(X.) Though the inhabitants of Lebanon have played a minor part in history, commercial, religious and strategical causes have frequently linked their fortunes with those of more powerful Near Eastern and Mediterranean communities. Almost at the beginning of history Lebanon appears in the character, which it preserves until the days of the Byzantine empire, of the well wooded background of the Phoenician coast-towns which exploit its forests. Whether or not certain Egyptian cults (see EGYPT, Religion) originated in or near Lebanon, the value of its pines and cedars to timberless Egypt sufficiently explains the close connection, commercial and religious, between that country and Phoenicia which is now known to have been established as early as 3,000 B.C. (see ARCHAEOLOGY and JEBEIL). Under the Thoth mosid and earlier Ramessid Pharaohs Lebanon with Phoenicia was an Egyptian protectorate. During the Egyptian decadence under the XXIst Dynasty Hiram of Tyre formed an alliance with Solomon of Israel which was based upon the exchange of Lebanese timber for Palestinian grain and olive-oil (I Kings, ch. v.). The Phoenician rulers seem to have been able to control their valuable mountain hinterland and the comparative rarity of Phoenician remains in Lebanon is probably due to the fact that it was mainly inhabited by woodcutters and shepherds, and though Lebanon was included in Joshua's programme of conquest (Joshua, ch. xiii.) there is no evidence that it ever tempted Hebrew invasion. Under Persians and Seleucids there is no change; archaeological evidence suggests closer settlement in the Roman period, but it is not till the 6th and 7th centuries of the Christian era that Lebanon begins to have any political importance apart from the towns of the coast.
In the 6th century Monothelite sectaries flying from orthodox Byzantine persecution in North Syria colonized the Mountain and apparently Christianized it after their fashion. In the next cen tury they appear first as the allies of Justinian II. against the caliph and then as rebels, hence called "Mardaites" against his authority. The next four centuries were marked by the infiltra tion into southern Lebanon of the heretics of Islam, who finally coalesced into the Druse community, but the early history of the Druses and of their Christian Maronite rivals is most obscure. The latter are certainly the descendants of the Monothelites, with whom they were ranked by Abulfaragius at the end of the 13th century; their reconciliation with Rome was not effectual till the i8th century and the status of their church as a body affiliated to the Church of Rome was not definitely fixed until 1736. Their history has been much darkened by propaganda designed to remove the reproach of past heresy, and to represent them as the potent allies rather than the unimportant auxiliaries of the cru sading French. Latin ecclesiastical and crusading political influ
ence certainly entered the northern Lebanon in the 12th century, but after the collapse of the Frankish adventure the "Moun tain" was left to itself and its subsequent history until the massacres of 1860 will be found under DRUSES and MARONITES. By giving informal protection to the latter community in the early i8th century France sowed the seeds of the feud between Maronite and Druse. The reviving Turkish sultanate encouraged the Druses in the 19th century against an infidel community which looked to the West for countenance; the feudal organization of both communities broke down between 1840 and 186o. The Druses disclaimed their Shehab amirs and the Maronites in 1858 revolted from the Khazin family. Civil war led to European inter vention which brought the constitution of the Lebanon as an autonomous province in 2864. Its natural ports, Beirut, Saida (Sidon) and Tarablus (Tripoli-in-Syria) remained, however, under the direct rule of the Turk.
The Lebanon Sanjak was governed from 1864 until 1914 by a Christian military governor (mushir) assisted by a council (mejlis) of 12 elected representatives of the three religions of the Mountain and their sects. Sub-governors (Qaimaqams) ad ministered the seven districts of the Sanjak. Order was preserved by a local militia and Turkish troops were not quartered in the province. The system worked well for 5o years Lebanon enjoyed peace and a relative prosperity tempered by the exiguity of its budget. The railway from Beirut to Damascus was constructed through mid-Lebanon ; numerous roads were built ; many villages became summer resorts for Syrians and for eigners; many missionary stations and schools were founded. A number of Druses emigrated, but the Christian population increased out of proportion to the resources of the province and from about 1890 an increasing number emigrated to the United States, Egypt and South America, to return in many cases and settle down as comfortable petits bourgeois. The World War put an end to the prosperity of the Sanjak. Remittances from abroad ceased ; the tourists and summer visitors vanished ; Turkish troops occupied the Sanjak and famine, fostered by Turkish official connivance, thinned the Maronites. At the end of the war the province became the kernel of "O.E.T.A.N." (Occupied Enemy Territory Administration North). Its subsequent fortunes under the French Mandate are described under SYRIA.