The Druze-Maronite Sectarian Clash in the War of the Mountain (1983-1984)
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The Druze-Maronite sectarian clash in the War of the Mountain (1983-1984): The resilience of mid-nineteenth century Maronite-Druze enmities in the Druze collective memory and its impact on the dynamics and consequences of Harb Al Jabal 1 Acknowledgments I would not have reached this stage in my thesis without the help and guidance of Dr. Mouannes Hojairi (my supervisor), Dr. Pascale Ghazaleh (my first reader) and Dr. Munira Khayyat (my second reader). It was a great pleasure to work with you and learn from your comments. I want to use this occasion to thank Dr. Pascale Ghazaleh for her time and remarkable comments that not only helped me improve the content of my thesis, but also assisted me in changing the way I conduct my research; especially on ethnic and religious communities in the Middle East. Thank you for teaching me how to be cautious while choosing the sources that inform the reader about certain communities in the Middle East, how to distance myself as a researcher from the research I am conducting and how to be quite precise with the choice of words. I owe you this progress that I witnessed in my research and writing skills from the beginning of the writing process till now. I would also love to thank the American University in Beirut (AUB) for letting me have access to its microfilms, which were quite essential as primary data for my research on Harb Al Jabal. As for Fighters for Peace NGO in Lebanon, I could not have been able to conduct interviews with ex-fighters in the Mountain War without your help and support. Special thanks goes to Mr. Asaad Chaftari, vice president of Fighters for Peace, and Racha El Amin who put me in contact with a number of Maronite and Druze ex-fighters and were quite helpful whenever I needed help. I am so grateful for my family, my father, mother and sister, for their continuous help and support. Thank you for everything. As for my mum, I would not have reached this stage in my life without your constant support, encouragement and help. You never ceased to push me to do my best. I owe you my life. As for my friends, I would like to thank my best friends Aida Yehia, Aliaa Soliman and Mariam Mecky for proof-reading my work and for constantly providing me with constructive feedback on my thesis. As for Ivette Idrobbo, thank you for believing in me and pushing me to do my best in my thesis. 2 Contents Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 5 Chronology ...................................................................................................................... 10 Introductory Chapter:The War of the Mountain /Harb Al Jabal (1983-1984): How can the specific history of the inter-sectarian rivalries between the Maronites and the Druzes in Al Chouf region in Mount Lebanon in mid-nineteenth century provide an explanation for their sectarian clash at the end of the twentieth century? ............................................ 13 A. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 13 B. Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................ 27 C. Methodology .............................................................................................................. 33 D. Division of Chapters .................................................................................................. 37 Chapter One: Mount Lebanon and the nineteenth century socio-economic and political changes: From feudal rivalries to Maronite-Druze inter-sectarian conflicts .................... 40 A. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 40 B. Mount Lebanon and the system of Iqtaa: The land as the source of socio-economic and political power in Mount Lebanon ............................................................................. 44 C. The prevalence of tribal and feudal loyalties over sectarian affiliations till the mid- nineteenth century ............................................................................................................. 47 D. The nineteenth century and the beginning of sectarian tensions in Mount Lebanon ... 48 D.1. The internal reforms in the Maronite Church and the peasants’ uprisings of 1820: How did these factors contribute to the articulation of different forms of “communal consciousness” in Mount Lebanon?.................................................................................. 48 D.2. Emir Bachir II (1789-1840) and the Egyptian occupation of Mount Lebanon in 1831 ........................................................................................................................................... 51 D.3. The Tanzimat reforms and the controversies over their interpretation ..................... 54 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 59 Chapter Two:The Druze political leadership’s relation with the Maronite-dominated Political establishment under Greater Lebanon (1920-1975): From accommodation to Confrontation .................................................................................................................... 62 A. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 62 B. The post-1860 phase in Mount Lebanon: The creation of Greater Lebanon (1920) and the Druze political leadership’s “temporary” adaptation to the new political setting 64 3 C. The rise of Kamal Joumblat: Towards a more confrontational relation between the Druzes and the Lebanese state .......................................................................................... 67 D. The 1975 civil war: Was it a coup de grâce to the Lebanese confessional political establishment? ................................................................................................................... 73 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 75 Chapter three:The Mountain War (1983-184): The revival of the Druze-Maronite mid- nineteenth historical enmities in Al Chouf ....................................................................... 77 A. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 77 B. The Mountain War: How did the specific history of the Maronite-Druze sectarian rivalries in the mid-nineteenth century ignite the Mountain War? ................................... 78 C. The Particularism of the Mountain War: Why was this war essential to the Druzes more than any other political encounter with the Lebanese political establishment? ....... 82 D. The Mountain War: To what extent is this war an extension of the 1860 events/massacres? ............................................................................................................. 84 D.1. The Maronites and Harb Al Jabal: What did the memory of the 1860 massacres mean for them in the midst of the Mountain War? ........................................................... 85 D.2. The Druzes and Harb Al Jabal: An investigation of the factors that enabled the Druzes to win the Mountain War ...................................................................................... 89 E. The ramifications of the Mountain War: How did Walid Joumblat translate the military victory into political gains? ............................................................................................. 100 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 102 Concluding chapter ....................................................................................................... 104 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 109 4 Glossary: Mount Lebanon1: a rural area in the center of Lebanon and the cradle of the modern Lebanese state. Al Chouf2: The southern area of Mount Lebanon. Historically, this area was known as: Jabal Al Duruz. The Druzes were the first to settle in this area in the eleventh century. Starting from the twelfth century, the Maronites started to settle in Al Chouf and work as peasants in the lands of the Druze landlords. By the seventeenth century, the Chouf turned into a mixed region. Bilad al Sham3: The area that is currently known as: The Levant, which includes the territories of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordon. Kisrawan4: An area in the northern part of Mount Lebanon, where the Maronites first settled in the tenth century. The Druzes5: A community whose faith is an off shoot of Ismaili Shi’ism. They settled in Mount Lebanon in the Chouf in the eleventh century where they sought refuge. The Druze faith first appeared in Egypt under the Shi’ite Fatimid rule in the eleventh century. With the advent of the Sunni Abbasids to power, the Druze faith or Din al Tawhid was perceived by the Abbasids as a sort of heresy. Thus, the followers of this faith left Egypt and settled in mountainous areas, one of which was Mount Lebanon. Uqqal6: The religious figures in the Druze community. Sheikh Al Aql7: The highest religious rank in the Druze community. The Maronites8: Those are Christians who follow the Maronite