Belad Besharah in the 1858 van de Velde maps

Belad Bechara, also spelled Bilad Beshara ( ar, بلاد بشارة), is a popular and historic name for a mountainous region in

Jabal Amel Jabal Amil ( ar, جبل عامل, Jabal ʿĀmil), also spelled Jabal Amel and historically known as Jabal Amila, is a cultural and geographic region in Southern Lebanon largely associated with its long-established, predominantly Twelver Shia Musl ...

Southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distric ...

Etymology

Some historians believe that the name ''Belad Bechara'' means the "Country of the Gospel" in reference to the teaching and revelation of Christ in the region while others believe it is in reference to an Ayyubid Prince by the name of Bechara.

Geography

Belad Bechara is the mountainous region that lies south of the

Litani River The Litani River ( ar, نهر الليطاني, Nahr al-Līṭānī), the classical Leontes ( grc-gre, Λέοντες, Léontes, lions), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of B ...

, extending southward to

Upper Galilee The Upper Galilee ( he, הגליל העליון, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; ar, الجليل الأعلى, ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical-political term in use since the end of the Second Temple period. It originally referred to a mountai ...

, and including the

Hula Valley The Hula Valley ( he, עמק החולה, translit. ''Emek Ha-Ḥula''; also transliterated as Huleh Valley, ar, سهل الحولة) is an agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water, which used to be Lake Hula, prior t ...

Hunin Hunin ( ar, هونين) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Galilee Panhandle part of Mandatory Palestine close to the Lebanese border. It was the second largest village in the district of Safed, but was depopulated in 1948.Gelber, 2006, p. ...

, and

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fo ...

History

According to

Abrahamic The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran. Jewish tradition ...

traditions, Belad Bechara is the northernmost part of the

Promised Land The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...

, which was the division of the tribes of Azer and

Naphtali According to the Book of Genesis, Naphtali (; ) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Bilhah (Jacob's sixth son). He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Naphtali. Some biblical commentators have suggested that the name ''Naphtali'' ma ...

, and later took the name of

. In 1881,

C. R. Conder Claude Reignier Conder (29 December 1848, Cheltenham – 16 February 1910, Cheltenham) was an English soldier, explorer and antiquarian. He was a great-great-grandson of Louis-François Roubiliac and grandson of editor and author Josiah Conder. ...

and

H. H. Kitchener Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a senior British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his scorched earth policy against the Boers, h ...

mentioned ten villages in the ''Belad Besharah'' region on their map 2, namely: 'Aita ez Zut, Berashit, Haris, El Jumeijmeh,

Kefrah Kafra ( ar, كفرا), is a village in Nabatiye Governorate, in the Bint Jbeil District of southern Lebanon, about from Beirut. The village is located in the south-western outskirts of the town of Tebnine, in the heart of the Lebanese Shia Mu ...

Meis Meis is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the '' Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the ...

, Safed el Battikh,

Tibnin Tebnine ( ar, تبنين ''Tibnīn'', also Romanized ''Tibnine'') is a Lebanese town spread across several hills (ranging in altitude from 700m to 800m (2,275 ft to 2,600 ft) above sea level) located about east of Tyre (Lebanon), i ...

Kulat Tibnin Toron, now Tibnin or Tebnine in southern Lebanon, was a major Crusader castle, built in the Lebanon mountains on the road from Tyre to Damascus. The castle was the centre of the Lordship of Toron, a seigneury within the Kingdom of Jerusa ...

and

El Yehudiyeh As-Sultaniyah ( ar, السلطانية) is a village in the Bint Jbeil District, in southern Lebanon, located just north of Tebnine. It was earlier called ''el Yehudiyeh''. Name According to E. H. Palmer in 1881, ''El Yehûdîyeh'' meant "the ...

. On map 3 there was one village; Salhaneh. The remaining 27 villages were on map 4: 'Ain Ibl, 'Ainata, 'Aita esh Shaub, 'Aitherun,

Beit Lif Bayt Lif ( ar, بيت ليف) is a village in the Bint Jbeil District in southern Lebanon. Name According to E. H. Palmer, the name means "the house of lif" (palm-fibre). History In 1852, Edward Robinson noted that the year before, a quanti ...

Beit Yahun Beit Yahoun ( ar, بيت ياحون) is a village in Lebanon located near Bint Jbeil, in the Nabatiye Governorate. Beit Yahoun is 117 km from Beirut. It is 950 meters above sea level and covers an area of 485 hectares. History Visiting in 18 ...

Belideh Blida ( ar, بليدا) is a village in Marjeyoun District in southern Lebanon. Location The municipality of Blida is located in the Kaza of Marjaayoun one of is one of the eight mohafazats (governorates) of Lebanon. Blida is 118 kilometers (73. ...

, Bint Umm Jubeil, Deishun,

Dibl Drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) is a short-channel effect in MOSFETs referring originally to a reduction of threshold voltage of the transistor at higher drain voltages. In a classic planar field-effect transistor with a long channel, the b ...

Haddatha Haddatha ( ar, حدّاثا) is a village in Bint Jbeil District in Southern Lebanon. History In 1596, it was named as a village, ‘“Hadata” in the Ottoman ''nahiya'' (subdistrict) of Tibnin under the ''liwa (district) of Safad, with a ...

, Hanin, Kades, El Kozah, Kunin, El Malkiyeh, Marun er Ras, Neby Muheibib,

Ramia The following is a list of the major characters from the anime and manga series ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki'' and its spin-offs ''Tenchi Muyo! GXP'', ''Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar'', ''Tenchi Universe'', ''Tenchi in Tokyo'', and ''Ai Tenchi Muyo!''. ...

, Rumeish, Rusheif, Salhah, Es Salihiyeh, Surubbin, Et Tireh,

Yater Yater (Arabic: ياطر) is a Lebanese municipality located in Bint Jbeil District. It is 112 kilometers away from Beirut. E. H. Palmer wrote that the name Yater came from a personal name. History The village once marked the northernmost extent ...

and

Yarun Yaroun (also spelled Yarun; ar, يارون)From personal name, according to Palmer, 1881, p104"perhaps the Iron of Josh. xix 38" is a Lebanese village located in the Caza of Bint Jbeil in the Nabatieh Governorate in Lebanon. Geography Yaroun ...

.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p
203
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* {{refend Western Asia category:Regions of Lebanon Geography of Lebanon

Etymology

Geography

History

See also

References

Bibliography