Marjayoun (Arabic: مرجعيون: Lebanese pronunciation[ˈmaɾʒ.ʕajuːn]), also Marj 'Ayoun, MarjuyunorMarjeyoun (lit. "meadow of springs") which reflects the area's lush landscape and abundant water resources and Jdeideh / Jdeida / Jdeidet Marjeyoun, is a Lebanese town and an administrative district, the Marjeyoun District, in the Nabatieh GovernorateinSouthern Lebanon.
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 – discuss]
Marjeyoun stands on a hill facing Mt Hermon to the east, the Crusader castle of Beaufort, 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.
In the 1596 tax records, it was named as a village, Jadida, in the Ottomannahiya (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.[1][2]
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.[5]
During the 2006 war between Israel and the Hezbollah organisation, after cease-fire negotiations stalled on August 10, Israeli forces took control of Marjayoun.[6] 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 killed at least seven people, and is known as the Marjayoun convoy incident.[7]
Religion in Marjayoun according to 2022 elections data
The town of Marjayoun has a Christian majority population of about 5,000 people.[dubious – discuss]Greek Orthodox Christians compose the vast majority of the town's population, however, there are also Maronite and Greek Catholic Christians living in Marjayoun. Many Marjayouni Christian families trace their roots to the Hauran region, in present day Syria.[8] Outside the town, most villages in the surrounding valleys and mountains are predominantly Shia Muslim.[9]
An abandoned airfield is located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of 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 are located the ruins of "Marjayoun Airport" or what is known as "Al-Marj Airport" or "English Airport". The green color of the Marjayoun Plain is only disturbed by forgotten walls from the days of World War II, their hard stones separating the fertile agricultural lands of the Marjayoun Plain. During the Second World War, the region of the Marjayoun Plain 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, or if the German Army managed to advance into Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.[13]
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]
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
^Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6Archived 2016-10-10 at the Wayback Machine writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
Lebanon
