"mtewleh"

[proletariat]

mount_amel and motorcity, I thank you for the rich informations.

[Motorcity]

Here is the Deal:

Since Phoenicians/Cannanites & Arabs are all agreed to be Semetic & from the Arab Peninsula(or lets call it SW Asia), on what extense we consider a wave of Semetic Immigration to our area Semetic, Cannanite or Arab!

A Million Bocks question!

ITs clear, people immigrated from this Peninsula in waves:
-Dawn of Civilization
-Early Semetics
-Cannanites
-Amelah
-Islamic Conquers
-After the Crusades(Tanoukhieen,Ma3niennen..etc)

I remeber that in the early ninties Israeli scientistS where bragging in a research to create an ethnic Biological weapon, they then realized that they are so identical to Arabs & their surrounding people that this bomb would not defrentiate an Israeli either!!!!

[patriotic_girl]

A nice thread actually....
i just heard today actually a story i donnow if it's similar but they said that metweleh comes from the word motawali which means they believe in weleyet Imem Ali....
although i heard before about the bani matwal thing as lady.d

[mount_amel]

Ptriotic_girl , i have heard similar stories but they are not supported with details and backgrounds .. just myths about this word .. waht i have posted is the real expalnation about the word metweleh . If you want to know more , read books about jabal 3amel and the shiats in lebanon by shrara and mehsen el men .. ..

[Dionysus]

Originally Posted by Fuhrer

mount_amel you seem to know about your history.

Can you tell me what are the origins of the shiia in Lebanon?

I mean are thay related to the Phoenicians or Iranians or Arabs?

I need an accurate answer please.

i dont know about all the shiites, but i am a shiite from jabal 3amil and my descendence goes back to imam Ali, i.e. what in shiites we are called siyyed.... so i guess my origin dates back to the arabs...
bas shiites origins definitely dont go back to the iranians, when the shiites imams were persecuted they moved to iran and so that is how iran became a shiite country (which i suppose is why you asked if shiites origin is from iran)

the phonecians didn't preserve their culture with the advent of the arabs... who intermarried with the phonecians and everyone who was there and thus the races became joined...

the origin of the shiites is not a racial one... ino mish there was a specific race of people and they were called shiites... Shee3a is short for shee3at Ali, and shee3at Ali began being used to designate those people who after prophet mohammad died, believed that imam ali was teh rightful successor to become ameer l mo2mineen... they believe that prophet mohammad actually designated imam Ali and he said: "فمن كنت مولاه فهذا علي مولاه اللهم وال من والاه وعاد من عاداه وانصر من نصره واخذل من خذله ودر معه الحق كما دار"
this is the beginning of the shee3a, now as we all know imam ali wasnt given leadership after prophet mohammad died, abu bakkir claimed it for himself first then 3omar, then 3omar gave it to 3othman.... and 3othman was so harsh and corrupt that the people revolted against him and killed him... then after they killed him (imam ali sent his two sons hassan and hussein to protect him but tehy couldnt) they came and beya3o l imam ali... hmm i see this is going to take a long time and i dont want to giev a lecture in shee3i history you can read that in any book.... the point is that eventually imam hussein ventured into a battle he knew he was going to lose simply for honor and he said his famous phrase: "هيهات منّا الذلّة" which sayyid 7assan keeps repeating.... and after imam hussein was killed the persecution of the shee3a began.... it is also said that abu thar al ghafari came to jabal 3amil (souther lebanon) and he spent a couple of his last years there before dying there.... by the way my grand grand father l sayyid mo7sin al ameen did a geneology of our family (al ameen) and he traced us back to yemen and then to iraq (i.e. to imam ali himself..)

the point im trying to make is that there is no one specific race like the iranians or the phonecians etc... that became shiites, shias were arabs, iranians, phonecians, whatever... whoever believed in the shia sect of islam was a shee3i..
salam

[achaaban]

Originally Posted by mount_amel

Metweleh or Motweleh . This word compased of two words : Moot and Weleh.

Background :

The people of Jabal 3amel in the Abbasid and Oumaiads Dynasties era , used to go and visit the Imam's Ali (as) site and Imam Hussien's (as) Sites in Najaf and Karbala.
The Abbasids used to supress and kill almost all people coming form Mount Amel to iraq or force them to convert into sunni islamic school.
Inspite of the tremendous killings for the people of Mount Amel , the people used to go in large numbers every year .

Motweleh :
The origin world is Moot walyan ... Die Waleyan to Imam Ali (as) .
They use it just for the Lebanese Muslim shiats for they suffered a lot during the abbasid and oumaid Dynasties.

Racism: I dont see any racisim in this word , but i am proud of it for it shows how much we suffered to a cause that we beleive its the most sacred cause in the world.


Salam

I think that there could be another interpretation for the word Metweleh. During the Umayyad Dynasty the non-Arabs who converted to Islam were called the Muwalis, and since the inhabitants of Jabel Amel have lived there since ancient time, the Chi'a were the inhabitants of Jebel Amel, who converted to Islam during the Umayyads, and they were Muwalis for Ali. They helped the Abbasids to revolt on the Umayyads in the Battle of Zab 750 AD, even though they were given an equal status at the beginning of The Abbasides Dynasty, they were then persecuted by the Abbasids, who wanted them to convert to Sunni, which was the sect that most Arabs have followed. The Chi'a or the Muwalis have the largest presence in Iraq and Lebanon; both were non-Arab land prior to the arrival of Islam and the Arab conquest. The original inhabitants of the land have remained in that land when the Arabs conquered Syria and Iraq, where these inhabitants converted to Islam.

[Nucleo]

Very interesting thread.

This is what I've heard...could be completely wrong, however.

It was to my knowledge is that Metweleh is a term that refers to the Shi'a recital of "Ashhado an Aliyyon waliyyullah" during Adaan.

Just like Al shahada is part of the 5 pillars of Islam, to claim the above is an essential part of Shi'ism.

[achaaban]

I have done more research about the Muwalis, who were none-Arab Muslims, who converted into Islam in Syria and Lebanon, during the Umayyads' Dynasty; as well as the Revolution against the Umayyads in the Battle of Zab 750, and the establishment of the Abbasids Dynasty. I am convinced by now, that the Muwalis, are what we call today the mewali or metwele in Lebanon. Look at all countries within the Middle East that has a strong Shi'a presence and you will see that they were all none-Arab, prior to the Arab conquest.

[WoofWoofX]

BTW just to confirm that what mount_amel already pointed in his very informative article...the same was also said by Fouad afram el boustani when he used to make the TV program during the old LBC days in the 80's.

[natalyfrancis]

its a question that was on my mind lately
"mtewle" is a very vulgar expression used by racist pple
we shouldnt say this word at all coz it shows that we are living in a racist country
we should 4get abt religion when talking 2 pple because the religion means nothing its the "brain"that does