Maarakeh ( ar, معركة) is a town in
Tyre District, in
Lebanon.
Geography
The Municipality of Maarakeh is located in the Kaza of
Tyre (sour) one of Mohafazah of
South Lebanon kazas (districts). Mohafazah of South Lebanon is one of the eight mohafazats (governorates) of
Lebanon. It is 90 kilometers (55.9 mi) away from Beyrouth (
Beirut) the capital of Lebanon. Its elevation is 270 meters (1) (886 ft - 295 yd) above sea level. Maarakeh surface stretches for 2000 hectares (20 km² - 7.7 mi²)(2).
Name
E. H. Palmer
Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an England, English oriental studies, orientalist and explorer.
Biography
Youth and education
Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge the son of a private schoo ...
wrote that the name Mảrakeh meant "The battle field".
History
In 1596, it was named as a village, ''al-Ma'raka'', in the
Ottoman ''
nahiya'' (subdistrict) of
Tibnin under the ''
liwa''' (district) of
Safad, with a population of 119 households and 3 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as
wheat,
barley, olive trees, fruit trees, cotton, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 13,350
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. 180]
In 1875
Victor Guérin found that it had 700
Metawileh inhabitants. He further noted: "Here are uprights and
lintel
A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...
s of door with cut stones, apparently ancient; and in a small
mosque, built of regular blocks probably taken from an old church, are several fragments of monolithic
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s.'"
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 it as: "A village, built of stone, containing about 400
Metawileh, on flat top of high ground, surrounded by gardens, olives, figs, palms, and arable land. There is a spring and five
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."
On 28 June 1984 the Israeli army surrounded the town and began house to house searches. 119 men, aged between 13 and 60, were taken away as prisoners for further interrogation. At the time it was estimated that Maarakeh had a population of 13,000.
On 4 March 1985, during the
Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, an
explosion destroyed a mosque killing local resistance leader, Mohammed Saad. At least 15 people were killed in the explosion.
[Ihsan A. Hijazi]
'Blast in Lebanon kills 15 in mosque,'
The New York Times 5 March 5, 1985.
Education
Notable people
*
Kassem El Zein
Kassem Mohammed El Zein ( ar, قاسم محمد الزين, ; born 2 December 1990) is a Lebanese footballer who plays as a defender for club Nejmeh and the Lebanon national team.
El Zein began his senior career in 2011 at Nejmeh, playing ov ...
(born 1990), Lebanese footballer
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2
IAAWikimedia commons
* Localliban: Centre de resource sur le developpement local
{{Tyre District
Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000
Populated places in Tyre District
Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon