Maronite Christians felt a sense of alienation and exclusion as a result of Pan-Arabism in Lebanon . Part of its historic suffering is the Damour massacre by the PLO . Until recently , the Cyprus Maronites battled to preserve their ancestral language . The Maronite monks maintain that Lebanon is synonymous with Maronite history and ethos ; that its Maronitism antedates the Arab conquest of Lebanon and that Arabism is only a historical accident . The Maronites also experienced mass persecution under the Ottoman Turks , who massacred and mistreated Maronites for their faith , disallowing them from owning horses and forcing them to wear only black clothing . The Turkish Ottoman Empire slew upwards of 300,000 Maronites , forced the remaining populations into the mountains ( which spawned Mount Lebanon ) and let another 100,000 die of starvation while stranded with no means of self-sufficiency . The Lebanese Druze also persecuted the Maronites , and massacred in excess of 50,000 of them in the mid-1800s . However , agreements have been held with the Druze . Moreover , the Maronites later emerged as the most dominant group in Lebanon , a status they held until the sectarian conflict that resulted in the Lebanese Civil War
Damour massacre
Damour massacre
Maronites