Debel (also spelled Dibil,
Arabic: دبل) is a
Lebanese
Lebanese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Lebanese Republic
* Lebanese people
The Lebanese people ( ar, الشعب اللبناني / ALA-LC: ', ) are the people inhabiting or originating from Lebanon. The term may al ...
village located in the
caza
Caza (), the pseudonym of Philippe Cazaumayou (; born 14 November 1941), is a French comics artist.
Biography
At 18, Cazaumayou started a career in advertising which lasted for ten years, but in 1970 he entered the field of bandes dessinées, ...
of
Bint Jbeil in the
Nabatiye Governorate
Nabatieh Governorate ( ar, محافظة النبطية, ') is one of the nine governorates of Lebanon. The area of this governorate is 1,058 km2. The capital is Nabatieh.
Districts
The governorate is divided into four districts (Aqdiya, sing ...
in
Lebanon.
Geography
Debel occupies several hills with elevation ranging from 560 to 650 meters above sea level. The main agricultural products of Debel are
olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...
s and
tobacco.
Demography
The people of Debel are Lebanese and are predominantly
Maronite Christians.
History
In 1596, it was named as a village, ‘“Dibil” in the
Ottoman ''
nahiya'' (subdistrict) of
Tibnin under the ''
liwa''' (district) of
Safad, with a population of 12 households and 6 bachelors, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as
wheat,
barley, summer crops, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues”; a total of 1,530
akçe
The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...
.
[Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 184]
In 1852,
Edward Robinson noted the village ("Dibl") on his travels in the region.
Ernest Renan
Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...
visited the area during his mission to
Lebanon and described what he found in his book
Mission de Phénicie (1865-1874)
The ''Mission de Phénicie'' was the first major archaeological mission to Lebanon and Syria. It took place in 1860-61 by a French team led by Ernest Renan. Renan was entrusted with the mission in October 1860, after French interest had been spar ...
. At Dibl he found Greek Inscriptions.
In 1875,
Victor Guérin visited, and described it as a village with 400 Maronite inhabitants. He also found here several inscriptions in Greek. He further noted: "At this village there are some rock-cut tombs, in one of which there is an inscription. Many well-dressed stones are used, and turn up in digging. On one of these was a fragmentary inscription. Under some of the houses of the village there is a large piece of
tesselated
A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of ge ...
pavement of very good design. The colours are red, black, and white. There are some
sarcophagi and some broken pillars. This was probably an early Christian site."
In 1881, the
PEF PEF, PeF, or Pef may stand for the following abbreviations:
* Palestine Exploration Fund
* Peak expiratory flow
* PEF Private University of Management Vienna
* Pentax raw file (see Raw image format)
* Perpetual Education Fund
* Perpetual Emigratio ...
's
''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described ''Dibl'': "A village, built of stone, containing about 500 Christians (
Guerin says 400 Maronites) ; there is a Maronite chapel. It is situated on hill-side, with grapes, figs, olives, mulberries, and arable land. The water supply is from many good springs in the wady to the north-west of village, and
cistern
A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...
s and birket near the village."
[Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p]
201
/ref>
References
Bibliography
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External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4
IAAWikimedia commons
Localiban
{{Bint Jbeil District
Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000
Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon
Populated places in Bint Jbeil District