Alawites in Lebanon
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,160,000 - 1,600,000 | |
| Languages | |
| Vernacular: Lebanese Arabic |
|
| Religion | |
| Islam (Shia Islam) |
Shia Islam in Lebanon has a history of more than a millennium. According to CIA study, Lebanese Shia Muslims constitute 27% of Lebanon's population of approximately 4.3 million, which means they amount to 1,160,000. According to other sources the Lebanese Shia Muslims constitute approximately 40% of the entire population (or 1.6 million out of a total population of 4 million).
Most of its adherents live in the northern and western area of the Beqaa Valley, Southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs. The great majority of Shia Muslims in Lebanon are Twelvers, with an Alawite minority numbering in the tens of thousands in north Lebanon. Few Ismailis remain in Lebanon today, though the quasi-Muslim Druze sect, which split from Ismailism around a millennium ago, has hundreds of thousands of adherents.
Under the terms of an unwritten agreement known as the National Pact between the various political and religious leaders of Lebanon, Shias are the only sect eligible for the post of Speaker of Parliament.
Haplogroup J2 is also a significant marker in throughout Lebanon (29%). This marker found in many inhabitants of Lebanon, regardless of religion, signals pre-Arab descendants. These genetic studies show us there is no significant differences between the Muslims and non-Muslims of Lebanon.Genealogical DNA testing has shown that 24.8% of Lebanese Muslims (non-Druze) belong to the Y-DNA haplogroup J1. Although there is common ancestral roots, these studies show a very small difference was found between Muslims and non-Muslims in Lebanon, of whom only 17.1% have this haplotype. As haplogroup J1 finds its putative origins in the Arabian peninsula, this likely means that the lineage was introduced by Arabs beginning at the time of the 7th century Muslim conquest of the Levant and has persisted among the Muslim population ever since. On the other hand, only 4.7% of all Lebanese Muslims belong to haplogroup R1b, compared to 9.6% of Lebanese Christians. Modern Muslims in Lebanon thus do not seem to have a significant genetic influence from the Crusaders, who probably introduced this common Western Europen marker to the extant Christian populations of the Levant when they were active in the region from 1096 until around the turn of the 14th century.
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