The Maronites after the reign of Mahmut II.

MARONITES DURING MAHMUT II'S SULTANATE For twenty-eight years of Mahmut's reign, from 1804 to 1832, Lebanese affairs were dominated by one man, Emir Bashir II Shehab, an adroit politician, able to maintain himself in power so long because he could combine political alliances with both the mountain chieftains and the Ottoman government. Though he professed himself a Druze he was suspected of being, secretly, a Christian. Bashir's political longevity stands in sharp contrast to the short-lived tenures of the Maronite patriarchs. Of these latter, Yusuf Tian, elevanted in 1796, resigned his office in 1809. He was followed by Yuhanna el-Helou, who was elected while Pius VII was still a prisoner of Napoleon and, though confirmed in the patriarchate, had to wait until 1814 before the pope could send him the pallium. By the time it came, Yuhanna had returned to the monastery of Qannubin, once the traditional residence of the patriarchate, which had been abandoned for several decades. As well as re-establishing the ancient residence, Yuhanna was of a mind to enforce the legislation against double monasteries which had been agreed upon at the 1736 council of al-Luwayzah; with Roman encouragement, he called a synod for 1818, and there the bishops once again agreed that men's and women's monasteries could not be placed side by side. Rome, of course, was delighted with the results and hastened to confirm a decision which reflected an almost-century-old church law. Any person not agreeing to the separation was subject to excommunication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]