron spread his teachings among the native Lebanese Christians and remaining pagans in the mountains and coast of Lebanon. These Lebanese Christians came to be known as Maronites, and moved into the mountains to avoid religious persecution by Roman authorities. During the frequent Roman–Persian Wars that lasted for many centuries, the Sassanid Persians occupied what is now Lebanon from 619 to 629.
Middle Ages
Islamic rule
During the 7th century AD the Muslim Arabs conquered Syria soon after the death of Muhammad, establishing a new regime to replace the Romans. Though Islam and the Arabic language were officially dominant under this new regime, the general populace still took time to convert from Christianity and the Syriac language. In particular, the Maronite community clung to its faith and managed to maintain a large degree of autonomy despite the succession of rulers over Syria. Muslim influence increased greatly in the seventh century, when the nearby city Damascus, in modern-day Syria, was set as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate.During the reign of Uthman, who ruled the Rashidun Caliphate between 644 and 656, Islam gained prominence in Damascus, primarily due to Mu'awiya, a relative of Uthman who served as the governor. Mu'awiya deployed forces to Lebanon's coastal region, where he expanded Islamic influence, resulting in conversions to Islam among the coastal residents. However, in the mountainous areas, the local population retained their Christian or other cultural traditions. Moreover, both Christians and Jews were obliged to pay the jizya, or poll tax, to Islamic rulers. The collection of this tax from mountain Christians saw inconsistent enforcement until the First Crusade, where it ceased under Latin rule. A revival occurred under the Mamluks, concluding with its abolition through an Ottoman edict in 1856.
After the Islamic conquest, Mediterranean trade faced a prolonged decline lasting three centuries, attributed to maritime conflicts between the Islamic caliphate and the Byzantines. The partially damaged ports, vital as naval strongholds for the caliphate, struggled to regain prosperity. Despite attempts involving military presence and new settlers, the cities of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Tripoli likely sustained populations of only a few thousand each during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods.
By 758, the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur tasked the Arab Tanukhids with the defense of the hills around Beirut. In 845, tensions flared as Tanukhs clashed with Christians in Kisrawan.
In the 980s, the Fatimid Caliphate gained dominance over Mount Lebanon. Under Fatimid rule, the region experienced a renaissance in Mediterranean trade along the Lebanese coast, stimulated by commercial connections with Byzantium and Italy. Consequently, Tripoli and Tyre thrived well into the 11th century, specializing in the export of products like cotton and silk textiles, sugar, and glassware.
In the 1020s, the Druze sect began to diverge from Isma’ili Shia Islam. Tanukhid chiefs embraced the "Call," acknowledging Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah as divine, thereby establishing the foundation of the sect in Mount Lebanon. The new faith gained followers in the southern portion of Lebanon.