A confessional community is a group of people with similar religious beliefs. In the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, this allowed people to be grouped by religious confession as opposed to nationality or ethnicity, which was more consistent with the existing social structure. People were able to represent themselves more effectively as a group than as individuals. With the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire and after the Ottoman

Tanzimat The Tanzimat (; ota, تنظيمات, translit=Tanzimāt, lit=Reorganization, ''see'' nizām) was a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerif in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. ...

(1839–76) reforms, the term ''Millet'' was used for legally protected ethno-religious minority groups, similar to the way other countries used the word nation.''State and Nation in Multi-Ethnic Societies: The Breakup of multinational states''
Uri Ra'Anan, Manchester University Press ND, 1991, , p. 18]. The

Lebanese Constitution The Constitution of Lebanon was adopted on 23 May 1926. Article 11, on the Official National Language, declares that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language may be used." The most recent ...

is based on the idea of

Confessionalism Confessionalism may refer to: * Confessionalism (poetry) * Confessionalism (religion) * Confessionalism (politics) Confessionalism is a system of government that is a ''de jure'' mix of religion and politics. It typically entails distributing poli ...

, a balance of powers between a number of state-recognized confessional communities.

References

Demographics of the Ottoman Empire Politics of the Ottoman Empire Religion in the Ottoman Empire Society of the Ottoman Empire Confessionalism {{Ottoman-stub

See also

References