Ashqout (; also spelled ''Ashkout'', ''Achqout'', ''`Ashqut'') is a town and municipality in the

Keserwan District Keserwan District (, transliteration: ''Qaḍā' Kisrawān'') is a district (''qadaa'') in Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate, Lebanon, to the northeast of Lebanon's capital Beirut. The capital, Jounieh, is overwhelmingly Maronite Christian. The area ...

of the

Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate Keserwan-Jbeil () is the most recently created governorate of Lebanon. It consists of the districts of Jbeil and Keserwan. Keserwan-Jbeil covers an area of and is bounded by the North Governorate to the north, the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate to ...

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 is located 31 kilometers north 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 ...

. Ashqout's average elevation is 1,000 meters above sea level and its total land area is 588

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s. Its inhabitants are predominantly

Maronite Catholic The Maronite Church (; ) is an Eastern Catholic ''sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The head of the Maronite ...

, with Christians from other denominations in the minority. Ottoman tax records indicate Ashqout had 43 Christian households in 1523, 43 Christian households and seven bachelors in 1530, and 33 Christian households and 14 bachelors in 1543. The town has three schools, one public and two private, in the town, with a total of 739 students as of 2008. The El-Hajj Hospital, which has 28 beds, is located in Ashqout. It is the birthplace of

Ahmad Faris Shidyaq Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (, ; born Faris ibn Yusuf al-Shidyaq; 1805 or 1806 – 20 September 1887) was an Ottoman scholar, writer and journalist who grew up in what is now present-day Lebanon. A Maronite Christian by birth, he later lived in majo ...

(1804–1887);

Paul Peter Massad Paul I Peter Massad, or Boulos Boutros Massaad (also Mas'ad; ; 16 February 1806 – 18 April 1890) was the 70th Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch from 1854 until his death in 1890. Life Massad was born in the village of Ashqout in the Ke ...

(1806–1890); and Rayyane Tabet (born 1983).

References

Bibliography

* {{Keserwan District Populated places in Keserwan District Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon