Aitit is a town located in
Tyre District
The Tyre District is a district in the South Governorate of Lebanon.
History Ancient history
Founded at the start of the third millennium BC, Tyre originally consisted of a mainland settlement and a modest island city that lay a short distance o ...
, South Lebanon, north of
Qana
Qana, also spelled Cana or Kana, ( ar, قانا) is a town in southern Lebanon located southeast of the city of Tyre and north of the border with Israel, in an area historically known as Upper Galilee.
The 10,000 residents of Qana are prim ...
. Aitit's residents are primarily
Shiite Muslim
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 ...
.
History
In the early 1860s
Ernest Renan
Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...
noted: "Its antiquities are a stone with three circles, two with rays, in which are crosses (not of great age), a grotto, and beside it a good
sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
lid serving to support a press. Near Aitit is a rectangular cemetery, well preserved".
In 1881, the
PEF's
''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it as "A village, built of stone, containing about 450
Metawileh
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 ...
, situated on hill-top, surrounded by olives and arable cultivation; water supplied from
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 and a spring near."
They further noted: "There are traces at this village of ancient remains. It is said by the natives that there was once a
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
here. There are broken pillars scattered about, stone
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, three caves, and three olive-presses, with cisterns."
[Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p]
108
/ref>
Aitit is mainly occupied by the family of the Mohsens, who have the majority of the village.
Attacks on Aitit
Due to it being close to Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
many attacks have been made against Aitit. Throughout Aitit many houses have bullet holes engraved in the bricks and some buildings have still not been revived. Most of these incidents were due to the 2006 Lebanon War
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Leva ...
. Within that war 3 people died.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2:
IAAWikimedia commons
Localiban
{{Tyre District
Populated places in Tyre District
Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon