ABSTRACT
The politics of Mount Lebanon had been determined by the relationship between Druze and Maronites; following the establishment of "Greater Lebanon" in 1920, Sunnis also emerged as an important force. But the Shi'is were almost always excluded from the political configuration. Since the ninth century, there have been Shi'i communities in the area between the Awali River to the north and the Galilee to the south, a region known as Jabal Amil. The gap between the Shi'is and their neighbors grew wider in the nineteenth century, a time when Lebanon underwent a profound political, social, and intellectual transformation. The Shi'i representatives in the Lebanese Chamber refused to support the Arab nationalist call for unity between Lebanon and Syria. The Lebanese Shi'i tradition of emulating Iranian Shi'ism, already demonstrated by the adoption of Iranian Ashura practices, assured Musa al-Sadr a favorable reception.
