Origins Shi'i tradition traces the origins of the community in present-day
Lebanon to
Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, the prophet
Muhammad's companion and a loyal associate of
Ali, Information regarding
Jabal Amel's population prior to the Muslim conquest is scant and insufficient. It is traditionally thought to have included a substantial tribal segment prior to the Muslim conquest represented by the tribe of
Banu 'Āmila. According to 10th-century historian
al-Tabari, they were also affiliates of the
Ghassanids who supplied troops to the
Byzantines.
Galilee, which included a part of Jabal Amel, was inhabited by
Christian and Jewish communities in the
Byzantine period, divided along west and east respectively. Along the coast,
Tyre was predominantly Christianized under the Byzantines with a minor survival of the pagan cult of
Melqart up until the early Islamic period. It seems
Tripoli and
Sidon were home to Shi'i elements as early as the
8th century. According to Friedman, a Shi'i convoy from
Palestine reportedly visited and consulted the fifth Shia Imam
Muhammad al-Baqir () in
Kufa. The Shi'i historian
Al-Ya'qubi (before 897) alluded to the settlement of 'Āmila in Palestine, which Friedman identifies as a Shi'ite tribe at his time. According to Jaafar al-Muhajir, the beginning of the process can be traced right after the
Hasan–Muawiya treaty in 661. Rula Abisaad and Yaron Friedman argue that Banu 'Āmila may have already been Shiites in the seventh century, and thus spread Shi'ism or Shi'i tendencies among the locals. In
Mount Lebanon, the Twelver Shiites of
Kisrawan were geographically separate from Jabal Amel. According to Harris, it's possible that Shia tribespeople were present early in the
Umayyad period or after the 759 Munaytra uprising, and would have been well-established in the area by 960. On the other hand, al-Muhajir argues that the community was established in the aftermath of the
First Crusade () and the
fall of Tripoli in 1109, which triggered the city's depopulation of its Shia inhabitants. and cultural and material interactions between Aleppo and Jabal Amel may have reinforced nascent local development of Twelver Shi'ism in the area prior to
Isma'ili Fatimid ascent in
Egypt (). Before Fatimid Ismaili
da'wa took hold in Syria, cultural exchange between scholars in Jabal Amel and
Iraq contributed to a mutual systematic observation of the
Ja'fari school, which also continued after Fatimid demise. Followers of the Nusayri dawah were reportedly present in
Tyre, Tripoli, Sidon and
Beirut along the coast; in the city of
Tiberias in the
Galilee, and in
Banias in the Mt.
Hermon-
Golan region. Traveling through
Tyre and
Tripoli in 1047,
Nasir Khusraw recorded in his
Safarnama that most of the residents of the two cities were Shiite Muslims. Tripoli became a reputed centre of Imami Shi'i scholarship, producing reputed scholars such as Ibn al-Barraj al-Tarabulsi (, ), a student of Sharif al-Murtada and
Shaykh Tusi who was appointed the judge of Tripoli in 1046, and commanded a large Shiite hinterland, where the district name '
Zanniya' still recalls the Alid
esotericism of its medieval population. It became an important centre of Shiite scholarship during the
Mamluk period, probably as the result of short-distance immigration from the former Frankish coastal cities which were destroyed by Mamluks, namely Tyre,
Sidon and
Akka. When the Mamluks established a mamlaka (province) in
Safed in 1260s, Shiites in the Safed region either joined neighboring Jabal Amel or converted to Sunni Islam. One particular scholar from Jezzine,
Muhammad ibn Makki (), became a widely known Shi'i
faqīh who advocated developing religious law through debate with Sunni scholars, and instructed the court of
Khorasan's reigning
Sarbadar in Twelver Shiism. The campaign was a failure, and Baydara was only able to extricate his troops after offering gifts and releasing prisoners. Following the death of the Ilkhan
Ghazan in 1304, the Mamluks assembled the main Mamluk field army for a third campaign. The Mamluks then devastated villages and cultivation through August 1305 and expelled much of the population, who settled in
Southern Lebanon and the
Beqaa valley. Estimates of the expelled population vary, with Muhammad Ali Makki estimating likely around 20,000 displaced into the Bekaa valley and
Jezzine.
Under Ottoman rule After the Ottoman conquest circa 1516, various Shiite clans in
Jabal Amel,
Beqaa Valley and
Mount Lebanon, which had been ensconced prior to Ottoman arrival, were co-opted into the Ottoman provincial administration as
mukataacıs or as governors of secondary
sanjaks with fiscal and police responsibilities over a vast section of the Syrian coastal highlands. The
Harfushes of
Baalbek received the iltizam concession for the Bekaa as well as a rank in the provincial military hierarchy. In the province of
Tripoli, the Hamada clan were charged with multiple tax collection assignments in the hinterland of
Mount Lebanon. Further south, the Shiites of Jabal Amel retained their tax farms well into the mid-18th century, greatly benefiting from the foreign demand for dyed
cotton and good commercial contacts with the French, and by the 1750s the area provided more tax revenues than Mount Lebanon. The Druze Junblatt lords and Christian peasants bought or pushed out the Shia out of
Jezzine and the hills above
Sidon, while the significant Shia minority in the
Tripoli hills largely departed for the Bekaa valley. In the late 18th century, Jabal Amel became a war zone between Ottoman authorities and rebels in northern Palestine, which continued under
Jazzar Pasha (c. 1781–1805) and against the Egyptians in
1833–1841. The Shia population, estimated around 38% of Lebanon's population a few centuries prior, slid to no more than 20% by 1840.
Relations with Safavid Iran During this time period, Shiites built particularly close ties with the
Safavids of
Iran, contributing significantly to the empire's conversion into Shia Islam.
Tahmasp I (1524–1576) appointed Muhaqqiq al-Karaki from
Karak Nuh as the deputy of the
Hidden Imam, and granted him extensive power over the
sadrs (Grand viziers) in a prolix edict in 1533. Tahmasp reportedly told him: "You are the real king and I am just one of your agents". and is responsible for many architectural feats in the city of
Isfahan. attacked
Ain Ebel and other Christian villages on 5 May 1920, pillaging and killing more than 50 people. It appears that the gangs may have been responding to a call for jihad, though it is unclear which side issued it. This period of unrest ended in 1921 with a
political amnesty offered by the French mandate authorities for all Shiite rebels who had taken part in the fighting, with the intention to bind the Shia community in Lebanon to the new Mandate state. Many Christians who fled their villages during the revolt were accommodated by Shia notables from
Nabatieh and
Bint Jbeil, an act that was appreciated by the local Christian clergy. What the Shi'ites did for the Christians in the south will be cherished in our hearts for as long as Lebanon and the Christians remain. What happened should be written in gold. Long live Lebanon, Long live Lebanese unity and long live the Shiites.Consequently, the establishment of Ja'fari shari'a courts during the French Mandate period in Lebanon complicated the understanding of citizenship by intertwining it with sectarian identification, while also reinforcing sectarian divisions within the legal and political framework of the nation-state. Instead of armed rebellion and uprisings, protests and civil strikes in Shia areas became the medium to protest French policies and
tobacco prices. Shia leaders and
religious clergy supported educational reforms in order to improve the social and political marginalization of the Shia community and increase their involvement in the newly born nation-state of Lebanon. This led to the establishment of several private Shia schools in Lebanon, among them The Charitable Islamic ʿĀmili Society (
al-Jamʿiyya al-Khayriyya al-Islāmiyya al-ʿĀmiliyya) in
Beirut and The Charitable Jaʿfari Society (
al-Jamʿiyya al-Khayriyya al-Jaʿfariyya) in
Tyre. This institution – since 1920 headquartered in Beirut- oversaw every educational policy regarding public and private school in the mandate territories. According to historian Elizabeth Thompson, private schools were part of "constant negotiations" between citizen and the French authorities in Lebanon, specifically regarding the hierarchical distribution of
social capital along religious communal lines. During these negotiations, petitions were often used by different sects to demand support for reforms. For example, the
middle-class of predominantly urban
Sunni areas expressed their demands for educational reforms through
petitions directed towards the French High Commissioner and the
League of Nations. Sayyid
Abdul-Husayn Sharafeddine believed that the only way to ward off foreign political influence was to establish modern schools while maintaining Islamic teachings. In 1938, he built two schools, one for girls and another for boys, at his own expense. However, the girls' school did not last long due to financial difficulties and traditional views, prompting Sayyid Sharafeddine to transfer the girls and teach them in his own home. The boys' school was known as ''al-Ja'fariyya'', and was able to continue despite financial difficulties. This meant that the Shiite
Ja'fari jurisprudence or
madhhab was legally recognized as an official
madhhab, and held judicial and political power on multiple levels. The recognition of Ja‘fari jurisprudence in legal affairs further reinforced Lebanon’s sectarian divisions at the political level, as it provided the Shiite community with a degree of autonomy within the Lebanese nation-state. However, at the individual level, sectarian boundaries became more fluid and subject to interpretation, as people frequently shifted their sectarian affiliation to gain legal benefits from different madhhabs. Though established in Lebanon, Shiite individuals from neighbouring countries also presented their marriage and divorce cases to the Ja'fari courts, as religious identity overrode national identity. Because the courts adjudicated matters of marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance, their rulings also shaped gendered aspects of citizenship and family law within the emerging Lebanese state. Furthermore, the institutionalization of Shia Islam during this period provoked discussions between Shiite scholars and clergy about how Shiite orthodoxy should be defined. For example, discussions about the mourning of the martyrdom of
Imam Husain during
Ashura, which was a clandestine affair before the 1920s and 1930s, led to its transformation into a public ceremony. On the other hand, the official recognition of legal and religious Shiite institutions by the French authorities strengthened a sectarian awareness within the Shia community. Historian Max Weiss underlines how "sectarian claims were increasingly bound up with the institutionalization of Shi'i difference." With the Ja'fari shari'a courts in practice, the Shia community was deliberately encouraged to "practice sectarianism" on a daily basis. ==Sub-groups==