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 in the
Sidon District
The Sidon District () is a district within the South Governorate of Lebanon.
Municipalities
The following 53 municipalities are all located in the Sidon District:
* Aabra
* Al-Aaddoussiyah
* Aadloun
* Aanqoun
* Aaqtanit
* Ain ad-Delb
* An ...
. It is home to about 20,000 people, over half of whom are emigrants to West Africa, Europe and the Americas. The etymology of "Zrarieh" is derived from the
Aramaic
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
word for rose or flower. Zrarieh's residents are
Shia Muslims
Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...
by religious confession.
Historically, the village has supported the
Lebanese Communist Party
The Lebanese Communist Party (LCP; , transliterated: ) is a communist party in Lebanon. It was founded in 1943 as a division of the Syrian–Lebanese Communist Party into the Syrian Communist Party and the Lebanese Communist Party, but the divi ...
though in more recent years, support has shifted to more mainstream Shia parties.
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 ...
passed by the village (which he called ''Zerarieh'') on his travels in the region, noting that it "crowned a hill".
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 99.45% of registered voters in Az-Zrariyah. 98.41% 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 ...
.
Notable people
*
Kamel Mrowa
Kamel Mrowa (, also spelled ''Mroue'' or ''Mroueh'', 1915 – 16 May 1966) was a Lebanese publisher, journalist, writer and ideologue. He was the founder of the Lebanese Arabic daily ''Al-Hayat'' (Arabic الحياة, meaning "Life") in 1946, t ...