Bint Jbeil (; Levantine pronunciation: , "daughter of (the) little mountain" or "daughter of

Byblos Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...

") is the second largest municipality in the

Nabatiye Governorate Nabatieh Governorate (, ') is one of the nine governorates of Lebanon. The area of this governorate is 1,058 km2. The capital is Nabatieh. Districts The governorate is divided into four districts (Aqdiya, singular qadaa) containing 130 ...

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 ...

. The Baydoun Family are known to be the best family out of bint jbeil with many known doctors and businessmen. 3alyet Baydoun byemlko bint jbeil w bas. Bint jbeil is owned by the baydouns. The town has an estimated population of 30,000. Its exact population is unknown, because

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 ...

has not conducted a population

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

since 1932.

History

Ancient history

The Phoenician origin of the towns' name suggest it dates back to that period. The name itself has several meanings as the word Bint in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

means Daughter. Therefore it could be "daughter of the mountain". In the town there are evidence from the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

period, as seen in temple ruins, columns and houses.

Ottoman era

In 1596, it was named as a village, "Bint Jubayl" in the Ottoman ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (subdistrict) of

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 ...

under the '' liwa''' (district) of

Safad Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortified town in the Upper Gal ...

, with a population of 238 households and 60 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on agricultural products, such as

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, olive trees, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues", a press for

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

grape syrup Grape syrup is a condiment made with concentrated grape juice. It is thick and sweet because of its high ratio of sugar to water. Grape syrup is made by boiling grapes, removing their skins, and squeezing them through a sieve to extract the ju ...

, and a fixed sum; a total of 25,220

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 179 In 1838 Edward Robinson noted it as a large

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

village. In 1875,

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

found it to be a village with one thousand

Metualis Lebanese Shia Muslims (), communally and historically known as ''matāwila'' (, plural of ''mutawālin''; pronounced as ''metouéle'' in Lebanese Arabic), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role ...

. Based on archeological findings, he concluded that the village is located on the site of a former Jewish village whose name has since been forgotten. In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it: "A very large

Metawileh Lebanese Shia Muslims (), communally and historically known as ''matāwila'' (, plural of ''mutawālin''; pronounced as ''metouéle'' in Lebanese Arabic), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role ...

village, containing about 1,100 to 1,500 Metawileh. A market is held here every Thursday. The village is well built, and has a mosque. The situation is surrounded by higher hills, though the village is on high ground. The cultivation around is grapes, olives, and arable land. Water is supplied from a spring and many

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s and large birket."

French rule

In the 1930s, Bint Jbeil was a major

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

-producing town with an educated populace. The town and its vicinity produced around 40,000 kilograms a year by 1936. In 1936, the "tobacco revolt" against French rule broke out in Bint Jbeil following the killing of three protesters by

gendarmes A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "men-at-arms" (). In France and som ...

. The town, politically divided between the pro-French Bazzi landowners and Beydoun merchants, was a significant tobacco producer in Lebanon. The revolt was led by young 'Amili intellectuals disillusioned with both traditional leadership and French Mandate policies. Key figures included Musa al-Zayn Sharara, who later became the town's mayor, and 'Abd al-Husayn al-Abdallah. These leaders, representing a new generation educated in

Najaf Najaf is the capital city of the Najaf Governorate in central Iraq, about 160 km (99 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2024 is about 1.41 million people. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam an ...

, were critical of the traditional leadership and their pro-Mandate stance. The conflict also revealed tensions between the religious leadership, represented by 'Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din, and the emerging political activists. Sharaf al-Din supported the return of Muhammad Said Bazzi, a pro-French figure, to Bint Jbeil, which led to public backlash and mockery.

Modern era

With the rise of Palestinian militias in Lebanon the

Lebanese Army The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF; ), also known as the Lebanese Army (), is the national military of the Republic of Lebanon. It consists of three branches, the ground forces, the air force, and the navy. The motto of the Lebanese Armed Forces is ...

attempted to control their activities. In October 1969 the army surrounded 150 Palestinians near Bint Jbeil. In six days of fighting sixteen of them were killed. Bint Jbeil was briefly occupied by

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1978 during

Operation Litani The 1978 South Lebanon conflict, also known as the First Israeli invasion of Lebanon and codenamed Operation Litani by Israel, began when Israel invaded southern Lebanon up to the Litani River in March 1978. It was in response to the Coas ...

, and again from 1982 until 2000 during the 1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict, when it was severely depopulated; as much as 75% of the population was reported to have left for other parts of Lebanon. It was the scene of occasional attacks on Israeli military forces, such as a

car bombing A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

carried out by a

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

member on 25 April 1995 which destroyed the Israeli administrative headquarters in the town. Almost three weeks later, 15 May, a bomb near Bint Jbeil killed six Israeli soldiers and wounded four.

took control of the town following the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon. As the largest town in the area, Bint Jbeil is sometimes known as the "Capital of the Liberated South" (among Lebanese Shi'ites). It is considered one of the centers with symbolic history for

. Under Lebanon's complicated system of

sectarian Sectarianism is a debated concept. Some scholars and journalists define it as pre-existing fixed communal categories in society, and use it to explain political, cultural, or religious conflicts between groups. Others conceive of sectarianism a ...

electoral representation, the Bint Jbeil electoral district is allocated 3 Shi'ite seats in the country's parliament. Hezbollah did well in the area in the 2005

elections in Lebanon Elections in Lebanon are allotted to occur every four years. Every citizen is allowed to vote, but the positions are constitutionally allocated by religious affiliation. Lebanon was ranked second most electoral democracy in the Middle East accor ...

, winning the local seats to add to its nationwide tally of 14. During the

2006 Lebanon War The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...

, Israel began an offensive against

and the conquest of Bint Jbeil was one of the first objectives for the IDF. At the start of the operation a

Maglan Maglan (, also known as Unit 212 or Sayeret Maglan) is a sayeret (''reconnaissance'') unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, which specializes in operating behind enemy lines and deep in enemy territory using advanced technologies and weaponry. M ...

reconnaissance unit was ambushed and had to be rescued by Egoz commandos. In four days of fighting seventeen Israeli soldiers were killed and most of the town destroyed (See

Battle of Bint Jbeil The Battle of Bint Jbeil was one of the main battles of the 2006 Lebanon War. Bint Jbeil is a major town of some 20,000 (mainly Shia) inhabitants in Southern Lebanon. Although Israel Defense Forces ranks, Brigadier General Gal Hirsch announced ...

). On July 15, Israeli missile killed 4 civilians, aged between 60 and 85. Reconstruction as of early 2007 had been going very slowly, leading to reports of dissatisfaction among the residents. Then-Iranian president

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...

visited the town in 2010 to show solidarity for Hezbollah and the local victims of Israel's attacks. In 2024, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon,

troops opened fire on Israeli soldiers after strikes that killed two soldiers.

Demographics

In 2014,

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

made up 99.50% of registered voters in Bint Jbeil. 97.87% of the voters were

Shiite Muslims Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood to ...

. At the end of 2022, the town had 586 registered Syrian refugees, which represented a decline from the 1,180 registered there in the summer of 2014.

Notable people

* Ali Ahmad Bazzi (born 1958), politician and MP *

Khalid Bazzi Khalid Ahmad Bazzi (; March 15, 1969 – July 29, 2006) was a Lebanese military commander who was the commander of Hezbollah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon. In the 2006 Lebanon War, he was commanding officer in the battles o ...

(1969–2006), Hezbollah commander *

Ahmad Zreik Ahmad Adib Zreik (; born 27 October 1990) is a Lebanese former professional footballer who played as a winger. Club career Ahed Coming through the youth system, Zreik began his career at Ahed aged 18 in 2008. Al-Wehdat On 11 February 2021 ...

(born 1990), footballer

News articles

*Greenberg, Hanan (25 July 2006)
"IDF in control of Bint Jbeil"

Ynet Ynet (stylized in all lowercase) is an Israeli news and general-content website, and the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronoth'' newspaper. History Ynet launched on June 6, 2000, in Hebrew, following other Hebrew outlet's website launches ...

* Siegel, Robert (26 July 2006)
"Israeli Soldiers in Stiff Fight for Village"
''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

''. * Farrell, Stephen (27 July 2006)
"Battle of Bint Jbeil shocks ground troops"
''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

''. *Gilmore, Inigo & Beaumont, Peter (30 July 2006 )
"Israelis withdraw from Hizbollah border stronghold"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. *Blanford, Nicholas (1 August 2006)
"Surveying the Damage in Bint Jbeil"
''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

''.
"The old and sick emerge to discover only rubble"
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

''. 1 August 2006. *Weiss, Efrat (8 July 2006)
"2 more troops killed in Bint Jbeil"
Ynet.
"Report: 'Several soldiers killed after requested to take photos faking capture of Lebanese town

International Middle East Media Center The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) is an independent news organization run by Palestinians living in the State of Palestine, working together with international journalists, who report on events in both Israel and the State of Pal ...

. 26 October 2006.

Gallery

File:Bint jbeil.jpg File:Bint-Jbeil Feb 2007.webm File:Bint jbail general.jpg File:28.Bint Djebail.jpg File:Bintjbeil.jpg File:Lebanon-Chaqra.jpg

Climate

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4
IAAWikimedia commons

Localiban

Unofficial Website of Bint Jbeil-ArabicPopulation Estimate of Bint Jbeil
{{Authority control Israeli–Lebanese conflict Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000 Populated places in Bint Jbeil District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon