Ammatour () is a town and municipality in the Shouf (Al-Shouf) District in

Mount Lebanon Governorate Mount Lebanon Governorate () is one of the nine governorates of Lebanon, of which it is the most populous. Its capital is Baabda. Other notable towns and cities include Aley, Bikfaya, and Beit Mery. This governorate is named after the mount ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. It lies 57 km southeast of

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, at an elevation of between 800 and 1,050 meters above sea level. The name "Ammatour" is derived from the words 'Ain Maa Tour' (عين ماء طور), meaning the spring of the mountain. Ammatour is one of Lebanon's richest villages in sources of water with more than 365 springs, fountains, and a river located within its jurisdiction.

History

Politically and administratively, Ammatour was declared one of the five "Special status" villages in Mount Lebanon in 1711, which were outside the control of any "

iqta' An iqta () and occasionally iqtaʿa () was an Islamic practice of farming out tax revenues yielded by land granted temporarily to army officials in place of a regular wage; it became common in the Muslim empire of the Caliphate. Iqta has been defi ...

" (feudal lordship). Instead, its inhabitants paid their land tax directly to the treasury of the office of the Ottoman governor of Mount Lebanon.Polk, 1963 p.43 Ammatour occupies a significant religious position as the birthplace of five ''shuyukh uqqal'' (sing. ''sheikh aql''), who serve as the religious leaders of the

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

community.Al-Basha, 1985 pp.29–44Al-Basha, 1985 pp.138–150 Furthermore, the first Patriarch of the

Melkite Greek Catholic Church The Melkite Greek Catholic Church (, ''Kanīsat ar-Rūm al-Malakiyyīn al-Kāṯūlīk''; ; ), also known as the Melkite Byzantine Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catho ...

in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

was anointed and appointed in Ammatour in 1724.See the letter sent by Sheikh Mohammad Abu Shakra, The Sheikh Al-Aql of the Druze to Pope John Paul II in January 1983, published in the following:. A son of a Melkite family from the town, Archbishop

Joseph Gebara Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

served until 2024 as Melkite Catholic Archbishop of Jordan. In 1927, the municipality of Ammatour was founded, and documented records indicate that the town had mayors since 1870.

Demographics

Ammatour has about 4000 registered residents made up of a

majority and a Christian minority consisting of

Melkite The term Melkite (), also written Melchite, refers to various Eastern Christian churches of the Byzantine Rite and their members originating in West Asia. The term comes from the common Central Semitic root ''m-l-k'', meaning "royal", referrin ...

Catholics and

Maronites Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally resided near Mount ...

. Its communities have lived together in harmony for centuries. The largest and best known of its Druze families are Abou Chakra (also written as "Abu/Bou Shakra/Chakra") and Abdel Samad (also written "Abdul Samad"), both of which have played major political, economic and religious roles in Lebanon's history, particularly during the 19th century. The largest Christian families are Salem, Jebara (also written as "Gebara"), Lutaif and Bou Raad.

Culture

Ammatour enjoys one of the highest literacy and higher education rates in Lebanon; many of its inhabitants hold prominent political, educational, cultural, financial and military jobs in Lebanon and abroad. Its public school, founded in 1926, is one of the oldest public schools in Lebanon, and the second to have its students sit for the intermediate certificate examinations. In 1936 a group of young, educated people from Ammatour founded one of Lebanon's first public libraries, and named it ''"Ghurfat Al-Mutala'a Ad-Dimuqratiyya"'' (The Democratic Reading Room). Within a few years, in 1943, they published their own magazine “''Beit Ath-Thaqaafa”'' (The Home of Culture), which was one of the first of its kind in the country. The town's cultural activities are undertaken by its social and sporting clubs and associations, including: The Social Sporting Club of Ammatour - Amigos Ammatour sports association, The Ammatour Women's Association, and The Cultural Meeting Association ''(Jami'yyat Al-Liqaa Al-Thaqafi)''. The Amigos are one of the best sport clubs in the region, and has had a great era during the 1970s and 1980s, winning a lot of trophies in several sports, including:

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

. In mid-September Ammatour celebrates its annual festival ''“Eid Az-Zaitoun”'' (The Olives Festival), which usually has rich musical and singing programmes marking the end of summer and welcoming the approaching

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

harvest season. Furthermore, Ammatour is now home to one of the world’s largest tree nurseries. It’s only half-finished at the moment, but when it is complete it will be a place where a million trees can be grown at a time and then transported to areas at risk of desertification and other threats to the environment.

Notes

References

External links

Aammatour
Localiban
Locate Lebanon - Ammatour

{{Chouf District Populated places in Chouf District Druze communities in Lebanon Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon Melkite Christian communities in Lebanon