Zgharta Zawie Online Magazine

Zawieh Caza - Zgharta

Zgharta - Zawie Online Magazine

Daraya - Raskifa - Bshennine

Daraya which name means residences and houses, is situated in the Zawieh plain 10 Km from south-east of Zgharta. No archeological remains are found there, but historical records prove that it has been inhabited since the early Middle Ages. The Ottoman census of 1519 counted 30 adult males and that of 1571counted 66 adult males. In the early 20^th century Daraya was a big community of 400 adult Maronite males and 30 adult Orthodox males.

Daraya shares one municipality with Bshennine, one of the smallest village in the district (167 registered). In 1555, Daraya counted 66 adult males and 212 adult males in 1849and 430 males in 1906. In 1998 the official records counted 1487 registered persons. More than half of the registered persons are now living abroad as emigrants and some 410 of them had cut their relations with their motherland although their names are still in the records. Click here to view a list of their names.

Education: The school of Mar Semaan was founded by a wealthy priest, Father Semaan El-Alam, the year 1880. The Jesuit Order run the school from 1901 to 1908. Father Mansour El-Alam became the administrator in 1908 followed by Fr. Louis El-Alam (1910-1914). It closed down during World War I. It reopened in 1921 by Father Maroun El-Alam and stayed active till the year 1936. It was one of the few schools in which philosophy, physics, Arab and French literatures and English language were taught. Of its teachers: Youssef Daou from Kousba, Verna Hadwan, Anis and Ibrahim Aandari…

In 1940 the Maronite Archdiocese opened a school that lasted till the 1960ies.

Raskifa

As its name indicates, the village stands on top of a steep mountain cliff at an altitude of 360 m. The houses of the village are spread over the slope of a green hill on top of which the monastery of St. George was built. On the western slope, the monastery of Our Lady of Hamatoura overlooks the Koura plains and the Kadisha Valley.

Raskeefa is a very old village in which many tombs carved in the rocks, stone mills, sarcophaguses and archeological remains lead the researchers to suppose that it has been inhabited since the early Canaanite times. Among the archeological sites belonging to Byzantine and Crusader times, there are the remains of a church dedicated to St. Elias of which only the entrance apse subsists.

In 1849 Raskifa counted 128 males and 37 houses. In 1988 it counted 1173 registered persons and in 1998the registered decreased to count 876persons. This is due to the fact that many early emigrants that did not report back are being removed from the records especially those who were born in the 19th century. Click here to view a list of the names of some early emigrants that names are still found on official records.

Education: We don’t know the year the first school was founded but here are the names of the first teachers: Al-Shidiac Al-Semaani Al-Hasrouni, Nakhleh Elias Naim, Khali Melhem Bouari, Fr. Mikhaiil Debs, Daoud Elias Naim, Youssef Elias and Hanna Mikhaiil. In 1920, the government began paying the teachers salary till the year 1926 when the Jesuits took it over. In 1950 the Maronite Archdiocese opened a school that was replaced by the public school which closed down in 1971.

Administration: The first municipality was implemented in 1966. The municipal council was formed as follows: President: Karim Shalhoub Members: Assaad Debbo, Elias Ghamra, Tanios Kaddi, Joseph Khoury, Michel Al-Jir, Joseph Makhlouf, Naim Naim