Ashqout ( ar, عشقوت; also spelled ''Ashkout'', ''Achqout'', ''`Ashqut'') is a town and municipality in the

Keserwan District Keserwan District ( ar, قضاء كسروان, transliteration: ''Qaḍā' Kisrawān'') is a district (''qadaa'') in Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate, Lebanon, to the northeast of Lebanon's capital Beirut. The capital, Jounieh, is overwhelmingly Maroni ...

of the

Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate Keserwan-Jbeil ( ar, كسروان - جبيل) is the most recently created governorate of Lebanon. It consists of the districts of Jbeil and Keserwan. Keserwan-Jbeil covers an area of and is bounded by the North Governorate to the north, the ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. It is located 31 kilometers north of

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. Ashqout's average elevation is 1,000 meters above sea level and its total land area is 588

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s. Its inhabitants are predominantly

Maronite Catholic The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic '' sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The current head of the ...

, with Christians from other denominations in the minority. Ottoman tax records indicate Ashqout had 43 Christian households in 1523, 43 Christian households and seven bachelors in 1530, and 33 Christian households and 14 bachelors in 1543. The town has three schools, one public and two private, in the town, with a total of 739 students as of 2008. The El-Hajj Hospital, which has 28 beds, is located in Ashqout. It is the birthplace of

Ahmad Faris Shidyaq Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq ( ar, أحمد فارس الشدياق, ; born Faris ibn Yusuf al-Shidyaq; born 1805 or 1806; died 20 September 1887) was a scholar, writer and journalist who grew up in what is now present-day Lebanon. A Maronite Christia ...

(1804–1887);

Paul Peter Massad Paul I Peter Massad (born 16 February 1806 in Ashqout, Lebanon – died on 18 April 1890 in Bkerké, Lebanon) (or Boulos Boutros Massaad, ''Mas'ad'', ar, بولس الأول بطرس مسعد) was the 70th Maronite Patriarch of Antioch from 1854 ...

(1806–1890); and

Rayyane Tabet Rayyane Tabet (born 1983) is a Lebanese visual artist, he is known for his sculpture. He has lived and worked in both Beirut and San Francisco. Early life and education Rayyane Tabet was born in 1983 in Ashqout, Lebanon. He has training as an a ...

(born 1983).

References

Bibliography

* {{Keserwan District Populated places in Keserwan District Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon