Sultan Yacoub (Sultan Yakoub, Sultan Yaakov) () is a Lebanese village in the West Beqaa District, about seven kilometers (four miles) from the border with

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

History

Name

The village is named after Yacoub ibn

Ibrahim ibn Adham Ibrahim ibn Adham also called Ibrahim Balkhi and Ebrahim-e Adham (); c. 718 – c. 782 / AH c. 100 – c. 165 is one of the most prominent of the early Sufi saints known for his zuhd (asceticism). The story of his conversion is one of the mos ...

(d. 782), the son of the famous Sufi master nicknamed Sultan, and buried in nearby

Jableh Jableh (; ', also spelt ''Jebleh'', ''Jabala'', ''Jablah, Gabala'' or ''Gibellum'') is a Mediterranean coastal city in Syria, north of Baniyas and south of Latakia, with c. 80,000 inhabitants (2004 census). As Ancient ''Gabala'', it was a By ...

, Syria, as the inscription on the grave reads. However, a myth was perpetuated lately by journalists on Lebanese and Moroccan online media eager for click baits and shocker headlines, who confused the Yacoub in question with the Almohad ruler

Yaqub al-Mansur Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Yūsuf ibn Abd al-Muʾmin al-Manṣūr (; d. 23 January 1199), commonly known as Yaqub al-Mansur () or Moulay Yacoub (), was the third Almohad caliph. Succeeding his father, al-Mansur reigned from 1184 to 1199. His reig ...

(d. 1199). Two clerics from the region tried to write a history of their town, and they too conflated Sultan Yacoub ibn Ibrahim, with the most famous of all Almohad rulers, Yaqub al-Mansur, and they copy/pasted included several pages from

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...

and Ibn Adhari concerning the Almohad sultan in their editions of the history of the village, to the point where excerpts from their book having been printed and posted on the entrance of the shrine, thereby further reinforcing the myth among the unassuming locals.

Battle in the Lebanon War

The ''battle for Sultan Yacoub'', part of the Lebanon War, occurred on June 12, 1982. During the battle, a column of

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

(IDF) armored vehicles were ambushed at a narrow pass near the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

by the

ns. Eighteen IDF soldiers died in the battle, which was viewed as an Israeli intelligence failure. Three IDF soldiers remain unaccounted for. Five soldiers were captured with two being released in subsequent exchange deals. Reports say that the remaining three were paraded through Damascus held on top of their captured tank. Time Magazine reporter Dean Brelis testified to having seen the 3 captives alive at the time. Among the three is an American Citizen named Zachary Baumel, whose remains were returned after an Israeli intelligence operation on April 3, 2019, Zvi Feldman, whose remains were recovered in May 2025, and Yehuda Katz, who remains missing.

Syrian influence

After the evacuation of Lebanon in April, 2005 by Syria, Sultan Yacoub remains a focal point of tension over sovereignty. The

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

-General Command has a base nearby the village, and dozens of PFLP-GC have been caught trying to sneak illegally across the Beqaa Valley to Sultan Yacoub.

Rocket attacks on Israel

In May, 2006, three to eight

Katyusha Katyusha () is a diminutive of the Russian name Ekaterina or Yekaterina, the Russian form of Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in c ...

rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon. The IDF responded by with a missile strike on the PFLP base at Sultan Yacoub.

Demography

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 Sultan Yacoub's population all being

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p
141
/ref> Along with Baaloul, the village was an important source for Arab immigration to Southern America, especially Brazil and Colombia where entire Arab immigrant communities are made exclusively from people originally from these two villages, such as in Maicao, Colombia.

References

Bibliography

External links

Soultan Yaaqoub
Localiban {{Western Beqaa District Populated places in Western Beqaa District