DAQQOUN is a beautiful village located near Aley, on Mount Lebanon, one of the best Green areas in the Middle East. .

    Daqqoun is located between 250 and 600 meters above sea level, and is about 339  hectares (3.39 km²), and is only about 25 km away south of the capital, Beirut.

   The village is growing again after about 23 years of occupation; from 14 Feb 1984 during the civil war of Lebanon, till the end of 2007. The promises of help started in the 1997 elections, and continued in 2001 & even 2005, but the voting stations were located outside our village. In May 2006, the Ministry of Displaced started to pay indemnities but not to evacuate our occupied houses. After the second war in July 2006, a lot of things changed so that 2007 was the great year of return with an extensive rebuilding program encompassing two churches, a school, and a very active social calendar. All this was achieved with the help of our patroness, Saint Thecla.

     The History of DAQQOUN started with our forebear CHAAYA; CHAAYA came from the Byblos mountains to Aabey to work at the palace of Al-Nakadi Beyk who was one of the Al-Tanukhi princes.

The Druze Period :

    The phases of Druze history are represented by three emirates - the Buhturis, Maanis, and Shihabis - that played important roles in providing leadership to the Druze masses. The Buhturis (1040s - 1507) are a branch of the Al-Tanukhi, who had their origins in Arabia but migrated to northern Syria and then settled in Mount Lebanon beginning in the middle of the eighth century. In the first half of the eleventh century some of the Al-Tanukhi princes joined the Druze faith.

 

 

 

 

   During the reign of the last of the Shihabi Amirs, Bashir II (1788 - 1840), the strong central authority that was exercised over Mount Lebanon and the areas adjacent to it was reinforced. However, Bashir II was constrained by the Egyptian rulers and a decade of Egyptian occupation; this led to his fall and, subsequently, to the end of the Shihabi emirate and the beginning of internal civil conflict in the early 1840s.

   In 1843 the European powers convinced the Ottoman Sultan to pacify the area, and to relinquish affairs in the north to the French-supported Maronites and in the south to the British-backed Druzes. The tension in Mount Lebanon grew and finally exploded into open confrontation, beginning with the Maronite peasants rising against their Maronite landlords in 1858 and then against their Druze landlords in 1860. The bloody events of that year ended in the special autonomous administration of Mount Lebanon within the Ottoman Empire. This arrangement quickly failed and was replaced by a political regime known as Mutasarrifiyya, headed by a Mutasarrif (governor) that imposed a ruler from outside Lebanon who was a subject of the Ottoman sultan.

   The Al-Nakadi Beyk:

After the Ottoman conquest of the countries of Al-Sham, the emirate of the west continued but shrank. There  then appeared in the Shouf the Maanis family which supported  the  Buhturis family  of the Al-Tanukhi princes. After the detention of the prince, Fakher El Dien in Turkey in 1633, the Yemeni party under the leadership of Alam ElDein attacked the Buhturis in Aabey & killed them & their children.  So the Maanis regained the area as rulers and after them control passed to the princes of the Shihabi family.

   In 1845, under arrangements with Shekeab Afandi, the AlShahhar area passed to Qasem Nakadi Beyk. Thus the sons of Hammoud Nakadi Beyk moved from Dier AlKamar and settled in Aabey.

   With the rise of the Mutasarrif in Mount Lebanon, Aabey became the administrative center [Alshahhar] alongside the AlShouf district.

   The Al-CHAAYA :                      

    

Our forebear CHAAYA came over the high mountains of Abbey to Al- Nakadi Beyk. He worked as a Shepherd, but he had to walk a long distance down the valley to bring water for the sheep. One day, Chaaya noticed that his dog entered a bush and came out wet, so he called Ali, the shepherd who was with him, and removed the bush. There they found water for their sheep. After that, when the Beyk knew what they had discovered, the water was sent for testing and found to be good for drinking; so the shepherds didn’t have to go down the valley any more. The Beyk later called the area Ain-Ali which made Chaaya angry. The Beyk knew this and asked Chaaya to move with his family to the fertile agricultural land & empty houses next to Aabey and the village was named DAQQOUN.

 

WELCOME TO DAQQOUN village WEBSITE

  The aim has been to provide up-to-date information, with a bit of interest too! Please enjoy the site and feel free to contact us if you have any village information, up-dates, photographs etc.

COMING SOON - It is my intention to build an e-mail address book for residents of the village wishing to receive information from village groups. If you would like to be added to the list hit Please add my e-mail address to the village contact list in the subject box type DAQQOUN contact list. - If you would like to promote your event or business HERE e-mail it to us.

 Initially the content of this site was put together with the hard work of many people; Special thanks to  Dr. Leigh.