At-Taybah, Tayibe or Taibeh is a municipality in the

Marjayoun District The Marjayoun District is a district in the Nabatieh Governorate of Lebanon. The capital of the district is Marjayoun. Marjayoun stands at a hill facing Mount Hermon to the East, with Beaufort Castle, Lebanon, Beaufort Castle. The Litani River an ...

in south

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 ...

Etymology

According to E. H. Palmer, the name Tayibe means "The good, sweet, or wholesome" (about water).

Archaeological site

By the village is a

Heavy Neolithic Heavy Neolithic (alternatively, Gigantolithic) is a style of large stone and flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with the Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, dating to the Epipaleolithic or early Pre-Pottery Neolithic at ...

archaeological site of the

Qaraoun culture The Qaraoun culture is a culture of the Lebanese Stone Age around Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley. The Gigantolithic or Heavy Neolithic flint tool industry of this culture was recognized as a particular Neolithic variant of the Lebanese highland ...

. The site was discovered by

Louis Dubertret Louis Dubertret was born on 18 June 1943 in Douai, France. He had a distinctive career as an associate professor specializing in dermatology and cutaneous biology, is now a professor emeritus, and currently serves as the president of the René Tou ...

and materials studied by

Jacques Cauvin Professor Jacques Cauvin (1930 – 26 December 2001) was a French archaeologist who specialised in the prehistory of the Levant and Near East. Biography Cauvin started his work in France at Oullins Caves and Chazelles Caves (near Saint-André-d ...

. Heavy Neolithic materials recovered resembled those from

Qaraoun Qaraoun is a Lebanese village, 85 km from Beirut, known for its Lake Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley formed by the El Wauroun Dam built in 1959. It is an ecologically fragile zone in the Western Beqaa District. The village lies about 800 m a ...

History

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 ...

found here a village with 800

Metualis Lebanese Shia Muslims (), communally and historically known as ''matāwila'' (, plural of ''mutawālin''; pronounced as ''metouéle'' in Lebanese Arabic), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role ...

. He further noted: "Its principal

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, now in ruins, is built of superb blocks, apparently ancient. It contains in the interior several 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's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) noted here: "There are several

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

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 in the village ; some caves near." They further described it as: "A large well-built village, built of stone, containing about 600

Metawileh Lebanese Shia Muslims (), communally and historically known as ''matāwila'' (, plural of ''mutawālin''; pronounced as ''metouéle'' in Lebanese Arabic), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role ...

and 400 unniMoslems. The

Caimacam Kaymakam, also known by many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been retained an ...

has a good house here. There are some figs and olives round the village and arable land; water is supplied from a spring and two birkets."

Modern era

On August 5, during the

2006 Lebanon War The 2006 Lebanon War was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, fought between Hezbollah and Israel. The war started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, thoug ...

, Israeli war-planes killed 3 civilians, aged 2 to 48 years of age. The IDF offered no explanations to the strike. On 11 August 2024, two Hezbollah fighters were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the village. On 6 April 2025, funerals were held in Taybeh for 32

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

fighters and a lebanese soldier killed during the war.

Demographics

In 2014

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

made up 99.61% of registered voters in At-Taybah. 98.27% of the voters were

Shiite Muslims Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood to ...

References

Bibliography

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External links

Taybeh (Marjaayoun)
Localiban *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Archaeological sites in Lebanon Archaeological sites in Lebanon Heavy Neolithic sites Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000 Neolithic settlements Populated places in Marjayoun District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon