Jumblatt family

The Jumblatt family (Arabic: جنبلاط‎‎, originally Kurdish Canpolad جان‌پولاد, meaning "steel-bodied" or "soul of steel"), also transliterated as Joumblatt, Junblat and Junblatt) is an influential Druze family who settled in the Lebanon mountains (coming from Syria) around the 15-16th century, fleeing persecution from the Ottoman governor.

Tradition holds the Jumblatt family to be the leaders of the Kaysi Arabs who fought a bitter war with the Yemeni Druze in the Battle of Ain Darra of 1711.

Today, Walid Jumblatt is one of two principal leaders of the Druzes (an influential religious community found in the Arab World, specifically in Lebanese politics). His son, Taymoor, is being prepared to follow his father's footsteps in the political scene in the future. After the assassination of the Lebanese prime-minister Rafik Al Hariri, Walid Jumblatt preemptively protected his children by sending them to France. Although Walid Jumblatt is the most known and influential figure of the family, there are many notables that are from this lineage and who contribute to the cultural, economic and social life in Lebanon, and not restricted to the Chouf and Mount Lebanon, but also having a visible presence in mansions and villas within the distinguished Clemenceau area of Beirut and in the beautiful north-west upscale area of Sidon.

Kamal's own father, Fouad Jumblatt, was himself assassinated on August 6, 1921.

Kamal Jumblatt was a respected political leader. Allegedly, on his bedroom wall he held the pictures of Jesus and Mahatma Gandhi. He was a rebellious figure and despite his descent from an aristocratic family, he supposedly lived a simple life neglecting the wealthy lifestyle that other political figures boasted at the time. Kamal Junblat was well-educated and quite attracted by the arcanes of Far Eastern philosophy; he wrote many books, touching on very diverse subjects from philosophy, spirituality, macrobiotics etc. It is claimed that he embraced meditation and practiced it often.

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