Mount Lebanon
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| Mount Lebanon | |
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 Lebanon Cedars on the slopes of Mount Lebanon. Note the thawing winter snow cover. Photo April 2004. |
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| Elevation | 3,088 metres (10,131 feet) |
| Location | Lebanon. |
| Coordinates | |
| Topo map | (www.mount-lebanon.com) |
| Easiest route | scramble |
Mount Lebanon (Arabic: جبل لبنان), as a geographic designation, is the Lebanese mountain range, known as the Western Mountain Range of Lebanon. It extends across the whole country along about 160 km (100 mi), parallel to the Mediterranean coast with the highest peak, Qurnat as Sawda', at 3,083 m (10,131 ft).Lebanon has historically been defined by these mountains, which provided protection for the local population. The snowy peaks may have given Lebanon its name in antiquity; laban is Aramaic for "white". In Lebanon the changes in scenery are not connected to geographical distances, but to altitudes. The mountains were known for their oak and pine forests. Also, in the high slopes of Mount Lebanon are the last remaining groves of the famous Cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus libani). The Phoenicians used the forests from Mount Lebanon to build their ship fleet and to trade with their Levantine neighbors. However, the Phoenicians and successor rulers replanted and restocked the range so that even as late as the 16th century, its forested area was considerable.
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[edit] Mount Lebanon, as a political name
Mount Lebanon also lent its name to two political designations: a semi-autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire that existed before World War I, and the central Governorate of modern Lebanon (see Mount Lebanon Governorate).
The Mount Lebanon administrative region emerged in a time of rise of nationalism. The local Christian community experienced periods of oppression by alternating Muslim leaders. Starting in the early 1800s over several decades, the Ottomans allowed for the settlement of successive Shiaa' , Kurdish, and Sunni clans in the area, protected by the Ottoman Imperial Army. The Maronite population of the Mount, viewing these settlements as a threat to their fragile phoenician Christian identity, clashed often with the settlers. European powers (mainly France and Britain) intervened on behalf of the local Christian population after the 1860 massacres, when 10 000 Christians were killed in clashes with Druze ,who settled in mount Lebanon centuries before the christians or Muslims in this region. (ref:An Occasion for War, Civil Conflict in Lebanon and Damascus in 1860). In 1861 the "Mount Lebanon" autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, under an international guarantee.
It was ruled by a non-Lebanese Christian subject of the Ottoman Empire (known locally as the "Mutassareff", (one who rules the district Mutasarrifiyya). Christians formed the majority of the population of Mount Lebanon, with a significant number of Druze.
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire launched a campaign against the Maronites as part of its Middle Eastern region wide massacre of Christians. As part of this campaign, the Ottoman fleet blockaded the entire Levantine coast, encircled the region with troops and cut off Mount Lebanon from the rest of the world. In Lebanon it is estimated today that half the population of Mount Lebanon died of orchestrated famine during this time.
(Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5])
For decades the Christians pressured the European powers, and the United States, to award them self determination by extending their small Lebanese territory to what they dubbed "Greater Lebanon", referring to a geographic unit comprising Mount Lebanon and its coast, and the Beqaa Valley to its east.
France took hold of the formally Ottoman holdings in the northern Levant, and expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon in 1920 to form Greater Lebanon which was to be populated by remnants of the Middle Eastern Christian community. While the Christians ended up gaining, territorially, almost twice the area they requested, the hoped-for resettlement of Christians into the area never materialized and the new borders merely ended the demographic dominance of Christians in the newly created territory of Lebanon.
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Starting in the 4th century, Maronite Christians from the Orontes valley in Northern Syria began settling in the northernmost parts of the mountain range. Later, In the 9th century, tribes from the northern areas of the Arabian Peninsula, known as the Tanukhiyoun, began settling in the southern areas of the mountain range and in the 11th century these tribes became Druze and ruled the areas of Mount Lebanon stretching from Metn in the north to Jezzine in the south, this entire area became known as the ‘Jabal el Duruz’. In the early 1600s, Emir Fakhreddine the 2nd ascended the throne in the Druze part of the mountains known as the Chouf. In an effort to unify Mount Lebanon, Emir Fakhreddine opened the door to Christian and in particular Maronite settlement of the Chouf and Metn. Throughout the 1700s and into the 1800s more and more Maronites settled in the Druze regions of the Mount. Seeing their numbers increasing the Maronites began to demand a larger share of the authority. The Druze viewed these Maronite settlements as a threat to their existence in Mount Lebanon and in a series of clashes in the 1840's and 1860s a mini civil war erupted in the area resulting in the death of thousands of Druze and Christians . The Druze won militarily but not politically because European powers (mainly France and Britain) intervened on behalf of the Maronites and divided Mount Lebanon into two areas; Druze and Maronite. Seeing their authority decline in Mount Lebanon, few Lebanese Druzes began migrating to the new ‘Jabal al Duruz’ in southern Syria. In 1861 the "Mount Lebanon" autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, under an international guarantee.
