Provinces of Lebanon

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Updates: 

FIPS 10-4 Change Notice 12, dated 2007-06-11, showed changes for Lebanon. It lists two new provinces named Aakkâr and Baalbek-Hermel. ISO followed suit on 2007-11-28 with ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9. There are still some remaining doubts about whether the change has actually been implemented.

Leo Dillon, of the U.S. State Department, writes, "The best evidence for the eight-governorate structure in Lebanon is a 1:200,000 map entitled 'Carte Administrative du Liban' published in 2004 by the Ministère de la Défense Nationale Armée Libanaise, Direction des Affaires Géographiques. It was handed out at the UNGEGN [United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names] in Vienna last year."

I found independent confirmation of the existence of Aakkar and Baalbek-Hermel provinces on the Lebanese website Localiban  (shown to me by Richard Pollard).

There is some evidence against the change. For one thing, a Google search for Aakkar Baalbek-Hermel returns only about 241 pages, of which only 36 can be retrieved before the "omitted some similar entries" message (as of 2007-07-27). Almost all of these pages contain text directly copied from the CIA World Factbook, or from the GEOnet Names Server. Some of the other sites are merely lists of place names in Lebanon. For another thing, the Lebanese Central Administration for Statistics seems to be unaware of any new provinces. The Annuaire Statistique  for 2006 (in French) has several tables that list only the six provinces shown below. The same is true for the Statistical monthly bulletin  for 2007 (Excel spreadsheet; see for example worksheet "V.2 et 3").

Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 was dated 2002-01-10. It listed new codes resulting from the splitting of South Lebanon. (My information is that An Nabatiyah province split from South Lebanon in 1975.) It also listed the provinces of Lebanon by their French names.

Erratum: In the main table for Lebanon on pages 215-216, the population data are 1961 estimates.

Country overview: 

In 1900, the present area of Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire. At the end of World War I, Britain and France partitioned the empire. Lebanon was created as a French mandate. Although it was referred to as the Republic of Lebanon, it was adminstratively subordinate to Syria. It became effectively independent from France on 1944-01-01.

Other names of country: 

1. Arabic: al-Jumhouriya al-Lubnaniya (formal)
2. Danish: Libanon
3. Dutch: Libanon, Republiek Libanon (formal)
4. English: Republic of Lebanon (formal)
5. Finnish: Libanon
6. French: Liban m, République f libanaise (formal)
7. German: Libanon m
8. Icelandic: Líbanon
9. Italian: Libano m
10. Norwegian: Libanon, Republikken Libanon (formal)
11. Portuguese: Líbano, República f do Líbano m (formal)
12. Spanish: Líbano, República f Libanesa (formal)
13. Swedish: Libanon
14. Turkish: Lübnan, Lübnan Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from Semitic word for white

Primary subdivisions: 

Lebanon is divided into six muhafazat (sing. muhafazah: provinces).

Further subdivisions:

See the Counties of Lebanon page.

The provinces are further subdivided into districts.

Origins of names: 

1. Beqaa: Arabic al-biqa`: fields
2. Beirut: From Hebrew be'erot: the wells

Change history: 

1. 1920-09-01: Following the Treaty of Sèvres, where France was given a mandate over the area, the state of Great Lebanon was formed from parts of Beirut and Lebanon vilayets of the Ottoman Empire.
2. 1975: An Nabaţīyah province split from al-Janūb. The FIPS code of al-Janūb before this split would have been LE02, if FIPS followed its usual practice.
3. ~2005: Aakkar province split from North Lebanon (former HASC code LB.AS, FIPS code LE03); Baalbek-Hermel province split from Beqaa (LB.BI, LE01).

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Aakkar: `Akkar (variant)
2. An Nabatiyah: Nabatîyé, Nabatiyeh (French)
3. Baalbek-Hermel: B‘alabak-Al Hirmil, Ba`labakk-Himmil (variant)
4. Beirut: Bayrut (Arabic); Beirute (Portuguese); Beyrouth (French)
5. Beqaa: Bekaa, El Begaa (variant); Béqaa, La Bekaa (French)
6. Mount Lebanon: Jabal Lubnan (Arabic); Jabal Loubnane, Mont-Liban (French)
7. North Lebanon: Ash Shamal (Arabic); Ech Chimâl, Liban-Nord (French)
8. South Lebanon: Al Janub (Arabic); El Jnoub, Liban-Sud (French); Sayda (variant)