Marjayoun
Marjayoun (Arabic: مرج عيون: Lebanese pronunciation[ˈmaɾʒ.ʕajuːn]), also Marj 'Ayoun, Marjuyun or Marjeyoun (lit. "meadow of springs") and Jdeideh / Jdeida / Jdeidet Marjeyoun, is a Lebanese town and an administrative district, the Marjeyoun District, in the Nabatieh Governorate in Southern Lebanon.
Marjayoun مرج عيون | |
|---|---|
City | |
Marjayoun Location in Lebanon | |
| Coordinates: 33°21′30″N 35°35′20″E / 33.35833°N 35.58889°ECoordinates: 33°21′30″N 35°35′20″E / 33.35833°N 35.58889°E | |
| Grid position | 135/158 L |
| Country | Lebanon |
| Governorate | Nabatieh Governorate |
| District | Maryajoun |
| Elevation | 860 m (2,822 ft) |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 3,000[1] |
| • Religions | Greek Orthodoxy Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Baniyas Maronite Catholicism Greek Catholicism Shia Islam Sunni Islam Druze |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
Geography
Marjayoun is 860 metres (2,822 ft) above sea level, standing on the west side of the Jordan Rift Valley just across from the ancient regional capital, Caesarea Philippi, which was located at the foot of Mount Hermon on the east side of the Rift Valley. It is not to be confused with the Banias Springs at Caesarea Philippi.[dubious ]
Marjeyoun stands on a hill facing Mt Hermon to the east, the Crusader castle of Beafort, set above the Litani River and overlooking Mount Amel (Jabal Amel), to the west, the Mount Lebanon range with the Rihan and Niha peaks to the north, with the fertile Marjeyoun plains extending southward into the Galilee plains and the Golan Heights.
History
Crusader period
On June 10, 1179, during the Battle of Marj Ayyun, an Ayyubid army defeated a crusader army. The crusader king narrowly escaped being captured in the rout.[citation needed]
Ottoman period
In the 1596 tax records, it was named as a village, Jadida, in the Ottoman nahiya (subdistrict) of Tibnin under the liwa' (district) of Safad, with a population of 28 households and 12 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues" and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 9,606 akçe.[2][3]
In 1875 Victor Guérin visited Marjayoun (which he called Djedeideh), and found it to have about 2,000 inhabitants, mostly "Schismatic Greek" (i.e. Melkite Uniats), but also some Greek Orthodox and Muslims.[4]
The Saint Peter's Cathedral was built in 1892 and it was restored in 1968 after a fire.[citation needed]
20th-21st centuries
During the Syria-Lebanon Campaign of World War II, British and Australian forces advancing from Palestine entered the town on 11 June 1941 against badly equipped defenders, but were forced to withdraw on 15 June following a Vichy French counterattack.[5] The Allies recaptured the town on 24 June in the Battle of Merdjayoun.
Marjayoun was the headquarters of the South Lebanon Army, the Israel-affiliated militia that controlled southern Lebanon during Israel's occupation of the region after the 1982 Lebanon War until Israel's withdrawal from the region in 2000.[6]
During the 2006 war between Israel and the Hezbollah organisation, after cease-fire negotiations stalled on August 10, Israeli forces took control of Marjayoun.[7] The next day, a convoy of 3,000 people fled from the town. The convoy was attacked by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) northeast of Hasbaya en route to Kefraya, in the south of the Bekaa valley. The bombing resulted in the deaths of at least seven people, and is known as the Marjayoun convoy incident.[8]
Demography
Religion in Marjayoun according to 2022 elections data
The town of Marjayoun has an overwhelmingly Christian population of about 5,000 people.[dubious ] Greek Orthodox Christians compose the vast majority of the town's population, however, there are also Maronite and Greek Catholic Christians living in Marjayoun. Outside the town, most villages in the surrounding valleys and mountains are predominantly Shia Muslim.[9]
The Melkite Saint Peter's Cathedral was built in 1892 and restored in 1968 after a fire and in 2009.[10] Marjayoun is the seat of the Melkite (Greek Catholic) Archeparchy of Baniyas, which includes the southeastern part of Lebanon.[11]
Parliamentary representation
The district of Marjayoun, which includes the town, is largely Shia Muslim. It holds three seats in the Lebanese government, two belonging to Shia Muslims and one belonging to Greek Orthodox Christians.[citation needed]
Hospital
Marjayoun is home to a regional government hospital founded in 1960,[citation needed] and a Lebanese Red Cross First Aid Center.[12]
Marjayoun Airfield
An abandoned airfield is located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south near Metula. Ruins of buildings and outline of the runways and taxiway are all that remains. In a strategic triangle linking Lebanon with Palestine and Syria is located the ruins of "Marjayoun Airport" or what is known as "Al-Marj Airport" or "English Airport" is located. The green color in the Marjayoun Plain is only disturbed by forgotten walls from the days of World War II, separating their hard stones between the fertile agricultural lands of the Marjayoun Plain. During the Second World War, the Marjayoun Plain and the region formed an arena of confrontation between the allies on one side and the German army on the other, so the allies had to fortify themselves, specifically in the Marjayoun plain, which was a defensive area or a back line of confrontations if Egypt fell into the hands of the German army. And if the German Army manages to advance to Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.[13]
Notable people
- Michael DeBakey (1908–2008) – cardiac surgeon, whose parents are from Marjeyoun
- Brigitte Gabriel – journalist, author and lecturer
- Walid Gholmieh – director of the Le Conservatoire libanais national supérieur de musique; born in Marjeyoun
- Major Saad Haddad – founder and head of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) during the Lebanese Civil War
- James Jabara – Lebanese-American U.S. Air Force Major, the first jet ace of the Korean war, flew missions in WW II and Vietnam; born in 1923 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, both his father, John Jabara, and mother being immigrants from Marjeyoun
- Dr. Richard Jabara, born in Marjeyoun (1920–1967), philanthropist, founded several hospitals from Tripoli in Lebanon to Saudi Arabia[14]
- George Jordac (1931–2014) – author and poet.
- Alfred Naifeh, born 1915 in Covington, Tennessee, to a Lebanese immigrant family from Jdeidet Marjeyoun; U.S. naval destroyer USS Naifeh is named after him
- Issam Mahfouz (1939–2006) – writer, journalist
- Anthony Shadid – journalist
- Michael Shadid – physician, born in Marjeyoun
- General Ghassan Barakat; Former General in the Internal Security Forces
- Saad Ayoub Tayar(1888-1958)
Lebanese-Mexican Textile and Real Estate Entrepreneur http://www.emigrantelibanes.com/cgi-bin/InmiDatos?RN=%20%20%20%20%20%201272&MuestraImagen=1
See also
- Antiochian Greek Christians
- Arab Christians
- Christianity in Lebanon
- Greek genocide
- Greek Orthodox (Roum Orthodox) Christians in Lebanon
- History of Arab Christians
- History of Eastern Christianity
- History of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the Ottoman Empire
- Lebanese Americans
- Persecution of Eastern Orthodox Christians
References
- ^ Alsalem, Reem (9 September 2006). "Lebanese struggle to repair far wider damage than destroyed houses". Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
- ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 182
- ^ Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
- ^ Guérin, 1880, pp. 281-281
- ^ Jean Tsadik (2001). (in French). Archived from the original on 2007-10-07. Retrieved 2016-09-08.
- ^ Hirst, David. 1999. South Lebanon: The war that never ends? Journal of Palestine Studies 28(3).
- ^ CNN.com - Sources: U.S., France agree on peace plan - August 10, 2006
- ^ HRW, 2007, pp. 160-166
- ^ "In South Lebanon, a Christian Town Somberly Faces the Future".
- ^ "Cathédrale Saint-Pierre".
- ^ Archeparchy of Bāniyās (Melkite Greek) at catholic-hierarchy.org, accessed 27 July 2020
- ^ , Lebanese Red Cross
- ^ "«المطار الإنكليزي» في مرجعيون: آثار منسيّة من الحرب العالمية الثانية".
- ^ "المستشفيات بجدة - شبكة تراثيات الثقافية".
Bibliography
- Guérin, V. (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 3: Galilee, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- HRW (2007). Why They Died: Civilian Casualties in Lebanon During the 2006 War. Human Rights Watch.
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Rhode, H. (1979). Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safed in the Sixteenth Century (PhD). Columbia University.
- Riley - Smith, J. (1973). The Feudal Nobility and the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1174 - 1277. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd. ISBN 0-208-01348-2.
External links
- Marjaayoun, Localiban
- Marjeyoun Heritage Preservation Program (MHPP)
- marjeyoun.net - unofficial website
- Information about Marjayoun, Lebanon at marjayoun.com
- Khiam official website
- "Jdeideh Marjeyoun Now & Then" video (MHPP)
- Marjayoun on Google Map
Photo galleries
- (MHPP) Marjeyoun Photo and video gallery
Videos
- (MHPP) Jdeidet Marjeyoun 1,000 Year History (English Version)
- Tour of Jdeidet Marjeyoun, Lebanon
- (MHPP) Road Trip To Jdeidet Marjeyoun
- Easter 2014 in Jdeidet Marjeyoun
- (MHPP) Jdeida Lives Now and Then