Kahale ( ar, الكحالة), is a mountain village in the district of

Aley Aley ( ar, عاليه) is a major city in Lebanon. It is the capital of the Aley District and fourth largest city in Lebanon. The city is located on Mount Lebanon, 15 km uphill from Beirut on the freeway to Damascus. Aley has the nickn ...

(Caza Aley),

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 ...

, 13 km from

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 ...

. Population estimated at 11,000 residents, most of whom are

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 Mar ...

Etymology

Kahale is derived from

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

and

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

, from ''kah'' (verb meaning breathed or respired); ''al'' or ''el'' (the name of the Canaanite god El, who was considered the father of God and of mankind); and ''e'' (an ending denoting that the god El is the speaker's god).

Geography

Considering the locale and geography of the Kahale this name is suited well. A valley extends from the Sh'har west side of the Kahale into the Rjoum, eastern side of the Kahale.

History

In 1838,

Eli Smith Eli Smith (born September 13, 1801, in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (Whitney) Smith, and died January 11, 1857, in Beirut, Lebanon) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from Andov ...

noted the place, called ''el-Kahhaleh'', located in ''El-Ghurb el-Fokany''; ''Upper el-Ghurb''.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p
191
/ref>

Religion

Kahale has a predominantly Maronite Catholic population. The village has three churches: *Mar Elias (مار الياس ) *Our Lady (السيدة) *Mar Antonios (مار انطونيوس) This in addition to

Don Bosco John Melchior Bosco ( it, Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; pms, Gioann Melchior Bòsch; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco , was an Italian Catholic priest, educator, writer and saint of the 19th century. While working ...

monastery and school, and

Saint Charbel Charbel Makhlouf, O.L.M. ( ar, شربل مخلوف, May 8, 1828 – December 24, 1898), born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf and venerated as Saint Charbel, was a Maronite monk and priest from Lebanon. During his life, he obtained a wide reputation for ...

Home for the elderly which is now closed.

References

Bibliography

*Abi Khalil, Charbel. (1997). ''History of the Kahale''. Beirut: The Arabic Press. *

External links

Kahhaleh
Localiban *https://web.archive.org/web/20060901151618/http://www.kahale.net/ {{Aley District Populated places in Aley District Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon