Sarafand ( ar, الصرفند) is a village in

southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost distric ...

located 10 km south of

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. ...

overlooking 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 ...

. Its name conserves that of the Phoenician site of

Sarepta Sarepta (near modern Sarafand, Lebanon) was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic titular ...

, just north of Sarafand.

History

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 ...

noted that the village had 400

Métualis Lebanese Shia Muslims ( ar, المسلمون الشيعة اللبنانيين), historically known as ''matāwila'' ( ar, متاولة, plural of ''mutawālin'' ebanese pronounced as ''metouali'' refers to Lebanese people who are adherents ...

inhabitants. In mid-April 1980 Israeli commandos, arriving by sea, raided Sarafand killing twenty Lebanese and Palestinians, mostly civilians. During the first three weeks of April the Israelis carried out similar, but smaller, raids along the coast road between

and Tyre, killing thirteen people. On 7 June 1982, on the second day of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon an IDF brigade was ambushed as it pushed through Sarafand. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and one seriously wounded. Schiff, Ze’ev and Ya’ari, Ehud (1985) ''Israel’s Lebanon War''. George Allen and Unwin Ltd, pp.138-139

References

Bibliography

External links

Sarafand
Localiban {{Sidon District Populated places in Sidon District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon