Patriarch Duwayhi’s list of Maronite copyists of church books from Mount Lebanon (and Cyprus) in the sixteenth century — “al-nussakh fi hadha al-jabal” is interesting because it doubles as a (partial) list of Maronite centers of population during this time. It provides a good indication of the area of Maronite territorial extension in the sixteenth century, as well as of centers of Maronite religious literacy.

Here is the list of fourty seven villages the copyists hailed from:

Ihdin (Jibbat Bsharray)

Ijbi’ (Jibbat Bsharray)

Adnit

Ilij (Bilad al-Batrun)

Aytu (Jibbat Bsharray)

Bouar (al-Futuh)

Ban (Jibbat Bsharray)

Bsharray (Jiabbat Bsharray)

Bijjeh (Bilad Jubayl)

Bqufa (Jibbat Bsharray)

Bytumini (Cyprus)

Jaj (Bilad Jubayl)

Bish’alah (Bilad al-Batrun)

Hastiriya

Haqil (Bilad Jubayl)

Hadshit (Jibbat Bsharray)

Hawqa (Jibbat Bsharray)

Hardin (Bilad al-Batrun)

Hadath (Jibbat Bsharray)

Hasrun (Jibbat Bsharray)

Yammunah (Bilad Ba’albak)

Khurmajiti  (Kurmajit, Kormakitis — Cyprus)

Khilyini (Cyprus)

Khayzafaneh (Cyprus)

Kfarbandi

Kfur (Kfur al-Arabi, Bilad al-Batrun or Kfur in al-Futuh)

Kfarkida

Lihfid (Bilad Jubayl)

Mattushi (Cyprus)

Maad (Bilad Jubayl)

Matrit (Jibbat Bsharray)

Qaryat al-Nawus (al-Kura)

Samata (Asomatos, Cyprus)

Sahil ‘Alma (Kisrawan)

Smar Jubayl (Bilad al-Batrun)

Aqura (Jibbat al-Munaytra)

‘Ajaltun (Kisrawan)

Flodi (Cyprus)

Qnat (Jibbat Bsharray)

Qarbisia (Cyprus)

Quzhaya (Jibbat Bsharray)

Ram (Bilad Jubayl)

Shabtin (Bilad al-Batrun)

Tula (Jibbat Bsharray)

Tuhum (Bilad al-Batrun)

Tannurin (Bilad al-Batrun)

Tartij (Bilad Jubayl)

 

An inquiry into the origin and evolution of the Mamluk military title of muqaddam might shed light on its early use, by Ibn al-Qila’i and Duwayhi among others, to refer to the local chieftains of Mount Lebanon and immediately surrounding areas, whether Maronites or Muslim.

Whether all these local chieftains were appointed by the Mamluks — as was the muqaddam of Bsharray Ya’qub ibn Ayyub in 1388 — or whether they were chosen by their local constituencies and later recognized by the Mamluks is still unclear to me.

Ray Jabre Mouawad (“Lettres au Mont-Liban d’Ibn al-Qila’i”, p. 20) notes that the use of the title to refer to Maronite village chieftains goes back to the Mamluk era, and that the title Ibn al-Qila’i gave to Maronite local chieftains before the Mamluks was rayyis (“chief”).

 

 

I recently ordered “Lettres au Mont Liban d’Ibn al-Qilai”, by Ray Jabre Mouawad, published by Geuthner in 2001. Another relevant publication, “Monasteres Maronites Doubles du Liban” by Sabine Mohasseb-Saliba, issued in 2008, appears to be out of print.

The priest Mansur al-Hattuni, in his Nabdhah Tarikhiyah ‘an al-Muqata’ah al-Kisrawaniyah recorded the displacement in the first years of the sixteenth century of the entire population of the Maronite village of Hadthun (pronounced Hattun), in the Batrun district of Mount Lebanon, following a blood feud with neighboring Shi’ites. He based his account on information from Patriach Bulus Mas’ad.

Such must have been the fear and disarray of this small village’s forty households, all hailing from the same clan, that they left the village in one go, and scattered across areas of Maronite settlement to the south. Hadthun was to remain abandoned until another Maronite clan, the Khalifahs, settled in the nineteenth century.

The main destination of the Hadthun migrants was the Kisrawan mountains, where the dominance of the Khazin Maronite Shaykhs provided a safe haven. The family of Abu Mansur Sulayman settled in Dlebta, where they soon took the surname al-Hattuni. This was Mansur al-Hattuni’s own clan. Other families of migrants from Hadthun included the families of Abu Karam and Abu Sulayman of Brummana (Matn), Marun in Sahel ‘Alma (Kisrawan), Nakuzi in Salima (Matn), and al-Tiyyan (the seller of tin, figs) in Beirut.

The story of the people of Hattun is characteristic of a pattern of southward movement of the Maronites towards Kisrawan and the Matn, and later the Shuf, Jazzin and Jabal ‘Amil districts as well, but the pace of the migration and the scope of the scattering stand out.

 

At least three consecutive Maronite patriarchs, two brothers and their nephew, carried the patronym al-Rizzi: Mikhayil son of Yuhanna al-Rizzi (1567-1581); his brother Sarkis al-Rizzi (1581-1597); and their nephew Yusuf al-Rizzi (1597-1608); they hailed from the now ruined village of Bqufa in in the highest ranges of Mount Lebanon, between Bsharray and Ihdin.

Tannus al-Shidyaq, in his Kitab Akhbar al-A’yaan fi Jabal Lubnan, (page 83 of the Lebanese University edition) mentioned that the al-Dahir muqata’ji family of al-Zawiyah traced their origin to a Butrus al-Rizzi who left Bqufa for the village of Kfar Hawra in the Zawiyah in 1760.

[The date of 1760 may be the result of a printing error and a date of 1670 or earlier seems more likely, because Shidyaq also ascribes an event happening to a grandson of Butrus al-Rizzi to the year 1741, in the time of Milhim Shihab whose career spanned the years 1732 to 1753.]

Bishop Yusuf Diryan and Abbot Ighnatius Tannus al-Khuri, both basing their accounts on an unmentioned source by Patriarch Estephan al-Duwayhi, also wrote that the family of al-Dahir was from the same family as the three patriarchs, without making a genealogical link.

A more reliable but slightly different account is that of Antuniyus Abu Khattar al-‘Aynturini (d. 1821) in his Mukhtasar Tarikh Jabal Lubnan, who wrote of the al-Dahir shaykhs that:

“Four patriarchs came from within their ranks. And the name of their family in Bqufa was the house of al-Rizz […]. And when Bqufa was ruined by excessive snowfalls and the oppression of the rulers, they went down to the village of Kfar Hawra in al-Zawiyah, in the vicinity of Zgharta, and settled there, in the era of the 1600s. And among them rose one known as the shiqyaq Mihayil […], who became a scribe for the governor of al-Zawiyah for several years […]. When the governor of al-Zawiyah changed, the shidyaq Mikahyil governed the muqata’ah of al-Zawiyah […]. And one called Kan’an al-Dahir appeared […].”

The historical figure of Malik ibn Abu al-Ghayth (or ibn Balghayth), muqaddam (local chieftain) of ‘Aqura in Mount Lebanon, remains shrouded in mystery. Among the many questions pending are the era in which he lived, and his affiliation to either the qaysi or the yamani party.

Patriarch Estephan al-Douayhi, in his Tarikh al-Azminah (page 421 of the edition of Butrus Fahd) wrote under the events of the year 1556 that “Malik son of Balghayth al-Yamani the shaykh of al-‘Aqura held tremendous sway […], and he raided Jubbat al-Munaytra and burned it in two phases, after which the people of al-Jubbah entered in a deal with the Qaysi inhabitants of al-‘Aqura against Malik, ambushing him in ‘Ayn al-Jurd and killing him.”

The priest Yusuf al-Dahdah of al-‘Aqura (1602-1677) wrote about a century later on the margins of a prayer book that “Malik son of Abi al-Ghayth al-Yamani led his ‘Aquri men to meet the Ottoman Sultan Salim I in the year 1515 in the country of Ba’lbak (bilad Ba’albak), and that the Sultan gave him numerous presents”.

On the other hand, Tannus al-Shidyaq, in his Kitab Akhbar al-A’yaan fi Jabal Lubnan, mentioned that “in the year 1700, Malik Abu al-Ghayth al-Qaysi al-Maruni, shaykh of al-‘Aqura, died without issue, and his daughter, the wife of shaykh Yusuf son of the priest Jirjis al-Dahdah, inherited him.”

Were there more than just one Malik Abu al-Ghayth (or Balghayth) Maronite shaykhs of al-‘Aqura, one Qaysi and one Yamani, who lived a century and a half apart?