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Lebanon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the country. For other uses of "Lebanon", see Lebanon (disambiguation) and Liban (disambiguation)
Lebanon (Listeni/ˈlɛbənɒn/ or /ˈlɛbənən/; Arabic: لبنان‎ Libnān or Lubnān; Lebanese Arabic: [lɪbˈneːn]; Aramaic: לבנאנ; French: Liban), officially the Lebanese Republic[nb 1] (Arabic: الجمهورية اللبنانية‎ Al-Jumhūrīyah Al-Loubnānīyah; Lebanese Arabic: [elˈʒʊmhuːɾɪjje l.ˈlɪbneːnɪjje]; French: République libanaise), is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity.[6]

The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history.[7] Lebanon was the home of the Phoenicians, a maritime culture that flourished for over a thousand years (c. 1550–539 BC). In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, and eventually became one of the Empire's leading centers of Christianity. In the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion and identity. However, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, a religious divide that would last for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church and asserted their communion with Rome. The ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era.

The region eventually came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918. Following the collapse of the Empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon were mandated to France. The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was mostly populated by Maronites and Druze, to include more Muslims. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing a unique political system – "confessionalism" – that is, a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities. Bechara El Khoury (independent Lebanon's first president), Riad El-Solh (Lebanon's first prime minister) and Emir Majid Arslan (Lebanon's first minister of defence) are considered the founders of the modern Republic of Lebanon and are national heroes for having led the country's independence. French troops withdrew from Lebanon in 1946.[8]

Before the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the country experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce, and banking.[9] Because of its financial power and diversity in its heyday, Lebanon was compared to Switzerland,[10] and its capital Beirut attracted so many tourists that it was known as "the Paris of the Middle East".[11] At the end of the war, there were extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure.[12]
Etymology

The name Lebanon originates from the Semitic root lbn (لبن), meaning "white", likely a reference to the snow-capped Mount Lebanon.[13]

Occurrences of the name have been found in different texts from the library of Ebla,[14] which date to the third millennium BC, nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh (perhaps as early as 2100 BC).[15]

The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L.[16]
History
Main article: History of Lebanon

Throughout the centuries leading up to recent times, the country became part of numerous succeeding empires, among them Egyptian Empire, Persian, Assyrian, Hellenistic, Roman, Armenian, Eastern Roman, Arab (Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid), Seljuk, Mamluk, the Crusader's state of County of Tripoli founded by Raymond IV of Toulouse that encompassed most of present day Lebanon, and the Ottoman Empire. Uniquely, many of these empires left inscriptions in a single location, in the group of commemorative stela of Nahr el-Kalb.
Ancient Lebanon
Main article: History of ancient Lebanon
Evidence of an early settlement in Lebanon was found in Byblos, which is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.[7] The evidence dates back to earlier than 5000 BC. Archaeologists discovered remnants of prehistoric huts with crushed limestone floors, primitive weapons, and burial jars left by the Neolithic and Chalcolithic fishing communities who lived on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea over 7,000 years ago.[17]

Lebanon was a part of northern Canaan, and consequently became the homeland of Canaanite descendants – the Phoenicians, a seafaring people that spread across the Mediterranean before the rise of Cyrus the Great.[18] Their most famous colonies were Carthage in today’s Tunisia and Cádiz in today’s Spain. The Phoenicians are best known as the inventors of the alphabet, among many other things. The area of nowadays Lebanon and the wider Eastern Mediterranean were subjugated by Cyrus in 539 BCE.[19] The Persians forced some of its population to migrate to Carthage, which remained a powerful nation until the Second Punic War. After two centuries of Persian rule, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great attacked and burned Tyre, the most prominent Phoenician city. He conquered what is now Lebanon and other nearby regions of the Eastern Mediterranean in 332 BCE.[19]


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