Double Qaim-Maqamate of Mount Lebanon

Double Qaim-Maqamate of Mount Lebanon
قَائِم مَقَامِيَّتَي جَبَل لُبْنَان
1843–1861

The Double Qaim-Maqamate overlaid on the modern boundaries of Lebanon
Historical era19th century
• Established
1843
• Disestablished
1861
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Mount Lebanon Emirate
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate
Today part ofLebanon

The Double Qaim-Maqamate of Mount Lebanon (1843–1861, Arabic: قَائِم مَقَامِيَّتَي جَبَل لُبْنَان, romanizedQāʾim maqāmiyyatay jabal lubnān, or simply, اَلْقَائِم مَقَامِيَّتَيْن; Al-Qāʾim maqāmiyyatayn, lit.'The Double Qaim-Maqamate') was one of the Ottoman Empire's subdivisions following the abolishment of the Mount Lebanon Emirate. After 1843, there existed an autonomous Mount Lebanon with a Christian and a Druze subdivision, which have been created as a homeland for the Maronite Christians under European diplomatic pressure following the 1841 massacres, and for the Druze segment of the population which found the neighboring Christians as enemies. After the collapse of the Double Qaim-Maqamate due to the 1860 conflict, the Maronite Catholics and the Druze further developed the idea of an independent Lebanon in the mid-nineteenth century, through the creation of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate.

The idea of dividing Mount Lebanon between Christians and Druze was a system proposed by the Austrian Chancellor Metternich between the British and the Ottomans, who backed the Druze demand for a Druze governor, and the French, who insisted on the return of the Shihab principality. Thus, the Druze emir Ahmad Arslan was appointed qāʾim maqām of the mixed southern district and Christian emir Haydar Ahmad Abu al-Lamaʿ qāʾim maqām of the mostly Christian northern district, each qāʾim maqām was to be accompanied by two wakils, a Druze and a Christian, who exercised their judicial and fiscal authority over the members of their respective communities

The declaration of the Qāʾim Maqāmiyya triggered a wave of violence and further worsened the religious tensions, a series of overlapping and complicated conflicts dominated the years that followed its declaration, with Christian commoners fighting against both Christian and Druze feudal lords, and bad weather controlling the region in 1856–1858, alongside a crisis in silk production which cut the production of the valuable product in Mount Lebanon to a half, led to several peasant's revolts that ultimately caused the climax of the tensions between the Druze and the Maronites. Subsequently, the Mount Lebanon conflict of 1860 began and led to the demise of the Double Qaim-maqamate.[1]

  1. ^ A History of Modern Lebanon, Second Edition, Fawwaz Traboulsi, ISBN 978 0 7453 3274 1