Lebanese people
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, Sunni Muslims, Maronite Christians, Greek Orthodox Christians, Melkite Christians, Druze, Protestant Christians. The largest contingent of Lebanese, however, comprise a diaspora in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Africa, which is predominantly Maronite Christian.
As the relative proportion of the various sects is politically sensitive, Lebanon has not collected official census data on ethnic background since 1932 under the French Mandate. It is therefore difficult to have an exact demographic analysis of Lebanese society.
The largest concentration of people with Lebanese ancestry may be in Brazil, having an estimated population of 5.8 to 7 million. However, it may be an exaggeration given that an official survey conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics showed that less than 1 million Brazilians claimed any Middle-Eastern origin. The Lebanese have always traveled the world, many of them settling permanently within the last two centuries.
Estimated to have lost their status as the majority in Lebanon itself, with their reduction in numbers largely as a result of their emigration, Christians still remain one of the principal religious groups in the country. Descendants of Lebanese Christians make up the majority of Lebanese people worldwide, appearing principally in the diaspora.
Identity
The Lebanese identity is rooted in a shared history and culture. Their rich cultural heritage includes food, music, literature, and art, which is also shaped by the country's location at the crossroads of the Eastern Mediterranean. This has allowed it to be a meeting point for different cultures and traditions.Lebanon's religious diversity is also a significant component of the national identity. The country is home to a plurality of religious communities, including Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Jews. Each community has its own distinct religious practices, traditions, and customs, which have been passed down through generations.
However, the identity has also been shaped by a long history of political and social conflict. The country has experienced a series of civil wars, foreign invasions, political crises, and economic problems, which has deepened divisions between different communities and eroded trust in the government and institutions.
Lebanon has managed to maintain a sense of national unity and identity. In the face of political and social challenges, the Lebanese people are known for their resilience and their ability to come together in times of crisis which has helped to strengthen their sense of national identity.
Among Lebanese Maronites, Aramaic still remains the liturgical language of the Maronite Church, although in an Eastern Aramaic form, is distinct from the spoken Aramaic of Lebanon, which was a Western Aramaic language. Some Lebanese Christians identify themselves as Lebanese rather than Arab, seeking to draw on "the Phoenician past to try to forge an identity separate from the prevailing Arab culture".
The conquest of Lebanon during the Arab and Islamic conquests was linked to the conquest of Bilād Al-Shām as a whole, or what is known as the Levant, being an integral part of it, the Arab Muslims swiftly took it from the Byzantine Empire during the era of Caliph Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, who ordered the division of the Levant when he conquered it, into four Ajnad, including the Jund Dimashq which includes Mount Lebanon with its corresponding western coastal plains and the eastern interior plains. Arabization and Islamization of the Levant began in the 7th century, and it took several centuries for Islam, the Arab identity, and language to spread; the Arabs of the caliphate did not attempt to spread their language or religion in the early periods of the conquest, and formed an isolated aristocracy. The Arabs of the caliphate accommodated many new tribes in isolated areas to avoid conflict with the locals; caliph Uthman ordered his governor, Muawiyah I, to settle the new tribes away from the original population. Syrians who belonged to Monophysitic denominations welcomed the peninsular Arabs as liberators.
The Abbasids in the eighth and ninth century sought to integrate the peoples under their authority, and the Arabization of the administration was one of the tools. Arabization gained momentum with the increasing numbers of Muslim converts; the ascendancy of Arabic as the formal language of the state prompted the cultural and linguistic assimilation of Syrian converts. Those who remained Christian also became Arabized; it was probably during the Abbasid period in the ninth century that Christians adopted Arabic as their first language; the first translation of the gospels into Arabic took place in this century. Many historians, such as Claude Cahen and Bernard Hamilton, proposed that the Arabization of Christians was completed before the First Crusade. By the thirteenth century, Arabic language achieved dominance in the region and its speakers became Arabs thereof.
Demographics
The total Lebanese population is estimated at 8 to 18 million. Of these, the vast majority, or 4- 14 million, constitute part of the Lebanese diaspora, with approximately 4.7 million citizens residing in Lebanon itself.Lebanon
There are approximately 4.7 million Lebanese citizens in Lebanon.In addition to this figure, there are an additional 1 million foreign workers, and about 470,000 Palestinian refugees in the nation.
Lebanon is also a home to various ethnic minorities found refuge in the country over the centuries. Prominent ethnic minorities in the country include the Armenians, the Kurds, the Turks, the Assyrians, the Iranians and some European ethnicities.
There are also a small number of nomadic Dom people, an ethnic group with origins in the Indian subcontinent.
Diaspora
The Lebanese diaspora consists of approximately 4- 14 million, both Lebanese-born living abroad and those born-abroad of Lebanese descent. The majority of the Lebanese in the diaspora are Christians, disproportionately so in the Americas where the vast majority reside. An estimate figure show that they represent about 75% of the Lebanese in total. Lebanese abroad are considered "rich, educated and influential" and over the course of time immigration has yielded Lebanese "commercial networks" throughout the world.The largest number of Lebanese is to be found in Brazil, where according to the Brazilian and Lebanese governments claim, there are 7 million Brazilians of Lebanese descent. These figures, however, may be an exaggeration given that, according to a 2008 survey conducted by IBGE, in 2008, covering only the states of Amazonas, Paraíba, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso and Distrito Federal, 0.9% of white Brazilian respondents said they had family origins in the Middle East
Large numbers also reside elsewhere in North America, most notably in the United States and in Canada, the people of full or partial Lebanese descent are between 190,275 to 250,000 based on estimates. In the rest of the Americas, significant communities are found in Argentina, Mexico ; Chile, Colombia and Venezuela, with almost every other Latin American country having at least a small presence.
In Africa, Senegal and the Ivory Coast are home to over 100,000 Lebanese. There are significant Lebanese populations in other countries throughout Western and Central Africa. Australia hosts over 180,000 and Canada 250,000. In the Arab world, around 400,000 Lebanese live in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. More than 2,500 ex-SLA members remain in Israel.
Until recently, Lebanon provided no automatic right to Lebanese citizenship for emigrants who lost their citizenship upon acquiring the citizenship of their host country, nor for the descendants of emigrants born abroad. This situation disproportionately affected Christians. In 2008, the Maronite Institution of Emigrants called for the establishment of an avenue by which emigrants who lost their citizenship may regain it, or their overseas-born descendants may acquire it.
On November 24, 2015, the Lebanese authorities enacted Law #41, “Reacquiring the Lebanese Citizenship”. Under this law, members of the Lebanese diaspora can apply to reacquire the Lebanese citizenship, it specifies that applications must be submitted before November 25, 2025.
In 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Emigrants launched an initiative called "The Lebanese Nationality Program" or "Lebanity", for people of Lebanese heritage around the world to apply for Lebanese Nationality, allowing them to benefit from their business, financial, consular, personal, social and political rights as Lebanese, wherever they are. In particular, this initiative is relevant for the large Lebanese communities in different countries all over the world.
Applications are reviewed by a committee within the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities of Lebanon. If an application is denied, the applicant can appeal the decision within one month from the date they are officially notified, using the address specified in their application.
To be eligible, applicants must have their names, or the names of their paternal ancestors or male relatives on their father’s side, listed in the 1921–1924 census records and/or the 1932 immigrants registers, which are maintained by the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities.
Religion
Lebanese people are very diverse in faith. The country has the most religiously diverse society in the Middle East, encompassing 17 recognized religious sects. The main two religions among the Lebanese people are Christianity and Islam. The third-largest religion is Druze. There are other non-Lebanese Christian minorities such as Armenians, French-Italians, Assyrians and Copts, who immigrated to Lebanon over the years. No official census has been taken since 1932, reflecting the political sensitivity in Lebanon over confessional balance.A study conducted by Statistics Lebanon, a Beirut-based research firm, cited by the United States Department of State found that of Lebanon's population of approximately 4.3 million is estimated to be: 54% Islam, 40.5% Christian and 5.5% Druze
There are also very small numbers of other religions such as Judaism, Mormons, Baháʼí Faith. While Jews have been present in Lebanon since ancient times, their numbers had dwindled during the Muslim era. By the 2000s the Jewish quarter of Beirut, Wadi Abu Jamil, was virtually abandoned, and there were only around 40 Jews left in Beirut. Many well-established Lebanese Jewish diaspora communities exists, such as in Brazil, France, Switzerland, Canada and the United States.
With the diaspora included, the Christians are an absolute majority. Lebanon has a population of Mhallamis also known as Mardinli), most of whom migrated from northeast Syria and southeast Turkey are estimated to be between 75,000 and 100,000 and considered to be part of the Sunni population. These have in recent years been granted Lebanese citizenship and, coupled with several civil wars between Islamic extremists and the Lebanese military that have caused many Christians to flee the country, have re-tipped the demographic balance in favour of the Muslims and the Sunnis in particular. In addition, many thousands of Arab Bedouins in the Bekaa and in the Wadi Khaled region, who are entirely Sunnis, were granted Lebanese citizenship. Lebanon also has a Jewish population, estimated at less than 100.