Safad El Battikh ( ar, صفد البطيخ), is a village in Nabatiye Governorate, in the Bint Jbeil District of southern Lebanon, about 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 ...

. The village is situated in the north eastern outskirts of the town of Tebnine, in the heart of the Lebanese Shia Muslim community of ''

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 ...

''. The village is above sea level.

History

In the 1596 Ottoman tax records, the village, named (same as today but some history books transliterate differently such as ''Safad al-Battih''), was located in the Ottoman ''

nahiya 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

Tibnin Tebnine ( ar, تبنين ''Tibnīn'', also Romanized ''Tibnine'') is a Lebanese town spread across several hills (ranging in altitude from 700m to 800m (2,275 ft to 2,600 ft) above sea level) located about east of Tyre (Lebanon), i ...

under the Liwa of Safad, with a population of 10 households and 2 bachelors, all

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

(1,300

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 ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...

(420 akçe), fruit trees (380 akçe), goats and beehives (20 akçe), in addition to "occasional revenues" (80 akçe); a total of 2,200 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 182 In 1856 it was named ''Safed'' on Kiepert's map of Palestine/Lebanon published that year, while in 1875,

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...

passed by and noted: "to my left, on a high hill, the small village of Safed el-Bathikha, inhabited by both Métualis and Christians." In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described the village (which it called ''Safed el Battîkh''): "A village, built of stone, containing about 100 Metawileh and fifty Christians, situated on hill-top, surrounded by arable land. The water supply is from several perennial springs and ten

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 in the village."

Modern era

The current Bint Jbeil province was created in 1922 by French colonials. In 2009, there were 125 members of the Lady of the Assumption parish of the

Melkite Church The term Melkite (), also written Melchite, refers to various Eastern Christian churches of the Byzantine Rite and their members originating in the Middle East. The term comes from the common Central Semitic root ''m-l-k'', meaning "royal", and ...

in the village.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

*''Safed el Battîkh'' on the Palestine Exploration Fund Map of 1878, Map 2
IAAWikimedia commonsSafad El Battikh
Localiban {{Bint Jbeil District Populated places in Bint Jbeil District Geography of Lebanon Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon