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In the Shadow of Sectarianism: Law, Shiʿism, and the Making of Modern Lebanon
Contrary to the conventional wisdom that sectarianism is intrinsically linked to violence, bloodshed, or social disharmony, Max Weiss uncovers the complex roots of Shiʿi sectarianism in twentieth-century Lebanon.
The template for conflicted relations between the Lebanese state and Shiʿi society arose under French Mandate rule through a process of gradual transformation, long before the political mobilization of the Shiʿi community under the charismatic Imam Musa al-Sadr and his Movement of the Deprived, and decades before the radicalization linked to Hizballah. Throughout the period, the Shiʿi community was buffeted by crosscutting political, religious, and ideological transnational affiliations versus local concerns; the competing pull of Arab nationalism and Lebanese nationalism; loyalty to Jabal ʿAmil, the cultural heartland of Shiʿi Lebanon; and the modernization of religious and juridical traditions.
Uncoupling the beginnings of modern Shiʿi collective identity from the rise of political Shiʿism, Weiss transforms our understanding of the nature of sectarianism and shows why in Lebanon it has been both so productive and so destructive at the same time.
The template for conflicted relations between the Lebanese state and Shiʿi society arose under French Mandate rule through a process of gradual transformation, long before the political mobilization of the Shiʿi community under the charismatic Imam Musa al-Sadr and his Movement of the Deprived, and decades before the radicalization linked to Hizballah. Throughout the period, the Shiʿi community was buffeted by crosscutting political, religious, and ideological transnational affiliations versus local concerns; the competing pull of Arab nationalism and Lebanese nationalism; loyalty to Jabal ʿAmil, the cultural heartland of Shiʿi Lebanon; and the modernization of religious and juridical traditions.
Uncoupling the beginnings of modern Shiʿi collective identity from the rise of political Shiʿism, Weiss transforms our understanding of the nature of sectarianism and shows why in Lebanon it has been both so productive and so destructive at the same time.
356 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 9, 2017
Anyone who has spent time reading English or Arabic-language literature on the Shia community in Lebanon is inevitably going to come away frustrated by the pattern that seems to repeat itself over and over: a description of Shia Islam, a throwaway paragraph concerning how the sect came to establish itself in Lebanon and then rapidly fell out of favor with the authorities, followed by a description of centuries of gloomy, impoverished isolation until Musa al-Sadr arrived like an angel from heaven to rescue the community in the 1960s. Then we zoom through the civil war and arrive at a discussion about Hezbollah, with the conservative "Islamization" of the group being attributed to this era. That's not to discount any of those individual aspects, as they can offer useful tidbits, like in Ajami's Vanished Imam. But the blank spots in the Lebanese Shia history book have been around for so long that they seem to have become accepted as fact. This has created a vicious cycle where researchers don't even bother to investigate the blank eras because they have been informed that there is not much of value to be found there.
Fortunately, this is starting to change. Weiss' book is a painstaking analysis of legal documents in French Mandate Lebanon, accompanied by a history detailing the origins of the isolated Shia myth. The latter comes first, and establishes how little international (mostly Western) travelers understood the land they were in--the mere presence of farms and the absence of Western-style schools was deemed a marker of absolute rural poverty and uselessness. The entire southern half of Lebanon was thereafter written off to such an extent that many modern-day Lebanese people have internalized this "history" and see the Shia as a group that has been powerless, uneducated, and removed from the rest of society for centuries.
But that is not what actually happened. Combing through records of the Shia Jaafari courts from the 1920s to 1940s, Weiss uncovers a sect that fought for a place at the table, that defined acceptable behavior and social roles within its community to forge cohesiveness, that sought recognition from Lebanese of other sects through both legal and cultural pressures--and one that debated the exact same issues that the other Lebanese sects were debating, related to identity, secularism, and how to interact with European and Arab powers. Many books about Mandate-era Lebanon suggest or outright state that the Shia were left out of all of this. They were not; their contributions have just largely been ignored by historians.
One of Weiss' central theses is that, far from a strong and "sectarian" Shia identity arising under either al-Sadr or Hezbollah, this process began decades earlier. What historians misunderstand, Weiss shows, is that the ideological diversity of the early 20th century Shia community (compared to the more uniform beliefs and political affiliations during the post-war era) was not an indicator of the absence of a sectarian identity. What Iranians (al-Sadr and otherwise) did was largely eliminate political differences in the community; the community was already increasingly religiously united long before they showed up. The existence of Shia communists and socialists in mid-century Lebanon does not mean that they had not yet developed a sense of "Shia identity", pride in it, or a desire for more political power.
As for minor criticisms, as per usual, the Shia community of the Bekaa Valley takes a backseat to those in al-Janub. The history of the community prior to the 19th century or so is only briefly touched upon, though it isn't strictly necessary to understand the topic. And while using court documents to chart the increasing unity and influence of the Shia community is a unique approach, it can be a bit overwhelming for someone not familiar with all the concepts. The book is best read in conjunction with The Shi'is of Jabal 'Amil and the New Lebanon: Community and Nation-State, 1918-1943, which explores the same topic and time period using different sources.
As other reviews have noted, Weiss's conclusions about how his research connects with the situation of modern-day Shia in Lebanon are a bit shaky, but that's not really the point of the work. The point is to fill in spots that earlier scholars left blank, and he has done that admirably.
Fortunately, this is starting to change. Weiss' book is a painstaking analysis of legal documents in French Mandate Lebanon, accompanied by a history detailing the origins of the isolated Shia myth. The latter comes first, and establishes how little international (mostly Western) travelers understood the land they were in--the mere presence of farms and the absence of Western-style schools was deemed a marker of absolute rural poverty and uselessness. The entire southern half of Lebanon was thereafter written off to such an extent that many modern-day Lebanese people have internalized this "history" and see the Shia as a group that has been powerless, uneducated, and removed from the rest of society for centuries.
But that is not what actually happened. Combing through records of the Shia Jaafari courts from the 1920s to 1940s, Weiss uncovers a sect that fought for a place at the table, that defined acceptable behavior and social roles within its community to forge cohesiveness, that sought recognition from Lebanese of other sects through both legal and cultural pressures--and one that debated the exact same issues that the other Lebanese sects were debating, related to identity, secularism, and how to interact with European and Arab powers. Many books about Mandate-era Lebanon suggest or outright state that the Shia were left out of all of this. They were not; their contributions have just largely been ignored by historians.
One of Weiss' central theses is that, far from a strong and "sectarian" Shia identity arising under either al-Sadr or Hezbollah, this process began decades earlier. What historians misunderstand, Weiss shows, is that the ideological diversity of the early 20th century Shia community (compared to the more uniform beliefs and political affiliations during the post-war era) was not an indicator of the absence of a sectarian identity. What Iranians (al-Sadr and otherwise) did was largely eliminate political differences in the community; the community was already increasingly religiously united long before they showed up. The existence of Shia communists and socialists in mid-century Lebanon does not mean that they had not yet developed a sense of "Shia identity", pride in it, or a desire for more political power.
As for minor criticisms, as per usual, the Shia community of the Bekaa Valley takes a backseat to those in al-Janub. The history of the community prior to the 19th century or so is only briefly touched upon, though it isn't strictly necessary to understand the topic. And while using court documents to chart the increasing unity and influence of the Shia community is a unique approach, it can be a bit overwhelming for someone not familiar with all the concepts. The book is best read in conjunction with The Shi'is of Jabal 'Amil and the New Lebanon: Community and Nation-State, 1918-1943, which explores the same topic and time period using different sources.
As other reviews have noted, Weiss's conclusions about how his research connects with the situation of modern-day Shia in Lebanon are a bit shaky, but that's not really the point of the work. The point is to fill in spots that earlier scholars left blank, and he has done that admirably.
December 29, 2015
In In the Shadow of Sectarianism, Max Weiss attempts to nuance the concept of sectarianism and, using the example of the Shi’a Muslims in Lebanon, sets out to demonstrate that it is a constructed concept rather than a natural phenomenon. Specifically, he argues that the French mandate was responsible to a large degree for transforming the Shi’a into a sectarian group and institutionalizing it within the nation. Additionally, the author ties this phenomenon to broader projects of building modernity and suggests that the making of modern Lebanon involved the making of sectarianism.
Following the development of his theoretical framework in his introduction, Weiss begins with a chapter that discusses the pre-mandate history of Jabal ‘Amil, which was the center of Shi’a life prior to the 16th century, and how it was gradually nationalized into Lebanon, albeit in an incomplete fashion, through a local, bottom-up process. The resident Metoualis were considered, in many ways, outsiders from Greater Syrian society and thus the region was marginalized economically, which in turn led to other kinds of marginalization. When the French arrived in the region, they undertook a “divide and conquer” strategy as they engaged the society and encouraged debates on how to modernize religious practices. The author’s example in his second body chapter is the controversial Ashura commemoration rituals, which many Muslims (particularly Sunnis) condemned as un-Islamic, but others (particularly certain Shi’a) defended as traditional. Thus, over the course of these debates, the Shi’a of Lebanon began carving out a separate, sectarian identity from other Muslims in the nation and, because they were encouraged by the French, became allies to the colonizers in opposition to the Sunni nationalists. Modernity in this case, therefore, meant not advancing beyond tradition, but reflecting upon one’s relationship with the traditional.
Sectarianism began to take on a more formal and institutional coherence during the period studied in Weiss’ third chapter, where he discusses how Lebanese law helped structure it. In particular, the Shi’a Jafari courts emphasized the distinctiveness of the community and allowed the Shi’a to strengthen their sect, as well as define the boundaries and limitations of their authority. They also highlighted the complex nature of sectarian construction, as they were imposed with intent from above, yet also demanded from below, meaning that the new autonomy was defended vigorously. This and similar institutions helped bring isolated groups of Shi’a closer to the status of a community, giving them an identity that was separate from that of the Lebanese state rather than part of it and therefore creating and reinforcing sectarianism. Using the example of the awqaf, the author demonstrates further that “the bureaucratization and centralization of Shi’ism […] created new institutional venues for demands to protect sectarian difference”. State interventions into individual and family affairs brought this new negotiation with modernity to the home. Sectarianism became part of the “everyday” as legal institutions raised new issues surrounding the practical application and jurisdiction of Shi’a religious law.
In his penultimate chapter, Weiss discusses growing discourses of inclusion versus exclusion and uses the 1936 Bint Jubayal revolt as a way to highlight how the Shi’a community had integrated notions of sectarianism into their conception of the nation and accepted the parameters of their existence. As such, they became involved in ideological debates about the nature of Lebanon, which pitted sectarianism against Lebanism and pan-Arabism, involving the Shi’a in the continuing process of reform and mobilization. The author concludes by arguing that “[c]ollaboration and contract […] and not unstinting ‘resistance’ have distinguished a broad spectrum of Lebanese Shi’i encounters with the state and state power” and that sectarianism has caused many problems in Lebanon but it was not inevitable. Overall, Weiss’ work is an excellent theoretical exploration of his topic, but one that feels unfinished. His narrative builds over the course of the work in an intelligible and rigorous way, but seems to stop before it reaches its climax. Nonetheless, historians of Greater Syria and sectarianism alike will find In the Shadow of Sectarianism immensely valuable, as it nuances and complicates the most basic understandings of what sectarianism is and means and presenting new ways of conceptualizing interactions between the traditional and modernity.
Following the development of his theoretical framework in his introduction, Weiss begins with a chapter that discusses the pre-mandate history of Jabal ‘Amil, which was the center of Shi’a life prior to the 16th century, and how it was gradually nationalized into Lebanon, albeit in an incomplete fashion, through a local, bottom-up process. The resident Metoualis were considered, in many ways, outsiders from Greater Syrian society and thus the region was marginalized economically, which in turn led to other kinds of marginalization. When the French arrived in the region, they undertook a “divide and conquer” strategy as they engaged the society and encouraged debates on how to modernize religious practices. The author’s example in his second body chapter is the controversial Ashura commemoration rituals, which many Muslims (particularly Sunnis) condemned as un-Islamic, but others (particularly certain Shi’a) defended as traditional. Thus, over the course of these debates, the Shi’a of Lebanon began carving out a separate, sectarian identity from other Muslims in the nation and, because they were encouraged by the French, became allies to the colonizers in opposition to the Sunni nationalists. Modernity in this case, therefore, meant not advancing beyond tradition, but reflecting upon one’s relationship with the traditional.
Sectarianism began to take on a more formal and institutional coherence during the period studied in Weiss’ third chapter, where he discusses how Lebanese law helped structure it. In particular, the Shi’a Jafari courts emphasized the distinctiveness of the community and allowed the Shi’a to strengthen their sect, as well as define the boundaries and limitations of their authority. They also highlighted the complex nature of sectarian construction, as they were imposed with intent from above, yet also demanded from below, meaning that the new autonomy was defended vigorously. This and similar institutions helped bring isolated groups of Shi’a closer to the status of a community, giving them an identity that was separate from that of the Lebanese state rather than part of it and therefore creating and reinforcing sectarianism. Using the example of the awqaf, the author demonstrates further that “the bureaucratization and centralization of Shi’ism […] created new institutional venues for demands to protect sectarian difference”. State interventions into individual and family affairs brought this new negotiation with modernity to the home. Sectarianism became part of the “everyday” as legal institutions raised new issues surrounding the practical application and jurisdiction of Shi’a religious law.
In his penultimate chapter, Weiss discusses growing discourses of inclusion versus exclusion and uses the 1936 Bint Jubayal revolt as a way to highlight how the Shi’a community had integrated notions of sectarianism into their conception of the nation and accepted the parameters of their existence. As such, they became involved in ideological debates about the nature of Lebanon, which pitted sectarianism against Lebanism and pan-Arabism, involving the Shi’a in the continuing process of reform and mobilization. The author concludes by arguing that “[c]ollaboration and contract […] and not unstinting ‘resistance’ have distinguished a broad spectrum of Lebanese Shi’i encounters with the state and state power” and that sectarianism has caused many problems in Lebanon but it was not inevitable. Overall, Weiss’ work is an excellent theoretical exploration of his topic, but one that feels unfinished. His narrative builds over the course of the work in an intelligible and rigorous way, but seems to stop before it reaches its climax. Nonetheless, historians of Greater Syria and sectarianism alike will find In the Shadow of Sectarianism immensely valuable, as it nuances and complicates the most basic understandings of what sectarianism is and means and presenting new ways of conceptualizing interactions between the traditional and modernity.
June 10, 2014
An interesting, dense read that can be hard for people without any prior knowledge of Lebanese history, particularly the history of Shia people in Lebanon. Weiss writes a very informative piece that makes interesting points. Although it was a good read, I am not sure I agree with all the conclusions Weiss comes to and some of the points do not take into account other social factors that have created modern day Lebanon.
January 27, 2012
Extremely informative and fair-minded treatment of sectarianism in Lebanon. Especially useful, I thought, was Weiss's critique of how "resistance rhetoric" too often leads to the equation (in the minds of both Westerners and Arabs) of Shi'ism with a partiular social movement, ideology, or political party. Another accessible, but also challenging, book about Lebanon for outsiders like me.
March 15, 2013
Not an easy read for the uninitiated, but this is an important contribution to the literature on Lebanese history. Weiss focuses specifically on the Shi'a community of southern Lebanon, and discusses how they came to coalesce as a sect and as citizens of a nation-state during the French Mandate period (1920 - 1948).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews