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The Maronites are an ethno-religious group situated in the Levant, mainly in the area of modern Lebanon. They derive their name from the Syriac Christian Saint Maron, whose followers migrated to the area of Mount Lebanon from their previous location of residence around the area of Antioch (an ancient Greek city within present day Hatay Province, Turkey), establishing the nucleus of the Maronite Church. Some Maronites argue that they are of Mardaite ancestry, but most historians reject such claims. Maronites were able to maintain an independent status in Mount Lebanon and its coastline after the Islamic conquest, keeping their Christian religion, and even the distinctive Aramaic language as late as the 19th century.〔 The Ottoman Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate and later the Republic of Lebanon were created under the auspice of European powers with the Maronites as their main ethnoreligious component. Mass emigration to the Americas at the outset of the 20th century, famine mainly resulting from Turkish blockades and confiscations during World War I that killed an estimated third to half of the population, the Lebanese Civil War between 1975-1990 and the low fertility rate greatly decreased their numbers in the Levant. Maronites today form more than one quarter of the total population in the Republic of Lebanon. With only two exceptions, all Lebanese presidents have been Maronites as part of a tradition persists as part of the Lebanese Confessionalist system, by which the Prime Minister has historically been a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the National Assembly has historically been a Shia Muslim. Though concentrated in Lebanon, Maronites also show presence in neighbouring Syria, Holy Land (Palestine and Israel) and Cyprus, as well as a significant part in the Lebanese diaspora in South America (Argentina and Brazil), North America (USA and Canada), Australia, European Union member states (notably France, UK but also Germany, Benelux, Spain, Italy and Sweden) and in Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa). The Maronite Church, under its own Patriarch of Antioch, is in full communion with the Holy See, whose papal primate it recognizes, and is therefore an Eastern particular church of the Catholic Church. It has branches in nearly all countries where Maronite Christian communities live, in both the Levant (mainly Lebanon) and Lebanese diaspora. == Name == The reason for the adoption of the Maronite name is disputed and historians disagree whether it refers to Mar Maron, a 3rd-century Syriac Christian saint, or to John Maron, the first Maronite Patriarch (ruled 685-707). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Maronites」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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