Shemlan (), (also spelled Chemlane, Chimlane, Shimlan) is a village in the

Aley District Aley () is a district (''qadaa'') in Mount Lebanon, Lebanon, to the south-east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The capital is Aley. Aley city was previously known as the "bride of the summers" during the 1960 and 1970s, when Aley and neighbor ...

of the

Mount Lebanon Governorate Mount Lebanon Governorate () is one of the nine governorates of Lebanon, of which it is the most populous. Its capital is Baabda. Other notable towns and cities include Aley, Bikfaya, and Beit Mery. This governorate is named after the mount ...

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 ...

, located about 25 km from

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 ...

History

Shemlan is first mentioned in chronicles as early as the 12th century. Under Ottoman rule, Shemlan and surrounding villages were controlled first by the

Maan family The Ma'n dynasty (, alternatively spelled ''Ma'an''), also known as the Ma'nids; (), were a family of Druze chiefs of Arab stock based in the rugged Chouf area of southern Mount Lebanon who were politically prominent in the 15th–17th centuries ...

and then by the Shihab dynasty. Power struggles led to the departure of some rival Druze, and their replacement by Christians from the North, which in 1828 prompted the establishment of a Maronite Christian monastery, now the village church. In 1838,

Eli Smith Eli Smith (September 13, 1801 – January 11, 1857) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. Biography Smith was born in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (née Whitney) Smith. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from A ...

noted the place, called ''Shumlan'', located in ''El-Ghurb el-Fokany'', upper ''el-Ghurb''. For more than a century, Shemlan consisted of five extended families: the Maronite Christian Jabbours, Hittis, Tabibs, and Farjallahs, plus the

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

Moukaddems, once lords and chief land-owners. Due to its strategic location overlooking Beirut International Airport and the diverse political make-up of the area, Shemlan became a fierce battleground during the 1958 civil war and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Most inhabitants fled during the 1975 – 1990 civil war, many never to return. In 1948, the British Government opened the

Middle East Centre for Arab Studies The Middle East Centre for Arab Studies (MECAS) was an Arabic language college created by the British Army during World War II in Jerusalem, and relocated afterwards as a civilian institution to Lebanon near Beirut where it functioned between 1947� ...

(MECAS) in Shemlan. This school gained a reputation as being a "spy school" because of allegations, made by Lebanese politician Kamal Jumblatt, that many of its graduates worked for the C.I.A. or

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

. However, the only proven case of a spy studying at MECAS was that of British/Soviet double agent

George Blake George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020) was a Espionage, spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the Minist ...

, who was escorted from MECAS and formally arrested at Heathrow airport.

Notable citizens

Philip Khuri Hitti Philip Khuri Hitti (; 22 June 1886 – 24 December 1978) was a Lebanese-American professor and scholar at Princeton and Harvard University, and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history, Islam, and Semitic languages. He almost single-handedly ...

(1886–1978), a renowned

Lebanese American Lebanese Americans () are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States of America, as well as immigrants from Lebanon and Latin America. Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the American populatio ...

author and professor on the Middle East, was Shemlan's most famous resident.

References

Bibliography

External links

Shimlan
- official municipality website (English)

Localiban {{Aley District Populated places in Aley District Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon