MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Lebanon
Index
Sunni
Orthodox Sunni Muslims are those who regard the Quran,
supplemented by the traditions of the Prophet, as the sole and
sufficient embodiment of the Muslim faith. They do not recognize
the need for a priesthood to mediate the faith to the community of
believers. Thus, Sunnis have no "church" and no liturgy. The
Sunnis, especially the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, stand for the
original simplicity of Islam and its practices against later
innovations.
Religious leadership of the Sunni community in Lebanon is based
on principles and institutions deriving partly from traditional
Islam and partly from French influence. Under the Mandate, the
French established a Supreme Islamic Council at the national level,
headed by a Grand Mufti and a national Directorate of Waqfs; these
institutions continued to exist in the mid-1980s. The French also
established local departments of waqfs, which staffed and
maintained hospitals, schools, cemeteries, and mosques. In
addition, the waqfs managed the funds that supported these
operations. The funds were obtained partly from direct donations
and partly from income derived from real property given to the
community as an endowment.
Shaykh is an honorary title given to any Muslim
religious man in Lebanon. As a result of the 1975 Civil War and the
intensification in sectarian mobilization and identification, the
religious leaders of the Sunni community assumed a more political
role, especially with the advent of Islamic fundamentalism in
Lebanon. As of 1987, the Sunni mufti, Shaykh Hasan Khalid, was the
most powerful Sunni leader; he headed what was called the Islamic
Grouping, which was composed of all Sunni traditional leaders
(see Sectarian Groups
, ch. 4). The Sunni ulama (learned religious men)
of Lebanon emulated the Shia practice of combining temporal and
religious power in the person of the imam.
In 1987 the majority of Lebanese Sunnis resided in urban
centers. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of them lived in
Beirut, Sidon, and Baalbek. The few rural Sunnis lived in the Akkar
region, the western Biqa Valley, around Baalbek, and in the Shuf
Mountains. Their typical occupations were in the realms of trade,
industry, and real estate. Large Sunni families enjoyed political
and social significance. The most prominent of them were the Sulh,
Bayhum, Dauq, Salam, and Ghandur in Beirut; the Karami, Muqaddam,
and Jisr in Tripoli; and the Bizri in Sidon. It is estimated that
approximately 595,000 or 27 percent of the Lebanese population as
of 1986 were Sunnis.
The Kurds are non-Arab Sunnis of whom there are only a few in
Lebanon, concentrated mainly in Beirut. They originated in the
Taurus and Zagros Mountains of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. The
Kurds of Lebanon tended to settle there permanently because of
Lebanon's pluralistic society. Although they are Sunni Muslims,
Kurds speak their own language.
Data as of December 1987
|
|