Belad Besharah in the 1858 van de Velde maps

Belad Bechara, also spelled Bilad Beshara (), is a popular and historic name for a mountainous region in

Jabal Amel Jabal Amil (; also spelled Jabal Amel and historically known as Jabal Amila) is a cultural and geographic region in Southern Lebanon largely associated with its long-established, predominantly Twelver Shia Muslim inhabitants. Its precise boundari ...

Southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa districts, the southernmost distr ...

Etymology

Some historians believe that the name ''Belad Bechara'' means the "Country of the Gospel" in reference to the teaching and revelation of Christ in the region while others believe it is in reference to an Ayyubid prince by the name of Bechara.

Geography

Belad Bechara is the mountainous region that lies south of the

Litani River The Litani River (), the classical Leontes (), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding in length, the ...

, extending southward to

Upper Galilee The Upper Galilee (, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; , ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Part of the larger Galilee region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terra ...

, and including the

Hula Valley The Hula Valley () is a valley and fertile agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water that used to be Lake Hula before it was drained. It is a major stopover for birds migrating along the Great Rift Valley between Africa ...

Hunin Hunin () was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Galilee Panhandle part of Mandatory Palestine, close to the Lebanon, Lebanese border. It was the second largest village in the district of Safed, but was depopulated in 1948.Gelb ...

, and

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

History

According to

Abrahamic The term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...

traditions, Belad Bechara is the northernmost part of the

Promised Land In the Abrahamic religions, the "Promised Land" ( ) refers to a swath of territory in the Levant that was bestowed upon Abraham and his descendants by God in Abrahamic religions, God. In the context of the Bible, these descendants are originally ...

, which was the division of the tribes of Azer and

Naphtali According to the Book of Genesis, Naphtali (; ) was the sixth son of Jacob, the second of his two sons with Bilhah. He was the founder of the Israelite tribe of Naphtali. Some biblical commentators have suggested that the name ''Naphtali'' ma ...

, and later took the name of

. In 1881, C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener mentioned ten villages in the ''Belad Besharah'' region on their map 2, namely: 'Aita ez Zut, Berashit, Haris, El Jumeijmeh, Kefrah,

Meis Meis is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra. Meis can also be referred to as a name originating from Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between ...

, Safed el Battikh,

Tibnin Tibnin ( ''Tibnīn'', also Romanized ''Tibnîn'', ''Tebnine'' etc.) is a municipality spread across several hills (ranging in altitude from 700m to 800m (2,275 ft to 2,600 ft) above sea level) located about east of Tyre, Lebanon, Tyre ...

, Kulat Tibnin and El Yehudiyeh. On map 3 there was one village; Salhaneh. The remaining 27 villages were on map 4: 'Ain Ibl, 'Ainata, 'Aita esh Shaub, 'Aitherun, Beit Lif, Beit Yahun, Belideh, Bint Umm Jubeil, Deishun,

Dibl Drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) is a short-channel effect in MOSFETs referring originally to a reduction of threshold voltage of the transistor at higher drain voltages. In a classic planar field-effect transistor with a long channel, the ...

, Haddatha, Hanin, Kades, El Kozah, Kunin, El Malkiyeh, Marun er Ras, Neby Muheibib,

Ramia The following is a list of the major characters from the anime and manga series ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki'' and its spin-offs ''Tenchi Muyo! GXP'', '' Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar'', '' Tenchi Universe'', '' Tenchi in Tokyo'', and '' Ai Tenchi Muyo! ...

, Rumeish, Rusheif,

Salhah Saliha (), sometimes transliterated Salha, meaning 'the good/healthy place', was a Palestinian Arab village located 12 kilometres northwest of Safed. The Franco-British boundary agreement of 1920 placed Saliha within the French Mandate of Le ...

, Es Salihiyeh, Surubbin, Et Tireh, Yater and Yarun.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p
203
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* {{refend West Asia category:Regions of Lebanon Geography of Lebanon

Etymology

Geography

History

See also

References

Bibliography