ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the historiography of Hezbollah, stretching from its emergence to its ideological and political relationship with Iran to the mainstream debates engulfing the organization. It first places Hezbollah's emergence within a context of what can somewhat be called “Rise of the Shi’a” which can be traced back to the arrival of Moussa al-Sadr, a Shi’a cleric and leader, in the mid-20th century and the clandestinely operational al-Da‘wa party. Despite being tackled by previous scholarship, these points are crucial to the understanding of Hezbollah. Besides, it argues that Hezbollah's raison d'être relies on two main factors that continue to the present day: the liberation of Palestine and the political instrumentalization of sectarian identity. The chapter shortly inspects the relationship between Iran and Hezbollah through the lenses of wilayat al-faqih. It also explains how the partnership between Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah – called “the axis” – was shaped and developed in the ensuing decades, a factor which is paramount to the understanding of the unfolding events in Lebanon and Syria and to the overall argument of the book.
