Iqlim al-Kharrub is a geographic region in the western part of the

Chouf District Chouf (also spelled Shouf, Shuf or Chuf, in ''Jabal ash-Shouf''; french: La Montagne du Chouf) is a historic region of Lebanon, as well as an administrative district in the governorate (muhafazat) of Mount Lebanon. Geography Located south-east o ...

. Its inhabitants are mostly

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...

Geographic definition

The Iqlim al-Kharrub is a historical and socio-cultural region in the western part of the

. Its territory is traditionally defined as the area between the

Awali River The Awali ( ar, نهر الأولي / ALA-LC: ''Nahr al-Awalī'', ancient Bostrenus / Bostrenos) is a perennial river flowing in Southern Lebanon. In ancient times it was known as the River Asclepius. It is long, originating from the Barouk mou ...

in the south and the

Damour River Damour river or (, Nahr Al Damour) is a coastal river in the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon. The river's headwaters originate in and around the slopes of the 1943-meter peak Jabal el-Barouk, site of a nature preserve where some of Lebanon' ...

in the north. It extends from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

coast eastward into the Chouf mountains. Its approximate territory is . There are 37 villages in the region, of which 25 are municipalities.

Etymology

The name Iqlim al-Kharrub means ''region of the

carob The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and landscap ...

History

The Iqlim al-Kharrub was a ''

nahiye A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' (subdistrict) of the

Sidon-Beirut Sanjak Sidon-Beirut Sanjak was a ''sanjak'' (district) of Sidon Eyalet (Province of Sidon) of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to 1660, the Sidon-Beirut Sanjak had been part of Damascus Eyalet, and for brief periods in the 1590s, Tripoli Eyalet. Territory and d ...

during Ottoman rule.

Demography

Most of Iqlim al-Kharrub's population is

and most Sunnis in the Chouf reside in the region. Unlike the rest of the Chouf where Druze form the demographic majority, there is no Druze population centers in the Iqlim al-Kharrub. The region's large villages are all Sunni majority, including

Barja Barja ( ar, برجا, also known as Barja al-Chouf) is a town and municipality in the Chouf District of the Mount Lebanon Governorate in Lebanon. Barja is situated near the Mediterranean coast, 34 kilometers south of Beirut and at the midway poi ...

. Shia Muslims make up the majority of the small villages of Jiyyeh,

Joun Joun (also Joon, Djoun in Phoenician, ar, جون) is a Lebanese village sitting on seven hills in the Chouf ( ar, قضاء الشوف) district of Mount Lebanon at a distance of 13 kilometers from the city of Sidon in Lebanon. Joun means "the co ...

and Wardaniyeh. The

Maronite Christian Lebanese Maronite Christians ( ar, المسيحية المارونية في لبنان; syc, ܡܫܝܚܝ̈ܐ ܡܪ̈ܘܢܝܐ ܕܠܒܢܢ) are adherents of the Maronite Church in Lebanon, which is the largest Christian denomination in the country ...

population of the region, which is mostly resident in eleven small villages, has mostly diminished. This is largely due to two mass displacements during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

, the first in the wake of the

Damour massacre The Damour massacre took place on January 21, 1976, during the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. Damour, a Maronite Christian town on the main highway south of Beirut, was attacked by the left-wing militants of the Palestine Liberation Organisatio ...

by the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

(PLO) and allied

Lebanese National Movement The Lebanese National Movement (LNM) ( ar, الحركة الوطنية اللبنانية, ''Al-Harakat al-Wataniyya al-Lubnaniyya'') or Mouvement National Libanais (MNL) in French, was a front of leftist, pan-Arabist and Syrian nationalist par ...

(LNM) militias on January 10, 1976 and the second in the

Mountain War The Mountain War ( ar, حرب الجبل , ''Harb al-Jabal''), also known as the War of the Mountain and Guerre de la Montagne in French language, French, was a subconflict between the Lebanese Civil War#Second phase of the war.2C 1982-1983, 1 ...

in 1983–1984 when the

Lebanese Armed Forces ) , founded = 1 August 1945 , current_form = 1991 , disbanded = , branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air Force Lebanese Navy , headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon , flying_hours = , websit ...

(LAF), Christian

Tigers Militia The Tigers militia ( ar, نمور الأحرار, transliterated: ''Numūr'' or ''Al-Noumour''), also known as NLP Tigers ( ar, links=no, نمور الأحرار , ''Numur al-Ahrar'') or PNL "Lionceaux" in French, was the military wing of the ...

and Lebanese Forces militias, respectively, were routed by the mainly Druze fighters of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

(PLA) led by

Walid Jumblatt Walid Kamal Jumblatt ( ar, وليد جنبلاط; born 7 August 1949) is a Lebanese Druze politician and former militia commander who has been leading the Progressive Socialist Party since 1977. While leading the Lebanese National Resistance Fr ...

. Christian–Druze antagonism has persisted in the Chouf since the end of the civil war in 1991 and Christians have not returned in significant numbers despite processes of reconciliation and compensation overseen by the Jumblatts and the

Maronite Patriarch This is a list of the Maronite patriarchs of Antioch and all the East, the primate of the Maronite Church, one of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Starting with Paul Peter Massad in 1854, after becoming patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchat ...

. Sectarian tensions though were not as high between Christians and Muslims in the Iqlim al-Kharrub.

Palestinian refugees Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war (1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War (1967 Palestinian exodu ...

present in the area since the

1948 Arab-Israeli war Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

have substantially integrated with the Lebanese population, in contrast to elsewhere in Lebanon. There has also been an influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the Syrian Civil War. Many Lebanese in the Iqlim al-Kharrub moved to the area during and after the civil war in search for a lower cost of living, especially compared to housing prices in the capital

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 ...

Economy

The Iqlim al-Kharrub connects Beirut in the north with

Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...

in the south. The main source of income is wage employment in the public sector, followed by employment in manufacturing and the tourism sector.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *{{cite web , last1=Al-Masri , first1=Muzna , last2=Abla , first2=Zeina , title=An Urban Suburb with the Capacities of a Village: The Social Stability Context in the Coastal Chouf Area , url=https://data2.unhcr.org/es/documents/download/61300 , publisher=

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

, date=November 2017 Chouf District Regions of Lebanon