The origin of the Abou Rjeilys goes back to their first ancestor
Atallah who moved from the village of
Barbara[1],
located on the Batroun coast, to
Ktéléh[2] in
Metn[3] at the beginning of the
seventeenth century.
Atallah is the son of Nasr and
Nasr is the son of
Merjan. Nasr has a brother
called Nader from whom descend the two
families: Nader and
Berberi.
Merjan belongs to one of the
Christian families who came from Hawran[4] to Kesrouan[5], then to Jbeil after the Islamic conquest in the seventh century. His
family settled down in Barbara for a long period of time in order to preserve
its beliefs.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the Muslim Shiite
members of the Hamada family dominated Jbeil and Kesrouan districts in mount
Lebanon, Atallah moved to the Ktéléh
village in Metn, which was one of the
feudalities of
Amir
Murad el-Lamaï.
Atallah settled down in Ktéléh, got
married and had four children: Elias, Farès, Yaghi and Dib.
When his sons grew up, they showed great enthusiasm in serving prince
Murad. Atallah visited the prince to congratulate him for an achievement he
made. The prince addressed him in front of his followers: “this is Abou
al-Rijal” (Father of the men), to thank him for the services he and his
sons
render to the prince. Then Abou al-Rijal became the official name of his
descendants, who were proud of this nickname; it became common and later it was
converted into the name “Abou Rjeily”.
The descendants of Atallah multiplied until they had a fight with the
Lamaï princes, sons of
Murad. The family decided to leave the
province and to move to another area, in compliance with the traditions at that
time. Part of them went to Bhamdoun[6], Hab Ramoun, Ramliéh and the
villages that were controlled by Abed el-Malak family and settled down there.
Another group headed to Bekaa Valley. When that group
reached
Chbaniéh, which
was one of the feudalities of Kaed Bey el-Lamaï, one of prince Murad cousins,
the prince
forbade them from going to the Bekaa and forced them to go back to
the village of Deir Khouna[7] close to
Ktéléh (located in the valley between
Bhamdoun and Broumana), which was then a part of his feudality. Kaed Bey tried
to reconcile them with his cousins, the
Lamaï descendants of Murad. Many
of them returned to Ktéléh and the
others stayed in Deir Khouna. The Abou
Rjeily family in Beirut, Chiyah, Taltita[8], Chbanié, Hammana, Kab Elias, Zahlé, Baalbeck and Kfarzabad[9] descended from these two groups. The branches who
live in Mazraat el-Nahr, Rishmaya, Kfarmatta, Ser Jbeil[10], Benwayté, Deir El Kamar, Wadi el-Deir, Amik, Tehzaniyé and Ain
el-Sindiyani (All these villages are located in the Chouf county in mount
Lebanon to the south of Aley County) descended from the group who went to
Bhamdoun, Hab Rammoun and Ramlié.
There are four lines of the Abou Rjeily family who had a special nickname,
in addition to the family name.
The Harmouch. Their ancestor is Salloum, son of Nicolas, son of Jabbour,
son of Saad, son of Yazbeck, son of Nemr, son of Farès, son of Atallah. Salloum
came from Ktéléh to Beirut at the end of the eighteenth century, where he
resided in Mazraat el-Arab and got married to Elizabeth, daughter of Harmouch.
Then he went back to Ktéléh where he got three sons: Nicolas, Bechara, and
Mitri. When his sons grew up, their mother took them back to Beirut to teach
them reading and industry. Their father stayed in Ktéléh. The three children
stayed for a period of time at the house of their uncles, the Harmouch. People
called them Harmouch and they were known with this name, as well as their
father.
Nicolas, the oldest son, was clever and brave. He volunteered in the
attack launched by prince Bashir el-Chéhabi the Great, on the Sanour fortress,
to help Abdallah Bacha, the governor of Akka. He showed great courage in the
conquest of the fortress. The prince made him Sheikh of Mazraat el-Arab, where
he received the seal of the Sheikhdom from Sheikh Younés Badran who married him
to his daughter, Hawen, who gave birth to two sons: Asaad and Lutfallah. Once,
Prince Bashir asked him to send builders to help his men in a construction site.
Instead he sent young boys who were rejected by the prince because of their
youth. Some of his enemies denounced him to the prince who sent for him but he
did not comply and ran away.
The prince’s men followed him but he killed two of them. As he was walking
in a quarry located in the South of Beirut, he passed by some of his
acquaintances while they were cutting rocks. They asked him to help them to lift
the rock. As they were lifting, they let the rock fall and kill him. After his
burial, the man who came up with this idea went to prince Bashir to tell him the
story. The prince turned sad and ordered the man to be hanged.
Assaad and Lutfallah, Nicolas’ sons, grew up. Assaad went into politics.
The people and the government who appointed him Sheikh of Msaytbé and Mazraat
al-Arab for a long period of time loved him. Lutfallah set up in business, made
a fortune and had many sons, among them the well-known Halim Abou Rjeily
(Harmouch)..as if Heaven wanted to keep a memory of the Harmouch family through
these descendants after the first line of Harmouch disappeared.
The Naoums. Their ancestor is Naoum, son of Nemr, son of Farès, son of
Atallah. Those who came to Serjbal and its surroundings are from different
lines. Those of the Naoum line took the nickname of their grandfather in order
to be differentiated from their cousins. Agapios, archbishop of Tyre and its
Sea, in the Roman Catholic church and his brother, Father Boutros,
belong to the
Nahoum line.
The Slaibi who live in Chiyah. Their ancestor is Slaibi, son of Saber, son
of Atallah, son of Elias, son of Atallah. Many persons were known with the same
name, that is why they had to be differentiated. Their names were written with
the father’s name, the grandfather’s name and the family name. Throughout the
years, the name Slaibi became
their nickname.
The Hajjar in Kab Elias. Their ancestor is Youssef, son of Chédid, son of
Daher, son of Michael, son of Yaghi, son of Atallah. He came first to the Bekaa,
settled down in Maksi (near Kab Elias) where he married a woman called Hajjariya,
who was the widow of a man from Furzul. They had four children: Murad, Saad,
Makhoul and Abdallah. Youssef died when they were young. Their mother took them
to Kab Elias. As their father was unknown there, people called them with their
mother’s name: Hajjaria. Then the name Hajjaria became Hajjar. They were known
as Hajjar, as well as their brothers from their mother’s side.
Their ancestor is Elias, son of Yaghi, son of Michael, son of Farès. He
was one of the men of prince Farès el-Lamaï in Ras el-Metn. One day, while he
was taking care of the prince’s mule, it kicked him. He pulled out a piece of
iron
and stabbed
the mule. He feared the prince’s anger, so
he ran away to Zahlé where he resided in the Musallem’s house. After some time,
he got married to the daughter of Hatem Musallem and became a trustee on their
properties in Douris (near Baalbeck).
Meanwhile, the famous battle took place between prince Bashir el-Shahabi
and Sheikh Bashir el-Junblati in 1824. The country split in two factions and the
consequences of this war were not to be foreseen. The two brothers Mitri Nabhan
and Merhi Nabhan agreed to join the two factions: the first one joined prince
Bashir el-Chéhabi’s faction and the second one joined Sheikh Bashir
el-Junblati’s faction. Prince Bashir el-Chéhabi won the war and the Lamaï prince
who controls Ras el-Metn, ordered the properties of the Junblati faction to be
seized. The village of Kfarzabad in the Bekaa belonged to some supporters of the
Junblati party. When the Lamaï prince seized their properties,
Kfarzabad villagers asked Mitri
Nabhan to intercede for them with the prince in order to cool his anger. They
promised to give him half of the Kfarzabad crop in compensation and the prince
relented.
When the harvest was completed, Mitri Nabhan went to Kfrazabad to take his
part of the crop and resided in the house of one of the Abou Rjeilys, called
Jabbour, son of Saad, son of Jabbour, son of Saad, son of Yazbek, son of Nemr,
son of Farès, son of Atallah. Jabbour had four children: Saad, Daher, Saab and
Michael. They helped Mitri Nabhan to put up the crops. There were few Christians
in Kfarzabad. The Druze peasants threatened Jabbour’s sons and Mitri Nabhan
understood that he would not obtain the crop after all. So he wrote a letter to
prince el-Lamaï in Ras el-Metn asking for help. The prince provided him with a
group of his men and another group that came from Zahlé. The two forces met in
Tal Ajramouch, near Maalaka (in Zahléh), went into Kfarzabad where they were met
by the Druze. A battle took place, in which Jabbour showed great courage when he
attacked the Druze with swords. A man from Zahlé, called Makhoul Tabbah,
supported him. The Druze were defeated since that time, the number of the
Christians increased in Kfarzabad. Elias, who lived in Douris, heard of the
battle and was looking forward to meet his cousin. So he came to Kfarzabad.
After spending many days with his relatives, they refused that he goes back to
Douris, so they accompanied him
there
and brought his family back. He settled down in
Kfarzabad with his three children: Youssef, Ibrahim and Farès. One of his
descendants is the well-known Salim Nassif who lives in Zahlé. Elias’
arrival
to
Kfarzabad was the reason for which this line of the Abou Rjeily family settled
down there because the line of Jabbour Saad disappeared.
Many
Abou Rjeily
members became prominent. Among them, Theodosios,
patriarch of Tyre and Sidon and their Sea in the Orthodox church and Agapios,
archbishop of Tyre and its See in the Roman Catholic church, and many priests
who left the country.
[1] Barbara is a coastal
village in Jbeil county, 55 Km to the north of Beirut. It is located between two
major touristic cities: Jbeil (Byblos) and Batroun.
[2] Ktéléh is a small village in
the Valley between Bhamdoun in and
Ras El Metn. Few Abou
Rjeilys live there nowadays.
[3] Metn is a touristic county in
Mount Lebanon borderd by Kesrouan in the north, Alay in the south, Beirut and
the Mediterranean sea to the West and the Bekaa valley to the east.
[4] Hawran or Hauran
[Heb.,=hollow or cavernous land], district, is situated to the southeast of
Syria on the border of Jordan behind the Golan heights. It is a largely treeless
region marked by conical volcanic peaks, barren lava fields, and rich lava soil.
In the northeast are the Druze Mountains, many of the numerous caverns there
were once inhabited. Major towns are Dara, Busra ash-Sham, and Izra, which date
back to Hellenistic times. Grains and fruits (including grapes) are grown in
Hawran. Most of the inhabitants are
Druze, who migrated from Lebanon in
the 18th and 19th cent. The Hawran district belonged, at least in part, to the
biblical kingdom of Bashan, which the Israelites conquered. Designated the
northeast boundary of the Promised Land, Hawran later became the Roman province
of Auranitis. The region was converted to Christianity by the late 2d cent. and
prospered until the Arab invasion of the 7th cent. During the Crusades, Muslims
who were driven out of Palestine moved to Hawran to make a stand against the
Christians. The district has many ancient towns whose buildings and furniture
are made entirely of lava; about 300 of these “giant cities of Bashan” have been
located. Inscriptions in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Sabean (southern Arabic)
abound.
[5] Kesrouan and Jbeil are two
counties (casas) in mount Lebanon that
hosted the Christians who escaped
the Islamic conquest in the 7th century in the eastern Mediterranean.
[6] Bhamdoun, Ramlieh and Hab
Ramoun are villages close to Ktéléh located in Aley county in mount Lebanon
[7] Deir Khouna is a deserted village close to Ktéléh, in the valley of Ras El Metn
[8] Taltita is a small
village located between Ktéléh and Bhamdoun
[9] Kfar Zabad is a village to
the east of the Bekaa Valley at the Lebanese Syrian borders
[10] Ser Jbeil, Benwayté, Deir El
Kamar, Wadi el-Deir, are all villages in the Chouf County to the south of
Aley county