A Shi‛i Religious Perspective on Lebanese Sectarianism: The Islamic Shi‛i Supreme Council under Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din (1978-2001)

This article examines the development of the position of Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din (d.2001), who headed Lebanon’s Islamic Shiʿi Supreme Council, ISSC, from 1978 to 2001, on the Lebanese sectarian system. I trace the progression of his positions which underwent three phases: first, accommodation with sectarianism, albeit with reforms proposals, during the phase of collaboration with Sayyid Musa al-Sadr in the 1970s; second, a more radicalized position that rebutted the sectarian system in the midst of the civil war and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982; and finally, a de facto acceptance of the war-ending Taʾif Agreement of 1989 that consolidated sectarianism. I argue that the changing political context of post-war Lebanon and the rise of Hezbollah as a contending force on the Shiʿi Lebanese scene have propelled Shams al-Din to seek rapprochement with the Lebanese state, in line with the legacy that Musa al-Sadr had initiated in Lebanon when he founded the ISSC.