Marjayoun or Jdeidet Marjayoun (: Lebanese Arabic pronunciation ), also Marj 'Ayoun, Marjuyun or Marjeyoun (lit. "meadow of springs") which reflects the area's lush landscape and abundant water resources and Jdeideh / Jdeida / Jdeidet Marjeyoun, is a municipality, in the Marjeyoun District, Nabatieh Governorate in Southern Lebanon.
History
Crusader period
On June 10, 1179, during the Battle of Marj Ayyun, the
defeated the
Crusades. The Crusader king narrowly escaped capture.
Ottoman period
In 1596, 'Jadida' appears in the
daftar of
Ottoman Empire nahiya (subdistrict) of
Tibnin in the
liwa' (district) of
Safad, as a Muslim village of 28 households and 12 bachelors. 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.
[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]
In 1875 Victor Guérin visited Marjayoun (which he called Djedeideh), and found 2,000 inhabitants, mostly "Schismatic Greek" (i.e. Melkite ), but also some Greek Orthodox and Muslims.[Guérin, 1880, pp. 281-281]
Saint Peter's Cathedral, built in 1892, was restored in 1968 after a fire. It was also later restored in 2009.
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, but were forced to withdraw on 15 June following a
Vichy French counterattack.
The Allies recaptured the town on 24 June in the Battle of Merdjayoun.
Marjayoun was the headquarters of the South Lebanon Army, the militia that controlled southern Lebanon during Israel's occupation of the region after the 1982 Lebanon War until its withdrawal from the region in 2000.[Hirst, David. 1999. South Lebanon: The war that never ends? Journal of Palestine Studies 28(3).] Following the pullout, many residents of Marjayoun fled to Israel, fearing accusations of collaboration.
On August 10, 2006, after the breakdown of ceasefire negotiations in the 2006 Lebanon War, Israeli forces took control of Marjayoun.[ CNN.com – Sources: U.S., France agree on peace plan – August 10, 2006] 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.[HRW, 2007, pp. 160-166]
Geography
Marjayoun is 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.
Marjeyoun stands on a hill facing Mt Hermon to the east, the Crusader castle of Beaufort, set above the Litani River and overlooking Jabal Amil (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.
Demographics
In 2014 Christians made up 74.36% and Muslims made up 25.36% of registered voters in Marjayoun. 39.05% of the voters were Greek Orthodox, 18.98% were Greek Catholics and 19.69% were Sunni Muslims.
The town of Marjayoun has a Christian majority population of about 5,000 people. 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.
The Melkite Saint Peter's Cathedral was built in 1892 and restored in 1968 after a fire and in 2009.[ Archeparchy of Bāniyās (Melkite Greek) at catholic-hierarchy.org, accessed 27 July 2020]
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.
Hospital
Marjayoun is home to a regional government hospital founded in 1960,
and a Lebanese Red Cross First Aid Center.
[ "Our Centers – First Aid Centers", Lebanese Red Cross] This government hospital was closed due to Israeli attacks to Lebanon in October 2024 and killed and injured number of hospital staff.
Marjayoun Airfield
An abandoned airfield is located south of Metula. Ruins of buildings and outline of the runways and taxiway are all that remains.
In a strategic triangle linking Lebanon with Israel 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.
Notable people
-
Michael DeBakey (1908–2008) – cardiac surgeon, whose parents are from Marjeyoun
-
Richard Rashid — founder of Microsoft Research, father from Marjeyoun.
-
Brigitte Gabriel – journalist, author and lecturer
-
Dima Kandalaft - Syrian actress, her mother is lebanese from marjayoun.
-
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
-
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
-
Hicham Haddad – comedian, actor and TV host
Climate
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
Bibliography
External links
Photo galleries
Videos
