Jabal Amil (; also spelled Jabal Amel and historically known as Jabal Amila) is a cultural and geographic region in Southern Lebanon largely associated with its long-established, predominantly Twelver Shia Muslim inhabitants. Its precise boundaries vary, but it is generally defined as the mostly highland region on either side of the Litani River, between the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the Wadi al-Taym, Beqaa Valley and Hula Valley valleys in the east.
The Shia community in Jabal Amil is thought to be one of the oldest in history. In the 10th century, several Yemeni tribes with Shi'ite inclinations, including the Banu Amilah, had established themselves in the region. 'Amili oral tradition and later writings assert that a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and an early supporter of Ali, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (d. AD 651), introduced Shi'ism to the area. Although there is frequent occurrence of this account in many religious sources, it is largely dismissed in academia, and historical sources suggest Shia Islam largely developed in Jabal Amil between the mid-8th and 10th centuries (750–900).
The Damascus geographer al-Dimashqi described Jabal Amila in 1300 as a district in the Safad Province characterized by its abundant vineyards and olive, carob and terebinth groves, and populated by Twelver Shia Muslims. He also notes the neighboring highland districts of Jbaa, Jezzine and Tibnine whose inhabitants were also Twelver Shia and whose lands contained considerable springs, vineyards, and fruit groves. The ruler of Hama and scholar Abu'l-Fida (d. 1341) noted that Jabal Amila "runs down the coast as far south as Tyre and was home to the Shaqif Arnun fortress (Beaufort Castle).
According to the scholar Chibli Mallat, while the traditional definition of Jabal Amil includes the cities of Sidon and Jezzine, other, more limited definitions exclude them, defining them as separate areas. The traditional definition also includes parts of modern Israel, including the former villages of al-Bassa and al-Khalisa, and the villages of Tarbikha, Qadas, Hunin, al-Nabi Yusha', and Saliha, whose inhabitants had been Twelver Shia before their depopulation in the 1948 Palestine war. In the definition of Lebanon specialist Elisabeth Picard, the northern boundary of Jabal Amil is formed by the Zahrani River, south of Sidon. The historian William Harris defines it as the hills south of the Litani, which "grade into the Upper Galilee". According to Stefan Winter, Jabal Amil is traditionally defined as the predominantly Twelver Shia-populated, highland region southeast of Sidon. A prominent native scholar of Jabal Amil, Suleiman Dahir, defined it in 1930 as a much larger area, encompassing Jezzine in the Chouf, Baalbek in the northern Beqaa, and the Hula.
Despite claims of being the earliest Shi'ite center, evidence points to Hillah in Iraq as a prominent center of religious learning for early Amili scholars (12th-14th centuries). It wasn't until the 14th century that Jabal Amil saw the rise of its own scholarly institutions and a surge in the number of Shi'ite scholars. This culminated in the 15th and 16th centuries, when Jabal Amil became the leading center of Shi'ite learning, with a focus on legal, linguistic, and doctrinal studies. However, by the 16th century, economic and political factors led to a decline in these institutions and a mass migration of Amili scholars – particularly to Safavid Iran – that lasted for about two centuries. The Safavids' invited Shi'ite scholars from Jabal Amil to their court to legitimize their rule over predominantly Sunni Islam Persia and promote Shi'ite conversion.
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