The Maronites of Lebanon under Frankish and Mamluk Rule (1099-1516)

Author(s): Kamal S. Salibi

Source: Arabica , Sep., 1957, T. 4, Fasc. 3 (Sep., 1957), pp. 288-303
Published by: Brill

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 THE MARONITES OF LEBANON UNDER
FRANKISH AND MAMLUK RULE (1099-1516)

BY

KAMAL S. SALIBI

NORTHERN Lebanon, with its predominantly Maronite popu-

lation, was an outpost of militant Western Christendom
Syria during the period that elapsed between the Crusader and
the Ottoman conquests. Its history, a confused medley of localized
events and seemingly insignificant internal struggles, can only be
understood when viewed in relation to Crusader and Western
Christian policy and interests in Syria. Were it not for the Crusades
the Maronites might very well have remained the fossil peasant
community which the Franks found in Mount Lebanon in the
last year of the eleventh century. It was, in fact, the Frankish
conquest of Syria that gave this fossil community of fugitive
heterodox Christians, which had already been reduced to the
mountain fastnesses of Lebanon by the Islamic conquest, a new
lease of life and a new raison d'etre. While the Franks were in Syria
the Maronites were their men; and after their departure, during
the two centuries of Mamiluk rule, the Maronites remained faithful
to the memory of their Western Christian patrons and lived in the
almost messianic hope of their return.
The history of the Maronite community before the advent of
the Crusaders is a matter of conjecture. Maronite historians, starting
with al-Duwayhl (i629-I704) 1, have identified their people as

i. Istifan al-Duwayhi, of Ihdin, Maronite patriarch (I670-1704), was a

graduate of the Maronite College in Rome, where he studied for fourteen
years (I64I-I655). He has been called "the father of Maronite history"
(Georg GRAF, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, Vatican City,
I944-1953, III, p. 306), and has left several important works on the history
of the Maronites and of Mount Lebanon, the most important of which are
Ta'4rh al-azmina, (Beirut, 1950; hence T.A.) and Ta'rzh al-ta'i/a al-mar"i-
niyya (Beirut, I890; hence T.T.M.). It is in the latter work (T.T.M., pp.

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 [2] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 289

the descendants of the Mardaites: the march warriors settled by

the Byzantines in the Amanus mountain, in northwest Syria.
These Mardaites, according to the Byzantine and Arab historians,
were a cause of great anxiety to the early Umayyads in Syria, and
were finally removed from the Byzantine-Arab border by Justinian
II in 685 A.D., following the peace treaty between the Byzantine
Emperor and the Umayyad Caliph, 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan.
Although the Mardaites of whom the Byzantine and Arab
historians speak are clearly not the seventh century inhabitants
of Mount Lebanon, as the Maronite historians assert, there is no
reason to suppose that there were no Mardaite or similar march
warrior colonies in the region, serving the same purpose as those of
the Amanus. A fairly old tradition, a record of which dates back
to the early years of Mamluik rule, has it that certain chieftains
from the region of Mount Lebanon assisted Heracius in his wars
against the Persians and in quelling revolts in Armenia 1. Considering
the undoubted strategic importance of Mount Lebanon, the Byzan-
tines must have settled some '"'Mardaites" in the region just as
they planted others on the mountainous northern borders of Syria;
for Mount Lebanon, a natural fortress, commanded the important
military routes of the Phoenician littoral and of Coelesyria. These
"Mardaites" of Lebanon, whose existence may be presumed, must
have formed a special stratum of military colonists superimposed
on the local mountain peasant population, whom they probably
trained as guerillas 2. The class of muqaddams, or chieftains, who
continued to control the local political life of Maronite Lebanon
down to the sixteenth century, may well have been the descendants
of those old military colonists.
The conquest of Syria by the Arabs ended the raison d'etre of
those presumed "Mardaites", whose original duties must have been
the guarding of the coastal and Coelesyrian routes. Hemmed in
on all sides by the Arabs, and their relations with the Byzantine

68-74) that he propounded the thesis of the Mardaite origin of the Maronites.
Later Maronite historians followed suit, so much so that the Maronites of
today accept the Mardaite thesis as fact.
i. DUWAYHI, T.T.M., pp. 68-69, quoting a historical anthology in Syriac
dated I315 A.D.
2. Crusader historians (see below) praised the Maronites as excellent
fighters and expert bowmen, who were welcome auxiliaries to the Frankish
armies. The Maronites seem to have kept up an effective traditional training
in guerilla warfare.
ARABICA IV I9

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 290 KAMAL S. SALIBI [3]

government severed for good, they had to resort for their livelihood
to raiding and brigandage. The regions over which they must have
kept watch under the Byzantines became their favourite spots of
attack: the fertile valley of the Biqa' (northern Coelesyria) and
the military and caravan routes that passed across and around
Mount Lebanon. In order to keep them in check the Arabs were
forced to plant counter-colonists in the more accessible regions of
Mount Lebanon; and Arab clans were transplanted for the purpose
from Syria to the hilly districts of the Garb, to the east and
south-east of Beirut, and to the narrow coastal plain of Beirut.
According to Lebanese tradition one such clan, that of the so-called
Baniu Arslan, was requested in 758 A.D. by al-Mansiir, the 'Abbasid
caliph, to settle in the uninhabited hills of the (arb with the duties
of keeping the "Mardaites" at bay 1; and it appears that the efforts
of this clan in this respect were successful. As a result of the efforts
of the so-called Banui Arslan, and perhaps of other similar Arab
clans, the presumed "Mardaites" seem to have been reduced to
their mountains; and even the wildest traditions ascribable to
Maronite imagination have nothing to say about them from the
ninth century until the advent of the Crusaders 2. Throughout
this period the Maronites had no history.
With the advent of the Crusaders, however, Maronite history
had a new beginning. No sooner had the Franks arrived at 'Arqa,
to the north of Tripoli, in the spring of IO99, that the Maronites
descended from their mountain to greet them and offer their
services. William of Tyre, referring to this event, relates the
following:

High up on the lofty range of Lebanon, whose towering summits rise far
above those cities on the east which I have just mentioned, lived certain
Syrian Christians. 3 These people had come down to offer their congratu-

I. TannUIS AL-SIDYAQ, Ahbdr al-acyazn ft 6abal Lubndn (Beirut, I859

pp. 646-647.
2. For this period Maronite tradition offers only lists of names of patriarchs
and chieftains, without any worthwhile additional information. See Yuisuf
Maruin AL-DUWAYHI, selections published in T.T.M., p. 279-280, and SIDYAQ,
op. cit., pp. 35-36, for the names of the Lebanese chieftains during this
period. Istifan AL-DUWAYHI, Silsilat batarikat al-ta'i/a al-marilniyya (al-
Mas'iq, I, pp. 247-252, 308-3I3, 347-353 and 390-396; hence S.B.), and
Tuibiyyd AL-CANAYSI, Silsila ta'4jhiyya li batarikat Antakiya al-mawayina
(Rome, I927) give the lists of patriarchs for this period.
3. William of Tyre, who knew the Maronites by name, depended on earlier
Crusader historians in relating this event (Cf. RAIMUNDI DE AGUILERS,

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 [4] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 291

lations to the pilgrims and to pay them their tribute of brotherly affection.
Since they were well-acquainted with the country all about, the leaders
called these people and consulted with them, as experienced men, about
the safest and easiest way to Jerusalem. In all good faith the Syrians care-
fully considered the advantages and all the lengths of the various routes
leading thither and finally recommended the shore road as the most direct. 1

The Maronites continued to render faithful service to the Franks

throughout the period of Crusader rule in Syria. William of Tyre
commends them as "a stalwart race, valiant fighters, and of great
service to the Christians in the difficult engagements which they
so frequently had with the enemy" 2, Jacques de Vitry adding
that they were numerous, used bows and arrows, and were swift
and skilful in battle 3. Ibn al-Atir, the Arab historian, records the
help rendered to Raymond de Saint Gilles by the Christians of
the neighbourhood of Tripoli and those of the mountains (the
Maronites) during the latter's unsuccessful siege of Tripoli in
II02 4. Maronite historians list with pride the various true and
apocryphal engagements in which they offered invaluable service
to the Crusaders.

Northern Lebanon, the home of the Maronites, fell between

II02 and i289 within the confines of the County of Tripoli. The
Maronites, in fact, formed the main native element of the popula-
tion of the County 5 and, along with the other Uniate Syrian
Christian groups, received favoured treatment from the Franks 6.
While the Maronite peasants, like the native peasants in the other
Frankish domains, supplied the established feudal system with
its serfs, the clan and village chieftains formed a class similar
to the Frankish nobility, although they occupied a subordinate
position. Like the native chieftains recognized by the Franks in

Histoyia Francorum qui caperunt Iherusalem, R.H.C., Occ. III, Paris, i866,
p. 288). The earlier Crusader historians do not seem to have known the
Maronites by name, and referred to them as the Syrian Christians of Lebanon.
I. WILLIAM OF TYRE, A history of deeds done beyond the sea, translated
by E. A. BABCOCK (New York, I943), I, P. 330.
2. Ibid., II, p. 459.
3. JACQUES DE VITRY, History of Jerusalem, translated by Aubrey
STEWART (P.P.T.S. XI, London, I897), P. 79.
4. IBN AL-ATIR, al-K2mil ff l-tawyrzh (Cairo, I303 A.H.), X, p. I20.
5. Jean RICHARD, Le comte de Tripoli sous la dynastie toulousaine, II02-
iI87 (Paris, I945), P. 86.
6. E. REY, Les colonies franques de Syrie aux XIIP et XIIIP siecles
(Paris, I883), P. 76.

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 292 KAMAL S. SALIBI [5]

their other domains, they were called ra'is (Latin regulus). The
ra ss seems to have held a fief of considerable extent 1
Ibn al-Qila'i, the Maronite poet-historian (d. I5I6) 2, relates
the legendary exploits of three Maronite mountain chieftains who
appear to have served under the Franks: Muqaddam Sim'an,
Amir Kisra, and Muqaddam Kamil 3. The first two were chieftains
of Outer Kisrawan 4, south of Nahr al-Kalb, the latter being
supposedly the maternal uncle and successor of the former. Their
seat was the village of Biskinta, high on the flank of Mount $annin.
Muqaddam Kamil was the muqaddam of Lihfid, a mountain village
to the north-east of (xubayl.
Of those three chieftains the last, Muqaddam KMmil, was a
"knight of the King of Ciubayl" (meaning the lord of Gubayl) '.
He used to cross the mountain with his men and fight for his lord
in the land of Ba'albakk, on the south-eastern border of the County
of Tripoli. When Amir Kisra of Biskinta sought to bring Kamil
into his service, the latter refused on the grounds that he was
bound to the service of his liege lord; and later, when Kisra sought
to arrange for a marriage between his son and the daughter of
Kamil, the latter had to procure the consent of the lord of (ubayl
before the marriage could take place.
Sim<an and Kisra, on the other hand, do not appear to have been
bound directly to the service of any Frankish lord. The territory
over which they exercised chieftainship fell on the periphery,

i. Jean RICHARD, op. cit., p. 86-88.

2. Gibra?ll b. Butrus al-Lilfidi (Gabriel son of Peter of Lihfid), known
as Ibn al-Qilacl, became a Franciscan monk and studied in Rome (1470-
I493), later returning to Lebanon as a missionary to his own people. He
died in Nicosia, in i1i6, as Maronite bishop of Cyprus. His main historical
work is a long poem entitled Madiha cald (abal Lubnan, written in the
Lebanese vernacular (published by Bfilus Qaracli, with notes and appendices,
as Ilurfib al-muqaddamn, 1075-1450, Bayt Sabab, I937; hence Madi1a
for Ibn al-QilWc's poem and Huriub for other material found in the Qaracli
edition).
3. IBN AL-QILAcI Madiha, pp. I5-i6, i8-i9.
4. Kisrawan al-hariga (Outer .Kisrawdn), between Nahr al-Kalb and
Nahr Beirut. Ibn al-Qila.i states that the district, originally, was called
simply al-Hariga, and that it was later renamed Kisrawan in honour of
Kisra, its chieftain.
5. 6ubayl (Frankish "Giblet") was one of the major fiefs of the Count
of Tripoli, held by the Genoese family of Embriac. The lords of Cubay
at the time of these events must have been Hughe I (I127-C.Ii35) and
Guillaume II ("I39-II59). Ibn al-Qilacl refers to the lord of dubayl by the
title malik, the modern English equivalent of which is "king".

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 [6] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 293

but not within the Frankish domains. Nevertheless, they seem to

have fought ardently on the side of the Crusaders and to have
recognized in some measure the suzerainty of the lord of 6
Muqaddam Sim'an, after fighting the Moslems for "thirty years"
and dealing them a final defeat at Nahr al-Kalb, went with the
Maronite patriarch, Gregorius of Halat (II30-II4I), to visit the
lord of 6ubayl. The latter, summoning all the Maronite b
for the occasion, had Simcan appointed malik of Kisrawan. 1
This signifies that Simcan received official confirmation of his
chieftainship over the mountainous region of Kisrawan from the
lord of 6ubayl.
Kisra, who succeeded Sim'an in the chieftainship of Kisrawan,
is said to have gone to Constantinople to pay homage to the By-
zantine Emperor. Since the Count of Tripoli was, at least nominally,
vassal to the Byzantine Emperor, 2 it is not unlikely that this
seemingly important mountain chieftain should have gone to
Constantinople in the train of one of the counts of Tripoli or their
representatives and to have received confirmation in his position
by the Emperor. Ibn al-Qilaci states that the Emperor, placing a
sword over Kisra's head, dubbed him malik of Mount Lebanon. 3
He also added, rather vaguely, that the sword of Kisra was "a
cross on the battlefield" (possibly meaning that it had the Crusader
cruciform hilt) and that his armour bore the sign of the cross,
signifying that he fought among the ranks of the Crusaders. 4
Sim'an, Kisra, and Kamil are legendary figures. Of the three
only the first, Sim'an, may be identifiable with a figure of the same
name of whom mention is made in one of the chronicles of th -
period. I Nevertheless, there is no doubt that their prototypes

i. Malik (see previous footnote), in medieval Arabic, was a vague term

that did not necessarily have the modern connotation of a sovereign monarch.
Here it obviously means simply "supreme chieftain".
2. Jean RICHARD, op. cit., p. 26-30.
3. It is extremely unlikely that Kisra was recognized as supreme chieftain
of the whole of Mount Lebanon. The term Mount Lebanon (Oabal Lubnan)
seems to have been used here by Ibn al-Qilacl for purposes of exaggeration
and for the maintenance of the rhyming scheme of his poem (the rhyme
"an"), and, as such, should not be interpreted literally. Ibn al-Qil'lJ, in
general, is very liberal in the distribution of august titles among his characters.
4. Builus QARA'LI, Hu-rib, p. i8, fn. 5 and 6.
5. Gregory the Priest, Continuator of Matthew of Edessa, spoke of Simon
(Arabic: Simc'n), "a warrior belonging to the nation of brigands", who
may be identified with the Muqaddam Simc'n of Ibn al-Qildcl, since they
belong to the same period. See GRPGOIRE LE PRATRE, Chronique (R.H.C.,

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 294 KAMAL S. SALIBI [71

existed: Maronite chieftains fighting on the side of the Frankish

lords, either as their knights or as their allies or vassals.
In fact, the effective military assistance rendered by the Maro-
nites to the Franks of Tripoli must have been one of the factors
that helped the County face repeated Moslem attacks successfully
and outlast the other Crusader states; for, aside from a few fortified
coastal towns of the Kingdom of Acre, Tripoli was the last of the
Frankish states of Syria to fall to the Mamluiks.
A close examination of the Arabic sources in the light of the
Maronite traditional historiography shows that the Mamlulks
were not unaware of the strategic importance of the mountainous
hinterland of Tripoli and of the efficacy of the Maronite guerillas
in the protection of the city from assault. Between I266 and I268
Baybars, the great Mamliuk warrior sultan (I260-I277), conducted
two raids on the hinterland of Tripoli, the first in the summer of
I266 and the second in the spring of I268 1. During the second raid
his soldiers attacked the village of al-Hadath (in Gibbat Bsarri,
south-east of Tripoli) and looted the whole region, "taking many
caves by the sword". The countryside was devastated and the
captives, brought before the sultan, were decapitated 2, Qalawiun
(I279-I290), the Mamlilk sultan to whom Tripoli finally fell in
i289, sent a preliminary expedition to Oibbat BBarrl in I283,
before his final and successful attempt on Tripoli. The expedition,
formed of a band of Turkoman freebooters, laid siege to lhdin,
an important town of the region, and captured it in June. The
Turkomans followed their first success with the capture of the
village of Baqiifa in July and burnt the village along with its
notables. The villages of Hasruin and Kafarsariun were the next
to be sacked, and their inhabitants were massacred. Finally, on
August 22, the Turkomans moved to al-Hadath, destroyed the
village, and put its people to the sword. A non-uniate Maronite
patriarch, who had taken residence in that village and who appa-

Arm., I, Paris, I896), P. 155, and ibid., note 2 by Ed. DULAURIER, the trans-
lator of the chronicle.
I. DUWAYHI, T.A., pp. I35-I36. IBN cABD AL-ZAHIR, Slrat Baybars (MS.
Fatih, microfilm kindly lent by Professor Bernard Lewis), pp. I56-I58 and
207-213 (MS. pages unnumbered; pagination mine). MAQRIZI, KitCab al-Suliik
1i macrifat duwal al-mul4ik (Cairo, I939), 1J P. 566. See also Ren6 GROUSSET,
Histoire des Croisades et du royaume franc de jfdrusalem (Paris, I936), III,
p. 640).
2. IBN CABD AL-ZAHIR, op. cit., PP. 207-213.

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 [8] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 295

rently led the resistance, was captured and taken pnrsoner by the
assailants 1. Judging by this expedition, it seems that Qalawuln
had realized that in order to facilitate the capture of Tripoli a
mortal blow must first be attempted against its indomitable
hinterland.
It must be noted here that although relations between the
Maronites and the Franks were, in general, very friendly, and al-
though the Maronites rendered much assistance to the Crusader
cause, there were exceptions to this general good will. Ibn al-
Qilai< mentions that for a time the people of (ibbat al-Munayt
and of the village of Lihfid rebelled against the lord of (Gubayl
and set up a muqaddam and a bishop of their own. There was so
much trouble in the mountains in those days, he adds, that the
patriarch, Daniel of Sdmat (1230-I239) had to leave his seat in
Mayfulq (near Lihfid) and take residence in the monastery of St.
Cyprian in Kfayfan, east of Batriun 2. William of Tyre reports
that Count Pons of Tripoli was defeated in battle near the fortress
of Mont-Pelerin, then captured and put to death by the Moslems
in II37 "through the treachery of the Syrians who lived on the
heights of Lebanon". Young Raymond II, the son and successor
of Pons, "collected the remnant of the cavalry and with a strong
body of foot soldiers in addition went up to Mt. Lebanon with
great valor. There he seized and carried away in chains to Tripoli
as many of those men of blood, with their wives and children, as he
could find. For he considered them guilty of his father's death
and responsible for the general massacres of the Christians ....
Accordingly ... he visited upon them divers tortures in the pre-
sence of the people, and, in just proportion to the enormity of the
crime which they had committed, he caused them to suffer death
in its most cruel forms". 3 It seems, therefore, that not all the
Maronites were at all times friendly towards the Crusaders. Lack
of unity among the Maronites of the various districts appears to
have been coupled, to a great extent, with a lack of uniformity in
their attitude towards the Franks.

I. DUWAYHI, T.A., pp. 145-146, quoting contemporary and other sources.

IBN AL-QILAcI, Madiha, p. 44. Tasri/ al-cusfir bi sirat al-sultamn al-Malik
al-Maiissr (MS Bibliotheque Nationale I704), PP. 94-95. Those two pages
have been reproduced in photostat in al-Manlra, V, I934, P. 204. The
patriarch captured was the anti-patriarch Luke of Bnahran.
2. IBN AL-QILA&C, Madiha, pp. 42-43.
3. WILLIAM OF TYRE, op. cit., pp. 82-83.

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 296 KAMAL S. SALIBI [9]

There is evidence from the narrative of Ibn al-Qila'i that, at

the time of the siege of Tripoli by Qalawuin, the Maronites of
(ibbat Bsarri did not give the Franks whole-hearted support.
Ibn al-Qilaci mentions that on the eve of the fall of Tripoli to the
Mamluiks the muqaddam of Bsarri, Salim, had become heretical
(i.e. broken with the Franks) and that the Moslems, hearing of
the dissension resulting in Bsarrn from his lapse from orthodoxy,
took advantage of the situation and advanced to the siege of
Tripoli 1. "Verily", concludes Ibn al-Qila'i, "to spite the wicked,
God will give Tripoli to the Moslems" 2. Ibn al-Qild(i's story shows
that the Maronites, who had failed to support the Franks in their
hour of need, blamed themselves for the fall of Tripoli.

The fall of Tripoli to the Mamluiks in I289, followed by the fall

of the other coastal towns, was a great and much lamented calamity
to the Maronites; and the political history of the Maronites after
the Mamliuks had completed the conquest of the Phoenician coast
in I29I differed greatly from their history in the Crusader period.
From being among the most privileged of the native communities
of Frankish Syria, they became once again a community of mountain
fugitives, such as they had been before the advent of the Crusaders.
The Mamliiks, furthermore, fearing that the Maronites would
assist the Franks in effecting a second landing on the Phoenician
coast, kept a vigilant eye on northern Lebanon, seeking in every
way to break down the defences of the Maronites and to weaken
their position. That there were grounds for such a fear on the part
of the Mamliuks is attested for by the Armenian chronicler Hayto
(d. c. I308-I3I5), the nephew of Hethoum I, King of Armenia
(d. I268), who supplemented his chronicle with a plan for the re-
conquest of the Holy Land by the Crusaders, describing the way
in which the Franks should advance to Jerusalem. According to
this plan, the Franks, after taking Damascus, could advance to
Tripoli in three days and reconquer the city; "and the Christians
who are in Mount Lebanon will render great assistance to the pil-
grims". Tripoli would then serve as a base for the reconquest of
Jerusalem 3. That the Maronites lived in expectation of a Frankish

I. IBN AL-QILACI, Madiha, PP. 47-48.

2. Ibid., p. 48.
3. HAYTON, La flor des estoires de la terre d'Orient (Old
Version), R.H.C., Arm., II (Paris, I906), P. 250. Translation mine. Els

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[Io] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 297

return is attested for by Louis de Rochechouart, bishop of Saintes,

who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in I46I and came into contact
with the Maronites. According to his report, they were still, at
the time, anxiously inquiring as to whether the Christians were in-
tending to reconquer the Holy land 1.
No sooner had the last Franks left the coasts of Syria than the
Mamluiks began to take the necessary measures against Mount
Lebanon. In i292, and again in I300 and in I305, military expe-
ditions were sent against Kisrawan, with the purpose of reducing
the mountaineers of the district to submission and of breaking
down their defences. Similar measures were taken against iibbat
Bsarrn, apparently on a smaller scale, since that district had already
been twice devastated by Baybars and by Qalawiun 2.
Moslem chroniclers who related the expeditions of I292, I300
and I305 against Kisrawan said that those expeditions were directed
against the Rd/ida, the Nusayris, and the Druzes of the District.
Modern historians who have considered those expeditions have
followed the view of the Moslem chroniclers, stating further that
the defeat of the heterodox Moslem communities of Kisrawan
was favourable to the Maronites, enabling them later to move
further south into the devastated districts of Kisrawan which had
become depopulated as a result of the punitive expeditions 3.
Although the Maronites, in the long run, did reap some benefit
from the fact that the number of heterodox Moslems living in
Kisrawan had been greatly reduced as a result of the expedition
of I305, and they came to form a greater proportion of the popu-
lation of the district after that event, it must be remembered that
the Maronites were already inhabiting parts of Kisrawan during

(ibid., PP. 134-I35 and 245) Hayton praised the valor of the Maronites,
estimating their number at 40,ooo and stating that they were excellent
soldiers, that among them there were good chieftains, and that they had
dealt several defeats to the sultan (the Moslems).
I. LOUIS DE ROCHECHOUART, "Journal de voyage de Louis de Roche-
chouart.. .", ROL, I, i893 (PP. I68-274), P. 257.
2. In I309 Mamluik troops encamped near Bsarr! and caused great damage
to the district. DUWAYHI, T.A., p. i66. I have found no mention of this
event outside Lebanese sources.
3. Henri LAMMENS, La Syrie; prdcis historique (Beirut, I921), I
Henri LAOUST, Essai sur les doctrines sociales et politiques de Taki-d-Dfn
Ahmad b. Taimiya, canoniste hanbalite (Cairo, I939), p. 6o; Remarques sur
les expeditions de Kasrawan sous les premiers Mamluks, in Bull. Musle
de Beyrouth, IV (1940), PP. 93-II5.

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 298 KAMAL S. SALIBI [II]

the Crusader period before the expeditions took place, and that
they suffered from the expeditions as much as did the heterodox
Moslems 1.
The first expedition against Kisrawan took place in July I292,
during the reign of the Mamlulk sultan al-Asraf iHalil (I290-I293).
It was directed against the districts of Kisrawan and the Gird 2.
Baydara, the nd'ib al-saltana (viceroy) of Egypt, advanced with
the greater part of his army against Kisrawan by way of the coast.
He was met and routed by the mountaineers. The amirs accom-
panying Baydara on this expedition accused him of having re-
ceived bribes from the enemy and of having purposely failed the
expedition; and on his return to Damascus he was met by the sultan
who rebuked him mildly for his failure 3.
That the expedition was directed against the Maronites of the
district as well as against the heterodox Moslems is clear. Ibn
al-Qila'i exultantly relates the details of the victory of the Maronite
muqaddams against the Moslems, which he seems to have considered
as a revenge for their conquest of Tripoli and Gubayl 4. From his
account it appears that the expedition was not limited to the
district of Kisrawan, but that it was also directed against the
Maronites of the district of Gubayl. When the news of the Mos
advance reached the mountains, he says, the church bells rang,
summoning the mountain chieftains to meet. Defence plans were
agreed upon, whereby a group of men would keep guard on every
strategic river gorge. Thirty thousand mountaineers then descended
to the encounter of the Moslem army, which was defeated in a
heated battle. Reenforcements from the south were effectively
warded off by the guards of the gorge of Nahr Alfidar 6; while
the guards of the gorge of Nahr al-Madffin 6 concentrated on

i. See below, and fn. 4 on this page to fn. 4 on p. I3.

2. The Gird is a mountainous district of Lebanon falling to the south of
the Beirut-Damascus highway, which forms its northern boundary.
3. MAQRIZI, op. cit., I, p. 779. ltt. QUATREMtRE, Histoire des s
mamlouks de l'.Egypte (translation of Maqrlzl), II (Paris, I842), i,
K. V. ZETTERST:EN, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Mamlukensultane in den
Jahren 690-74I der Hijra nach arabischen Handschriften (Leiden, I9I9),
P. 20. SALIH b. Yahya, Kitab ta'rih Bayruit .... (Beirut, I927), Pp. 29-3I.
4. IBN AL-QILACI, Madfha, PP. 5I-54.
5. Nahr Alfidar, a winter stream falling to the south of Oubayl (Byblos),
formed the southern boundary of the 6ubayl district.
6. Nahr al-Madfuin, a winter stream falling to the south of Batruin (Botrys),
formed the northern boundary of the 6ubayl district.

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 [12] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 299

stripping the Moslem soldiers fleeing northwards of their arma-

ments, horses, and money. Ibn al-Qila'i even mentions the names
of the muqaddams who distinguished themselves in the battle;
adding that the only chieftain killed was Benjamin, the muqaddam
of Hirdin (a village in the Gubayl district). After the battle, he
added, the chieftains met in the village of M'ad and shared the
booty, which was considerable. 1
A second punitive expedition was sent against the Gird and
Kisrawan in I300, to make up for the defeat of I292 and to punish
the Druzes and the Maronites, whose bowmen had harrassed the
Mamliik soldiers earlier that year as they escaped through the
country before the advance of the Mongols 2. Aqqiis al-Afram, the
newly appointed nd'ib of Damascus, led the expedition, assisted
by the ndaibs of Safad, Hama, Homs, and Tripoli. The Mamluik
army set out for Kisrawan on July 9; and the fighting continued
for six days, after which the Kisrawdnis sued for peace. They were
forced to surrender all what they taken in loot from the Mamlilk
army in 1292, and to pray a tribute of ioo,ooo dirhams 3.
It took a third expedition to complete the rout of the mountai-
neers of Kisrawan and the Gird. Soon after the second expedition,
in the year I304 or I305, a revolt against Mamluik rule broke out
in those districts 4. Attempts to quell the revolt by peaceful means
failed. Ibn Taymiyya, the eminent Hanbalite jurist and the chief
exponent of Islamic orthodoxy at the time, who had himself led
an unsuccessful mission to bring the heterodox Moslems of those
districts back to obedience by peaceful means, preached their
reduction by force, and wrote letters to the different parts of Syria,
summoning the faithful to join the expedition. Once organized, the
expedition set out from Damascus under the leadership of Aqqiis
al-Afram. The rebels were first encountered at Sawfar, a village
not far from the pass of Dahr al-Baydar, along which lies the

i. Mcad, a village of the (Gubayl district, served apparently as a meetin

place for the chieftains of the district, who met there to hold counsels a
exchange views: Anonymous history of M'ad (MS Bibliotheque Orientale
57, ff. 24-25), f. 25.
2. Stanley LANE-POOLE, A history of Egypt in the Middle Ages (London,
I936), P. 297. HAYTON, op. cit., p. I95. GROUSSET, op. Cit., III, P. 745, fn. 3,
quoting the Gestes de Chiprois.
3. MAQRIZI, Op. Cit., I, PP.902-903. ZETTERSTIEEN, op. cit., pp. 8o-8i. QUATRE
MP-RE, Op. cit., II, ii, pp. I70-I7I. The latter gives the amount of the tribut
as being 200.000 dirhems.
4. LAOUST, op. cit., p. 6o.

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 300 KAMAL S. SALIBI [I3]

Beirut-Damascus highway. The mountaineers were badly defeated,

and the victors followed them to Kisrawan, ravaging the country-
side, destroying the churches, and uprooting the vineyards. By
January 5, I306 the Mamlfik victory was complete. The moun-
taineers were utterly routed, and their villages were given in iqta
(revenue fief) to Mamlilk amirs from Damascus 1.
The history of Theodorus of Hama, the only available Maronite
source which was possibly contemporary to those events, 2 shows
clearly that there was a thriving Christian population in Kisrawan
before the defeat of its heterodox Moslem population in I305,
and that the Christians suffered from that expedition as much as
did the others. "Not a monastery, church, or fort .. . was saved
from destruction," he wrote, "excepting the church of St. Mar-
cellus." 3 A record of names of the monasteries and churches
destroyed by the Moslems in I300 and I305 is available. 4 According
to Theodorus of Hama, the leaders of the heterodox Moslem
inhabitants of Kisrawan and the GTird in I305 were the Billama's
(sometimes spelt Abui l-Lama'), a Druze family which later played
a leading part in the history of Lebanon under the Ottomans.
Theodorus concludes his narrative by stating that "after several
years Christians from every region started coming into the country" .5
In I365 the Latin king of Cyprus conducted an effective naval
raid against Alexandria; and the next year, by reaction to this,
the Mamliuk government began to persecute the Christian clergy
within its domains. Monasteries were ransacked everywhere, and
their treasures confiscated to finance a projected Mamliuk retaliation
against Cyprus 6. The Maronite clergy received their share of those

I. DUWAYHI, T.A., p. I63. IBN SIBAT, Ta'rfh (MS American University

of Beirut 956.6: I 13), II, Pp. 228-229. MAQRIZI, Op. cit., II, PP. 14-I5. (QUA-
TREMt:RE, Op. Cit., II, ii, pp. 252-254). $ALIH b. Yahya, Op. Cit., p. 32. None
of the Moslem historians mentioned the destruction of churches, probably
because the expedition was directed mainly against the heterodox Moslem
groups. According to al-Maqrrzl the fighting lasted eleven days.
2. TADRUS (THEODORUS) of Hama, Nakbat Kisrawdn wa-Dayr Mar
Sallitd Maqbis bi (;usts (II94-I307) nuqila 'an Tadrus Mutran IIama,
published by Builus QARA'LI, in IHuriib, pp. 85-88. Wherever possible, I
give the English form of the Christian names of Maronite clerics.
3. THEODORUS of Hama, op. cit., p. 88.
4. Anonymous history of the old churches of Lebanon (MS Bibliothbque
Orientale 57), ff. I8-I9.
5. THEODORUS of Hama, loc. cit.
6. IBN HA6AR, al-Durar al-kamina fi a'cyan al-mi"a al-j mina (Haydarabad
Deccan, I348-I350 A.H.), IV, P. 438.

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 [I4] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 301

persecutions. On April i, I367, the Maronite patriarch Gabriel of

HJaguila was arrested and burnt at the stake outside Tripoli. An
archbishop of Ihdin, Jacob by name, was among the sufferers,
and left a record of the persecutions on a copy of the Gospels
which he made at the time:
In this date [I3651 the King of Cyprus went out to Alexandria and looted
it, killing its men and taking its young captive. So the sultan of the Moslems
was angered with the Christians and took their chief clergymen and im-
prisoned them in Damascus. Then I, the humble Jacob, Archbishop [of
Ihdinl, ran away and left them, and the Lord Christ helped me; and I copied
[these Gospelsl while I was in hiding 1

No record is found of any persecutions or punitive expeditions

directed against the Maronites after I367. By that time their
activities seem to have been brought under the full control of the
Mamliik agents in Syria. After the success of the expedition of
I305 the Mamluiks settled a Turkoman clan, later known as the
Banui cAssaf, in the coastal hills of Kisrawan, between Antilyas
and al-Mu'amaltayn, with duties of general supervision over the
southern districts of Maronite Lebanon 2. By the end of the four-
teenth century the northern districts seem to have been equally
under control. According to a Maronite tradition, which may have
a basis of truth, Barqiiq, the Mamlilk sultan (I382-I389, I390-I399),
appointed a certain Yacqiib b. Ayyiub as muqaddam of 6ibbat
Bsarri in I390, issuing for him a title to that effect inscribed on a
sheet of brass 3. The descendants of this Yacquib b. Ayyiib continued
to be the muqaddams of Bsarri until I573, when their line became
extinct 4. The tradition that the founder of this dynasty of mountain
chieftains was installed by a Mamliuk sultan indicates that even
(Oibbat BMarri, the highest and most rugged of the Maronite moun-
tain districts, had been brought securely under Mamlik control
by the end of the fourteenth century and that its chieftains received
official recognition from the Mamluks 5. Those chieftains, in imita-

i. Quoted by DUWAYHI in T.T.M., pp. 386-387. Translation mine. Al-

Duwayhl fixed the date of the Maronite patriarch's martyrdom with re-
ference to an elegy written by the patriarch's nephew. See also DUWAYHI,
T.A., pp. I85-I86; S.B., p. 347; 'ANAYSI, op. cit., p. 27; IBN AL-QILA'I,
Madfha, pp. 59-60.
2. SAL[IH b. Yahya, op. cit., p. 42.
3. DUWAYHI, T.A., pp. I90-I9I.
4. Ibid., pp. 258 and 272.
5. No details seem to be available from Mamlfik sources concerning the
administration of the Maronite districts within the niyaba or Tripoli.

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 302 KAMAL S. SALIBI [I5]

tion of the Moslem chieftains and the Mamliik amirs, frequently

had Moslem names and laqabs: names like 'Abd al-Mun'im and
'Abd al-Wahhab, and laqabs such as Cxamdl al-Din, Zayn al-Din,
and Husam al-Din 1. Under the rule of this dynasty of chieftains
(ibbat Bsarri seems to have enjoyed considerable prosperity, and
Christians from the neighbouring regions are known to have immi-
grated into the district, particularly during the fifteenth century 2.
In general the Maronites do not seem to have fared too badly
under Mamlulk rule. Once the Mamluiks had become masters of the
coast and made sure that Frankish landing on the coast of Syria
could not possibly receive native assistance, the Maronites were
left in the mountains to live more or less as they pleased, provided
they paid the required tribute of taxes. In enjoyment of this moun-
tain-bound freedom, the Maronites soon picked up again their
petty feuds and quarrels, debating the issue of union with Rome
with remarkable zeal, and occasionally with some violence .
The fiscal tyranny of the last Bur'! Mamlfik sultans affected
Maronite Lebanon. During the early years of the sixteenth century
a considerable number of Maronites left northern Lebanon for
Cyprus, to escape this fiscal tyranny. The emigration took place
particularly from the district of 6ubayl. Many of the emigrant
however, returned to their country afterwards, having found that
Christian rule in Cyprus (under the Venetians, I489-I570) was even
less bearable than Moslem rule at home 4.
The political history of the Maronites of Lebanon during the
Crusader and Mamluik periods is mainly the history of their re
tions with the ruling power. It is the history of auxiliary fighting
and rebellion under the Franks, and of punitive expeditions,
persecution, and resultant quiescence under the Mamluiks. The
internal political history of the Maronites before the Ottoman

i. Possibly the muqaddams of Bsarri, like the Druze amirs of the (;arb,
tried to pass as Moslems with the Mamlulk authorities, hence their Moslem
names and laqabs. There is, however, no indication that they were incor-
porated in the halqa corps, as the amirs of the &rarb were.
2. DUWAYHI, T.A., P. 2I4.
3. I have made a special study of the process of the union of the Maronite
church with Rome which is due to be published shortly in Oriens Christianus.
4. DUWAYHI, T.A., pp. 227-228; Anonymous history of Mc'd, f. 25. There
is extant a letter from Leo X to the Doge of Venice, requesting him to
afford the Maronites living in Cyprus with better treatment. See T. ANAISSI
(same as Tfibiyya al-cAnaysi), Bullarium Maronitarum, p. 3I. The letter
is dated September I3, I5I5.

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[i6] THE MARONITES OF LEBANON 303

conquest is incoherent. The fragments of it which have been re-

corded show that it did not transcend village squabbles except
in moments of emergency, when joint action was desperately
needed. No element of unity existed among the Maronites, except
for their general allegiance to the patriarch; and even that was
doubtful. The Maronites of the high mountain reaches of Bsarri
seem to have stood completely apart from the Maronites of the
other districts: a fact reflected by the religious dissension of
Bsarr1, the records of which fill the works of Maronite historians.
It was the Maronite church that attempted, throughout this
period, to bring about the desired unity among the Maronites;
and, through the Maronite church, it was Rome, in the last ana-
lysis, that succeeded in introducing the wanting element of unity
and transforming the Maronites into the coherent community
that played a leading role in the history of Lebanon under Otto
rule.

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