Child, where did you read that? It might interest you to know that Lebanon was the model for the new nationalism of the post-World War I world. In fact, Lebanon was the first country in the region to create a national flag and anthem. We have never questioned our identity. Ever. That goes for Lebanese Muslims and Christians and Druze. One of the great patriotic figures in Lebanese history is Fakhr-al-din II. He was the emir of Lebanon in the days of the Ottoman Empire. He was a Druze, but after the death of his father at age twelve, his mother sent him to Kesrouan to be raised by a Maronite family, the Al-Kazins. When Fakhr was entrusted with a fief in the Shouf, he worked to realize his childhood dream, for fifty years 1585-1635 he fought for Lebanese independence and in so doing created Greater Lebanon.
On the domestic level Fakhr had three objectives: security, prosperity, and unity. His army consisted of 40,000 disciplined and well trained professional. New garrison stations were built and artillery imported from Europe. A Maronite Khazim commanded his army and another served as his chief counsellor. In 1611 he sent a Maronite bishop on a confidential mission to the Pope and the grand duke of Tuscany. A secret treaty was signed between Lebanon and Florence.In 1613 the Porte moved against Fakhr with 50,000 troops and a sixty galley fleet. Prudence dictated flight on the part of Fakhr and so he escaped on a French vessel to find a warm welcome at the court of the Medicis. Cosmo II of Tuscany received his Lebanese ally in style. Fakhr wrote to his people:
Having set before our eyes a goal toward which shall unswervingly move - the goal being full independence of ouur country and its complete sovereignty - we are resolved that no promise of rewward or threat of punishment shall in the least dissuade us.'
In 1618 Fakhr returned to Lebanon to much rejoicing but found that in his absence his seat at Dier al Qamar had been assaulted by his rival Yusuf Sayfa.Fakhr swore vengeance and lost no time in implementing his oath. His men captured Crac des Chevaliers, demolished the Sayfa palaces in Akkar and Tripoli and removed their stones so as to rebuild Dier al Qamar. Next came the turn of the pasha of Damascus, in the battle of Anjar, 4000 Lebanese captured the pasha and cut down 12,000 of his men. Lebanon, Syria and Palestine was now under the rule Fakhr-al-din II. Nothing was left for Fakhr, in the words of a biographer of his time, but to declare himself sultan. Fakhr-al-din II preferred the title of 'Emir of Mount Lebanon, Sidon, and Galilee'.
As lord of Greater Lebanon he now felt free to proceed with his economic programme which was to bring great benefits to his people. His Christian leanings and European dealing again angered the Porte who in 1633 launched a land and sea offensive against Fakhr. 80,0000 troops from Syria and Egypt and a 22 galley fleet converged on Lebanon. Facing them was a force of 25,000 Maronite and Druze. After initial victories Fakhr-al-din II was captured and sent to Constantinople were on 13th April 1635 he along with three of his sons were executed.
His story was immortalized in an opera written by the famous Lebanese composers Mansour and Assy Rahbani (aka "the Rahbani Brothers" -- sort of the George and Ira Gershwin of Lebanon). The lead female role was played by the great Lebanese diva Fairuz in 1967 at the Baalbeck International Festival, which was the annual highlight of every Lebanese summer -- the oldest and most prestigious music festival in the middle east, held in the summertime in the ruins of the great Roman temple to Jupiter. It has been continued and each year since it started again has been better than the last. This year's festival was going to be the best they'd seen since before the war years. But unfortunately, it had to be canceled this year for obvious reasons.
I share all of this with you so that you might have a better understanding of the culture and the people of Lebanon. And also so that you might see that Lebanon really is a multi-ethnic and religious country regardless of what ignorant posters might say to help themselves sleep better at night.
I am talking about the Muslims, dear one. Yes, I know that the history is complex, that even the crusader states were not simply Christian entities, that it is simplistic to talk about such things as Sunni/Shiite, given the complex sectarian of that religion. The Ottoman Empire was the first of the Great European Powers, which drew heavily from western military technology. It was however, fundamentally opposed to the genius of Europe, because that is Christian, and the special kind of Christianity that continued the agenda of the Greco-Roman culture. It was a successor to the old eastern Empires, and it seems there is as much of Persia in Islam as there is Arab. So I do not hestitate to see Lepanto as a parallel to Salamis. Maybe Vienna is a better parallel because it demonstrtaed the superiority of western military power, now that France had led the way and reconstructed the Roman legions. So Hungary was lost and the erosion began. Catherine the Great ripped away the Crimea and began the Russian advance into Muslim lands. the British took India from the Moguls. Napoleon saw himself (or so we can imagine) as the new Alexander, or at least as the avenger of the last Constantine. Anyway he wanted a land empire that reached from England to India. It took the Ottoman empire a century to crack, but when it did there were the pieces which have since 1919 been trying to rearrange themelves into a new pattern.