The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman rule, 1516-1788
By: Stefan Winter.
Series: Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780521765848
Subjects: Shīʻah -- Lebanon -- History; Shiites -- Lebanon -- Political activity; Lebanon -- Politics and government; Lebanon -- Ethnic relations
Description: "The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule provides a new perspective on the previously ignored history of the Shiites as a constituent of Lebanese society. Winter presents a history of the community before the 19th century, based primarily on unpublished Ottoman Turkish documents. From these, he examines how local Shiites were well integrated in the Ottoman system of rule, and that Lebanon as an autonomous entity only developed in the course of the 18th century through the marginalization and then violent elimination of the indigenous Shiite leaderships by an increasingly powerful Druze-Maronite emirate. As such the book recovers the Ottoman-era history of a group which has always been neglected in chronicle-based works, and in doing so, fundamentally calls into question the historic place within 'Lebanon' of what has today become the country's largest and most activist sectarian community"--Provided by publisher.

"This book is a history of the Shiite community of what is today Lebanon in the early modern period. It traces the rise and fall of the Hamadas, Harfushes and other Shiite notable families as mukataacis,"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. Shiism in the Ottoman empire: between confessional ambiguity and administrative pragmatism; 2. The invention of Lebanon: Ottoman governance in the coastal highlands, 1568-1636; 3. Mount Lebanon under Shiite rule: the Hamada 'Emirate,' 1641-1685; 4. The reshaping of authority: the Shiites and the state in crisis, 1685-1699; 5. Jabal 'Amil in the Ottoman period: the origins of 'South Lebanon', 1666-1781; 6. From dependence to redundancy: the decline of Shiite rule in Tripoli and the Bekaa, 1699-1788; 7. Conclusion; Bibliography.