Kaifun ( ar, كيفون), (also transliterated Kaifoun, Keyfoun and Kayfoun) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in Aley District,

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon ( ar, جَبَل لُبْنَان, ''jabal lubnān'', ; syr, ܛܘܪ ܠܒ݂ܢܢ, ', , ''ṭūr lewnōn'' french: Mont Liban) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above in elevation, with its peak at . Geography The Mount Le ...

Governorate,

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 ...

.Keyfoun
Localiban It is bordered by Souk El Gharb to the north,

Ain Aanoub Ain Aanoub, is a small, peaceful village in Aley District in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. Ain Aanoub
Localiban< ...

and

Bechamoun Bechamoun ( ar, بشامون), is an area near Beirut in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. It has an elevation between 40 and 580 meters above sea level, 8 kilometers from Beirut airport and Beirut downtown. Bechamoun's population exce ...

to the west and

Baissour Baissour or Bayssour, ( ar, بيصور) is a village located in the Aley District of Mount Lebanon. It is above sea level and shares a border with Aley, Kaifoun, Kabr Shmoon, Majdlaya, and Ainab. Baissour River (Naher Baissour, نهر بي� ...

to the south. It is around 800 meters above sea level and 26 kilometers away 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 ...

. Kaifun is a popular summer recreational destination for

's residents, and is famous for its

Pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

forest and view of 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 ...

History

When

Mamluks Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') i ...

intensified their persecution against

Shia Muslims Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...

in 1363, a group of Shiites from

( Burj Beirut) settled in Qmatiye and Kaifun, the only major Shia villages in Aley District. Feudal Shiite families from

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 ...

also settled the town in 19th century. 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 ''Keifun'', located in ''El-Ghurb el-Fokany''; ''Upper el-Ghurb''.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p
191
/ref>

Demographics

Kaifun's natives are Shia Muslims. Main families include: * Jawhar * Saad * El-Hajj * Al-Hakim (Ahmad) * Dagher * Sirhal * Reslan * El-Zein * Awada * Jaber * Jadeed * Salloukh * Al-Qadi * Al-Sheikh

References

Bibliography

* {{Aley District Populated places in Aley District