Rab Thalathin () 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 ...

in southern

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 ...

Etymology

According to E. H. Palmer, the name ''Rubb Thelâthin'' comes from ''rubb'' meaning syrup; and ''thelâthin'' meaning thirty.

History

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 inhabited by

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 ...

. He further remarked that the

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 ...

was constructed out of parts from an old

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 ...

. In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) found here "several

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 ...

s and

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 described it: "A small village, built of stone, containing about 100

, situated on a hill-top, surrounded by figs and arable land; water supply from

s and spring near, and a small birket.

Modern era

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 ...

, on the 10th of August, Israeli missiles killed five women in the village, aged from 31 to 82 years of age. According to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

there were no indications that

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 ...

fighters were present at the time of the strikes. In October 2024 the IDF claimed to have blown up a large underground complex at Rab Thalathin, said to have been in construction for a decade or more. The complex - the IDF claimed - was ready to host 200 Hezbollah militants, and included computerized communications control rooms, supplies for months, ammunition on a battalion scale, RPGs, long-range anti-tank missiles, charges of various sizes, hundreds of rifles, and other tactical equipment. This was the largest ever engineered explosion by the IDF.

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 99.56% of registered voters in Rab Thalathin. 97.05% 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 ...

. https://lub-anan.com/المحافظات/النبطية/مرجعيون/ربثلاثين/المذاهب/

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Rabb Et Talatine
Localiban *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Marjayoun District Populated places in Marjayoun District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon