The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1788

Abstract

The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule provides an original perspective on the history of the Shiites as a constituent of Lebanese society. Winter presents a history of the community before the 19th century, based primarily on 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.

Getting to “no”: Locating critical peace education within resistance and anti-oppression pedagogy at a Shi’a Islamic school in Lebanon

“…Armed conflict, occupation, and localized forms of political violence have differentially impacted populations across different geographies in Lebanon. The Shi'a, in particular, have been persecuted and marginalized historically-politically, socially, and economically-for much of Lebanon's history (Deeb, 2006;Winter, 2010). Under late Ottoman rule, colonial and missionary educational projects largely ignored them, contributing to inequities in their material and educational development relative to other religious groups in the modern period.…”

The Safavid Threat and Juristic Authority in the Ottoman Empire During the 16th Century

“…82 When this issue was addressed, Ebussuud's views were usually referred to as juristic precedent. 83…”

Syria's Monuments: their Survival and Destruction

“…49 Hitti 1959, 89: "The cultural remains of Roman Syria, from Baalbek to Petra, are indeed largely architectural; the other visual arts marked time, while hardly any Syrian contribution to Latin literature is worth mention." 50 Abu-Husayn 2004;Winter 2010. In a broad perspective, the 19th century sees a gradual modernisation of life in Syria (keeping pace with that in the rest of the Ottoman Empire), much of it dependent on European influence and prompting, and accompanied by an increasing prosperity which would prove itself fatal to the survival of many monuments, just as happened elsewhere in the Near/Middle East.51 There is irony in the fact that those very elements which generated a developing tourist industry were the same ones that obliterated so many of the monuments the tourists would surely have liked to admire. Its governance dictated whether travellers could travel safely, and even export their finds until the State took a grip in the later 19th century, and banned a practice that was more to the advantage of European museums than of the local polity.…”