Aitou

Coordinates: 34°18′31″N 35°55′11″E / 34.30861°N 35.91972°E / 34.30861; 35.91972
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"Ayto" redirects here. For the TV series abbreviated as AYTO?, see Are You the One? For other uses, see Are You the One? (disambiguation).
Aitou
أيطو
Village
UTC+3 (EEST)
Dialing code+961

Aitou (also Ayto, Aytou, Aytu, Aïtou, Aito, Itoo,

Maronite Catholic.[1]

Demographics

The current estimate is that 1157 people live in Aitou in about 200 houses. The people of Aitou are typically followers of the

Maronite Catholic church. It is also estimated, according to some statistics, that in the U.S. there are about 14,000 immigrants from Aitou; most of whom live in Peoria, Illinois and have formed the Itoo Society. The Itoo Society was established in 1914 for several purposes: creating and maintaining unity among the Aitou community in Peoria, maintaining strong ties to the families remaining in Aitou and providing for the general welfare of both the Aitou community in Peoria and the citizens of the village of Aitou. There are also many immigrants from Aitou who live in Venezuela, Australia, Brazil, and some European countries.[2]

Famous People from Aitou

The most renowned individuals from Aitou or descendants of Lebanese from Aitou are:

Etymology

With a Qaf (Qaitou), the name in

Mediterranean coast.[2]

With a Ghayn (Ghaithou), it could mean anger, rage (Arabic equivalent: غيظ).

With an Aleph ('Aitou), it could mean thick, obscure, magic in reference maybe to the thick forests or the thick fog that characterizes the summer evenings in this area.

Geography

Aitou is a mountainous village, located 113 km from Beirut and 27 km from Tripoli, Lebanon. The town occupies the northern slopes of Mount Lebanon at an elevation ranging between 900 and 1300 meters above sea level.[2]

History

Antiquity

In

hieroglyphic inscription is found today at the National Museum of Beirut.[2]

Ottoman period

After the settlement of the

Maronite leaders.[4]
The rule of the Aitou Muqaddam seems to have been limited to the nearby region till 1519.

In 1517, one year after the beginning of the Ottoman rule in Lebanon, the Muqaddam of Bsharri, Elias, died leaving the rule of the region to his young son Hanna, known later as Abdel Muneem.[5] In 1519, the Muqaddam of Aitou, Kamal Eddine Ibn Abdel Al-Wahhab, known as Ibn Ajramah (ابن عجرمة), profiting from the confusion and the young age of the Muqaddam of Bsharri, seized the power in Jebbet Bsharri. He was married to Sitt El Moulouk (ست الملوك), a cousin of the Muqaddam of Bsharri. Sitt Al Moulouk played an important role in the take-over out of revenge because the family branch of her father, the Sheikh Alwan, was evicted from power in Jebbet Bsharri previously.[6]

In the first Ottoman census of Jebbet Bsharri done in that same year, Aitou was credited with 28 male adults, 24 of them married.[7]

The Muqaddam of Aitou, Ibn Ajramah, ruled Jebbet Bsharri for 18 years. He built a castle[8] in Aitou and accumulated copious amounts of wealth.

In 1532, Abdel Muneem (عبد المنعم) of Bsharri succeeded in getting back the rule on half of the region from Bsharri to Hadath El Jebbeh, the other half from Blaouza to Aitou staying under the rule of Ibn Ajramah of Aitou.[9] In 1537, Abdul Muneem of Bsharri killed Ibn Ajramah of Aitou by stabbing him with his spear. The killing took place in the village of Blaouza. Ibn Ajramah was buried in Aitou behind the church of Mar Sarkis.[10] This episode marked the end of the Muqaddams of Aitou.

But the wife of Ibn Ajramah, the above-mentioned Sitt El Moulouk, took eventually her revenge by paying mercenaries to assassinate Abdul Muneem in 1547, ending also this dynasty of Bsharri's Muqaddams as no male descendant was alive.[11]

In the second Ottoman census of 1571, Aitou had 46 male adults, 40 of them being married.[7]

Religious Structures

Churches

Monasteries

  • Monastery of Saint Simon
  • Monastery of Saint Artemios of Antioch (Challita)

References

  1. ^ "Municipal and ikhtiyariah elections in Northern Lebanon" (PDF). The Monthly. March 2010. p. 23. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ a b c d About Aitou
  3. ^ Moubarac, Youakim (1984): Pentalogie Antiochienne/Domaine Maronite, Tome II, Volume 2, Cenacle Libanais, Beirut, Page 587.
  4. ^ Al Qattar, Elias (1998): Muqaddamiat Jebbet Bsharri fi Al-Ahed Al-Othmani, First Congress of Jebbet Bsharri, Gibran National Committee, Bsharri, page 306.
  5. ^ El Douaihy, Estephane (1982): Tarikh Al Azminah, version of Abbot Boutros Fahed, Dar Lahd Khater, Beirut, page 398.
  6. ^ Al Qattar, Elias (1998): Muqaddamiat Jebbet Bsharri fi Al-Ahed Al-Othmani, First Congress of Jebbet Bsharri, Gibran National Committee, Bsharri, page 315.
  7. ^
    OCLC 35578546
  8. Muslim. Usually, Historians agree that the commonly called Maronite Muqaddams used to take Muslim names since the Mamluks period in order to facilitate their relations with the Muslim rulers but they were in fact either Christian Maronites
    or Christian Jacobites. We know from Douaihy that, after his assassination, Ibn Ajramah was buried behind the Church of Mar Sarkis and not inside it as we could expect for a leader of such importance in those times.
  9. ^ El Douaihy, Estephane (1982): Tarikh Al Azminah, version of Abbot Boutros Fahed, Dar Lahd Khater, Beirut, page 410.
  10. ^ El Douaihy, Estephane (1982): Tarikh Al Azminah, version of Abbot Boutros Fahed, Dar Lahd Khater, Beirut, page 412.
  11. ^ El Douaihy, Estephane (1982): Tarikh Al Azminah, version of Abbot Boutros Fahed, Dar Lahd Khater, Beirut, page 417-418.

External links

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