Miziara
Location:
The
village is 94Km from Beirut, 20Km from Tripoli and 14 Km from Zgharta.
Elevation:
800
metres
Name:
Various
theories as to its derivation, one based on the Arabic word Ziara
[meaning visit ] another that it comes from the name Amzara the name of
Noah’s cousin who he married.
Population:
Current
population figures are not available but in 1998 the official record for
Lebanese citizens in the village [inclusive of those living in Lebanon
or overseas] was 4252.
Agriculture:
Apples,
pears, grapes and assorted grains
Water
sources:
From the
Ain El Mountain via Bhairé, a near by village.
Religious
feasts celebrated:
Saint
Rita – 22nd May ,
Saint
Charbel –23rd July,
Saint
Elias the Prophet - 20th July
St. Mary
of Meziara -The Assumption of the Virgin Mary - 15th August
Mother of
Mercies – 6th September
St. Moura
– 25th September
St.
Sarkis & Bakhus - on the 3rd Sunday of September.
History
Article
appearing from the village web site,
On the first of July 1913 a long article about Meziara was written in
the El Bachir newspaper: Meziara was a dense forest, filled with wild
boars. It was not inhabited before the 17th century.
Naamtallah Néhmé left Bickfaya to become the ancestor of all the
Meziarian families.
When Naamtallah Néhmé came to the north, he dwelt in Aarbet Ishaya. He
brought up and raised his family there. Later on they moved to Sereel
and then to Ejbée, where they did not stay for long, moving to a small
farm beside Sebeel.Rishtaamout was the name of the farm (It is a
Syriaque word, meaning the peak of taste or the peak of pleasure, and
the farm was famous for its tasty fruits.)
There Naamtallah's children became four.Younis: The origin of Younis and
Béchara families.Abdallah: The origin of Wéhbé, Fadi, Tannous and
Sleiman families.Youssef: The origin of Khoury, Raad and Abi Rashed
families.Abdel Ahad: The origin of Abdel Ahad who is also known by
Chidiac families.
The historian Boustros Béchara Karam wrote in his book The Coral
Chain in the history of
North Lebanon.
The family of Naamtallah Néhmé stayed in Rishtaamout for about seventy
years. The family did not grow or branch out. Spending winter, spring
and autumn in the farm. But summer was spent in Ejbée, where they bought
a mountain and built a church on it. Which is now known as St. George
Mountain.
Naamtallah Néhmé family requested from the Bécharé government, who were
Shiah Moslems at the time, the permission to live in Houmeis, village of
ruins and the nearby forest which is now named Meziara. Their request
was granted.Younis and his family moved to Houmeis. The three brothers
Youssef, Abdallah and Abdel Ahad moved to the forest with their
families, as its situation and atmosphere gave them great pleasure.So
Youssef, son of Naamtallah Néhmé became the founder of Meziara as the
historians certify.Meanwhile, in the days of Prince Youssef El Chéhabi,
a land survey over Lebanon was made. Prince Youssef chose El Karam from
Zgharta and El Issa from Bécharé to grant them Meziara and the vicinity.
(Prince Youssef El Chéhabi ruled from the year 1770 to 1789.)
As we were informed by the historians and old people from Meziara, that
Youssef, son of Naamtallah Néhmé, bore children, Youssef was the eldest,
he became a priest known as Priest Elias, who also bore a child naming
him, Youssef Elias Khoury. Youssef Elias Khoury was the beginning, as
the old people of Meziara used to say. He bore seven boys and five
girls. Hanna, the eldest, was known as Hanna Youssef. There was a famous
saying in Meziara: (Just like the children of Hanna’s mother.) Applied
to the gathering of word union, like the sons of Yousef Elias Khoury,
Hanna’s father. At that time all the Meziarians, except for Yousef
Elias, were partners with El Karam and El Issa Khoury. Every year the
partners had to send twenty kilograms of silk from the seasonal
production in Meziara, plus 125 kilograms of tobacco. This is written in
the Encyclopedia of Lebanese capitals and villages: (I know Lebanon) by
Afif Boutros Merhej, also they had to send from the seasonal grains and
vineyards.
Maybe this made Yousef Elias Khoury to instigate the people to revolt.
The disagreement started between the Meziarians and the Sheiks of El
Issa Khoury. The result of the judgment was the turnover of the lands to
the possession of the Sheiks. This was written in the El Bachir
newspaper on the first of July 1913.
The families objected to the judgment. With the help Yousef Younis
(The grandfather of the Meziarian literary Yousef Younis).
It was the first responsibility that Priest Yousef Younis carried on his
shoulders, the freedom of Meziara. He used to wear an old shoe, light
his cigarette and walk on foot to Batroun. After that he went to Syria
met the ruler and told him the whole story. He gained what he requested.
Everything was registered in the name of the new farm owners. (From
Yousef Younis book His Life & Traces to Mikhail Massoud.)
The farmers could not pay their taxes in exchange for ownership of the
land. But they paid their taxes and registered the land in the owners’
names. The former partners were satisfied with a legal deed signed from
the new owners.
At that time the Meziarians started to immigrate to Brazil. Seventy
people traveled in the effort to pay for legal deeds, which they signed.
But Yousef Elias Khoury, Hanna’s father, stayed in Meziara with his
sons. Occupied with the management of his money and estates. He took
loans from the wealthy Tripolitans, to loan the Aghas of Daniyé. Till
there came a time when the Aghas were unable to pay their debts in cash,
so they paid it with land and estates. From the estates, which the Aghas
paid their debts, there was the Bcheneta plantation. Assad Beik Karam,
spokesman of the Zgharta people, bought it. The Meziarians bought it
from him, to use as a summer residence.
Yousef Elias Khoury ordered every inhabitant of Meziara to fill a bag of
acorns from the Oak trees of Bcheneta and plant it around Meziara. He
specified every Sunday of every season, the feast of planting acorns
around Meziara. From those feasts Meziara was surrounded with an Oak
Forest. The Meziarian emigrants started to pick the fruit of their
emigration. But their thoughts and hearts were always in Meziara, which
was a plantation and they were workable partners in it.
One of their worries was to turn Meziara into the most beautiful village
in Lebanon.
Associated villages:
Sakhra:
situated 300 metres above sea level and
some 5Km from Zgharta. Patron Saint – Saint Maroun. Officially the
village does not exist.
Harf Meziara:
See
separate page entry as to this village
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