Majdal Selem () is a municipality in the

Marjayoun District The Marjayoun District is a district in the Nabatieh Governorate of Lebanon. The capital of the district is Marjayoun. Marjayoun stands at a hill facing Mount Hermon to the East, with Beaufort Castle, Lebanon, Beaufort Castle. The Litani River an ...

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

According to E. H. Palmer, the name ''Mejdel Islim'' means ''Islim's watch-tower'', p.n. Majdal Selem means Fortress of Peace, or Peace Fortress.

History

In 1596, it was named as a village, ''Majdal Salim'', 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 Safad, with a population of 51 households and 8 bachelors, all

Muslim 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 ...

. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25 % 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, vegetable and fruit garden, orchard, goats, beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues" and a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 9,110

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. 181 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 that the village had about 300

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 ...

inhabitants. He further noted: "A

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, now abandoned and falling into ruins, has succeeded here a

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 ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, the materials of which have been used in building it. Over one of the windows is a stone (apparently once the

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented/structural item. In the case ...

) with an old Greek inscription, the characters of which are too much defaced to be read. A monolithic

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

lies beside it, half buried in the ground, surmounted by a

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

sculptured in form of open basket work." In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it as a "large village, built of stone, of ancient appearance, containing about 500 .

. Situated on table land, surrounded by olives and arable land. Water supply from a large masonry birket 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." They further noted: "Village containing several good lintels and remains of ruins; an ancient road leads from the village to the Birkeh." On 15 February 1993, the village was attacked by Israeli helicopter gunships following an attack on SLA positions earlier in the day. During the 1996 Israeli seventeen day bombardment of south Lebanon the Nepalese UNIFIL position in Majdal Selem was hit by eight shells and extensively damaged. On 5 December 1997, three civilians were killed by a roadside bomb. The bomb was believed to have been planted by an Israeli commando special unit. Including this event forty-three civilians had been killed in

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 ...

in 1997. On 8 January 2024, Israeli forces killed Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy commander of

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 ...

's Redwan Force, in an airstrike against his vehicle in Majdal Selem.

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 99.61% of registered voters in Majdal Selem. 98.37% of the voters were Shiite Muslims. https://lub-anan.com/المحافظات/النبطية/مرجعيون/مجدل-سلم/المذاهب/

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

Majdal Selem
MajdalSelem.org

Localiban *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Marjayoun District Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000 Populated places in Marjayoun District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon