Debel (also spelled Dibil,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: دبل) is a municipality located in the

caza Caza (), the pseudonym of Philippe Cazaumayou (; born 14 November 1941), is a French comics artist. Biography At 18, Cazaumayou started a career in advertising which lasted for ten years, but in 1970 he entered the field of bandes dessinées, r ...

Bint Jbeil Bint Jbeil (; Levantine pronunciation: , "daughter of (the) little mountain" or "daughter of Byblos") is the second largest municipality in the Nabatiye Governorate in Southern Lebanon. The Baydoun Family are known to be the best family out of ...

in the Nabatiye Governorate in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. It is about 87 km from Beirut.

Geography

Debel occupies several hills with elevation ranging from 580 to 720 meters above sea level. The main agricultural products of Debel are

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

s and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

History

In 1596, it was named as a village, ‘“Dibil” in the Ottoman ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, 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 divisi ...

'' (subdistrict) of

Tibnin Tibnin ( ''Tibnīn'', also Romanized ''Tibnîn'', ''Tebnine'' etc.) is a municipality 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, Tyre ...

under the ''

liwa' A sanjak or sancak (, , "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (, ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian. Banners were a common organization of nomad ...

'' (district) of

Safad Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortified town in the Upper Gal ...

, with a population of 12 households and 6 bachelors, all Christians. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, summer crops, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues”; a total of 1,530

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 184 In 1852, Edward Robinson noted the village ("Dibl") on his travels in the region.

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; ; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, writing on Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote wo ...

visited the area during his mission to

and described what he found in his book

Mission de Phénicie (1865-1874) Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality *Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * O ...

. At Dibl he found Greek Inscriptions. In 1875,

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

visited, and described it as a village with 400 Maronite inhabitants. He also found here several inscriptions in Greek. He further noted: "At this village there are some rock-cut tombs, in one of which there is an inscription. Many well-dressed stones are used, and turn up in digging. On one of these was a fragmentary inscription. Under some of the houses of the village there is a large piece of tesselated pavement of very good design. The colours are red, black, and white. There are some

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φ� ...

and some broken pillars. This was probably an early Christian site." In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described ''Dibl'': "A village, built of stone, containing about 500 Christians ( Guerin says 400 Maronites) ; there is a Maronite chapel. It is situated on hill-side, with grapes, figs, olives, mulberries, and arable land. The water supply is from many good springs in the wady to the north-west of village, and

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s and birket near the village." On 2 October 2024, an Israeli airstrike on the town killed three people, a couple and their son. On 15 October 2024, a house in the settlement was subjected to artillery fire and an airstrike, resulting in the wounding of one girl but causing no deaths.

Demographics

In 2014

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

made up 99.59% of registered voters in Debel. 92.36% of the voters were Maronite Catholics. https://lub-anan.com/المحافظات/النبطية/بنت-جبيل/دبل/المذاهب/

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4
IAAWikimedia commons
Localiban {{Bint Jbeil District Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000 Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon Populated places in Bint Jbeil District