Part II: Lebanon

On September 15, 2011, I begin the second segment of my 2011 Middle East journey: Beirut, Lebanon. There, I will be studying abroad at the American University of Beirut, taking regular graduate courses in Middle East history and politics. I’m hoping to continue taking Arabic courses, particularly in the Levantine Colloquial dialect spoken on the street, and will hopefully find somewhere to intern or to teach.

I’ve visited Lebanon once before during my Spring Break in 2009, and you can read about that journey on my old Egypt travel blog here: http://darrenincairo.blogspot.com/ (Sorry to plug my past self there).

However, the last time I visited Lebanon I knew very little about the country, its history, or its political life, and I did not develop a strong interest in studying Lebanon until after I had experienced a few days there. Now, Lebanon tends to be the country I select the most when having to write about the Middle East, as I’ve written around a half-dozen papers on the country and will hopefully write my Master’s capstone on some aspect of Lebanese political life. I do realize though that most people don’t share this interest, so I’ll try to just throw out some of the more interesting facts about Lebanon that sparked my initial interest:

-Lebanon is a very small country, roughly the size of Connecticut. Beirut is located roughly halfway between the northern and southern borders of the country, and is right on the Mediterranean coast. In 2009 I noticed that all of the cities were visited were only an hour or two from Beirut, even those close to the borders.

-Despite its small size, Lebanon’s climate varies greatly. Its coast is mild relative to the rest of the Middle East, with cool winters, hot summers, and plentiful rainfall, yet its eastern border tends to resemble a desert. A massive mountain range runs down the middle of the country, which caused Lebanon to occasionally be called “the Switzerland of the Middle East.” Especially because it has towns that look like this:

Bcharre, Lebanon

-Religion is a very big deal in Lebanon, since it’s the most religiously diverse country in the Middle East and has the highest percentage of Christians in the region. Lebanon used to have a Christian majority in the early 20^th Century, but this has gradually become a sizeable 40% minority in recent decades. It’s Muslim majority is about evenly split between Sunni and Shia, and an offshoot of Islam with its own distinct beliefs called the Druze faith makes up about 7% of the population.

-Religion is important in Lebanon because its government system, Confessionalism, uses quotas based on the population of each religion to determine political representation. For a long time, Christians were required to hold the majority in parliament due to a very old census where they were the majority, but now Lebanon’s parliament must be half Christian and half Muslim, despite the population incongruities. Additionally, Lebanon has established a lasting tradition where only a Christian can be president, only a Sunni Muslim can be prime minister, and only a Shia Muslim can be speaker of parliament.

-This religious diversity and its institutionalization into politics has been responsible for many problems in Lebanon, namely its 15-year Civil War that lasted from 1975-1990. This Civil War devastated the country, causing the state to more or less collapse, and its legacy has not entirely eroded even though the country has since rebuilt.

Beirut during the Civil War

-Large swathes of Lebanon, particularly the south, eastern Beqaa Valley, and South Beirut are controlled by the Shia militant group and political party Hizballah. Hizballah, largely sponsored by Iran and Syria, is most notoriously known for its month-long war with Israel in 2006 and for sparking civil unrest in 2008.

-On a lighter note, Lebanese food is easily my favorite food in the region and one of my favorite types of food in general. In contains Middle Eastern staples such as hummus, falafel, and shawarma, and also country specialties such as tabbouleh (chopped parsely with tomato, bulgur, and lemon juice), kibbeh (ground lamb, bulgur, and pine nuts fried or eaten raw), and a variety of spiced lamb and chicken kebabs.