Lebanon
33°50′N 35°50′E / 33.833°N 35.833°E Lebanon (/ˈlɛbənɒn, -nən/ ⓘ LEB-ə-non, -nən; Arabic: لُبْنَان, romanized: Lubnān, local pronunciation: [lɪbˈneːn]), officially the Republic of Lebanon,[c] is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, by Israel to the south, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance away from the country's coastline. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterlands has contributed to the country's rich history and shaped a unique cultural identity shaped by religious diversity.[13] Lebanon has a population of more than five million people and covers an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi). Lebanon's capital and largest city is Beirut, followed by Tripoli and Jounieh. While Arabic is the official language, French is also recognized in a formal capacity; Lebanese Arabic is the country's vernacular, though French and English play a relatively significant role in everyday life,[14] with Modern Standard Arabic being limited to news and government matters.
This article is about the country. For other uses of "Lebanon", see Lebanon (disambiguation), Liban (disambiguation), and Libnan (disambiguation).
Republic of Lebanon
Unitary parliamentary republic that includes confessionalism[6]
1516
1 December 1843
9 June 1861
1 September 1920
23 May 1926
22 November 1943
24 October 1945
17 April 1946
24 May 2000
30 April 2005
10,452 km2 (4,036 sq mi) (161st)
1.8
560/km2 (1,450.4/sq mi)
2022 estimate
2022 estimate
31.8[9]
medium
right[11]
The earliest evidence of human civilization in Lebanon dates back to 5000 BCE.[15] From 3200 to 539 BC, what was to become Lebanon was part of Phoenicia, a maritime empire that stretched the Mediterranean Basin.[16] In 64 BC, the Roman Empire conquered the region, and Lebanon soon became a major center for Christianity under the aegis of the Byzantine Empire. In the 7th century, the Muslim conquest of the Levant brought the region under the control of the Rashidun Caliphate. The 11th century saw the beginning of the Crusades and the establishment of Crusader states, which later fell to the Ayyubids and the Mamluks, who in turn ceded the territory to the Ottoman Turks in the aftermath of the Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–1517. Under Ottoman ruler Abdulmejid I, the first Lebanese proto-state was established in the form of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, created in the 19th century as a home for Maronite Christians under the Ottoman "Tanzimat" period.
After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire around World War I, the five Ottoman provinces constituting modern-day Lebanon came under the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, to be administered by France. Under the Mandate administration, France established Greater Lebanon as the predecessor state to today's independent Lebanon. However, French rule over the region weakened significantly in the aftermath of the German invasion of France in 1940, during World War II. By 1943, Lebanon had gained independence from Free France and subsequently established a distinct form of confessionalist government, with the state's major religious groups being apportioned specific political powers. The new Lebanese state was relatively stable for a short period after independence,[17] but this was ultimately shattered by the outbreak of large-scale fighting in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) between various political and sectarian factions. Amidst the internal hostilities of this period, Lebanon was also subjugated by two overlapping military occupations: by Syria from 1976 to 2005 and by Israel from 1985 to 2000. Since the end of the conflicts, there have been extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure.[18]
Lebanon is a developing country, ranked 112th on the Human Development Index.[19] It has been classified as an upper-middle-income state.[20] The Lebanese liquidity crisis, coupled with nationwide corruption and recent disasters such as the 2020 Beirut explosion, have precipitated the collapse of Lebanon's currency and fomented political instability, widespread resource shortages, and high unemployment and poverty. The World Bank has defined Lebanon's economic crisis as one of the world's worst since the 19th century.[21][22] Despite the country's small size,[23] Lebanese culture is renowned both in the Arab world and globally, powered primarily by the Lebanese diaspora.[24] Lebanon is a founding member of the United Nations and of the Arab League,[25] and is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and the Group of 77, among others.
Etymology
The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn (𐤋𐤁𐤍) meaning "white", apparently from its snow-capped peaks.[26][27]
Occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla,[28] and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn (𓂋𓏠𓈖𓈖𓈉), where R stood for Canaanite L.[29]
The name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן.[30]
Lebanon as the name of an administrative unit (as opposed to the mountain range) that was introduced with the Ottoman reforms of 1861, as the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (Arabic: متصرفية جبل لبنان; Turkish: Cebel-i Lübnan Mutasarrıflığı), continued in the name of the State of Greater Lebanon (Arabic: دولة لبنان الكبير Dawlat Lubnān al-Kabīr; French: État du Grand Liban) in 1920, and eventually in the name of the sovereign Republic of Lebanon (Arabic: الجمهورية اللبنانية al-Jumhūrīyah al-Lubnānīyah) upon its independence in 1943.