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57-773: Sheikh Adi was born in the 1070s in the village of Bait Far, in the Beqaa Valley of present-day Lebanon . ‘Adī's house of his birth is a place of pious pilgrimage to this day. Descending from the family of Marwan I , the Caliph of the Umayyads , he was raised in a Muslim environment. His early life he spent in Baghdad , where he became a disciple of the Muslim mystic Ahmad Ghazali , among his fellow students in Ghazali's circle were

114-505: A broad expanse of the littoral, as well as lands that extend rather broadly into the interior, and it is designated by different names in different places. For example, it is called Coele, Mesopotamia, Judaea, Commagene, and Sophene. It is Palestine at the point where Syria abuts the Arabs, then Phoenicia, and then—where it reaches Cilicia—Antiochia. [...] In Palestine, however, is Gaza, a mighty and well fortified city. The name Syria comes from

171-623: A mix of different Lebanese religious confessions. Rachaiya al Wadi , east of the Western Beqaa district, is home to Lebanon's share of Mount Hermon and borders Syria also. The district's capital, also Rachaiya al Wadi, not to be confused with Rachaiya al Foukhar in South Lebanon, is famous for its old renovated souk and what is known as the castle of independence in which Lebanon's pre-independence leaders were held by French troops before being released in 1943. The southern section of

228-522: A number of provinces with various degrees of autonomy under the Roman Empire, such as the Ityraei or Ituraei , who were a people of Coelo-Syria famous for shooting with a bow, [The wood of the trees called] " yews are bent into Ituraean bows". Next to these countries on the coast is Syria, once the greatest of lands. It had a multitude of divisions with different names, the part adjacent to Arabia

285-638: A victory. He was only to return when Antigonus had been defeated at Ipsus in 301 BC. Coele-Syria was assigned to Seleucus , by the victors of Ipsus, as Ptolemy had added nothing to the victory. Though, given Ptolemy's track record, he was unlikely to organize a serious defense of Coele-Syria, Seleucus acquiesced in Ptolemy's occupation, probably because Seleucus remembered how it had been with Ptolemy's help he had reestablished himself in Babylonia. The later Seleucids were not to be so understanding, resulting in

342-550: A year. Beqaa Valley wineries include: Drugs have a long tradition in the Beqaa Valley, from the days of the Roman Empire to the present. Cultivators and tribal drug lords have worked with militias to build up a thriving cannabis trade. The region has been compared to Peru 's cocaine producing Upper Huallaga Valley . During the Lebanese Civil War , cannabis cultivation was a major source of income in

399-581: Is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region . Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to the Coele-Syria of classical antiquity . The Beqaa is located about 30 km (19 mi) east of Beirut . The valley is situated between Mount Lebanon to the west and the Anti-Lebanon mountains to

456-729: Is defined by the Libanus and Anti-libanus mountain ranges, running parallel to each other. In the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ, the name Cœle Syria was applied to the whole of the southern portion of Syria, but under the Romans, it was confined to "Cœlesyria Proper" and variously included the district east of Anti-Libanus, about Damascus, and a portion of Palestine east of the Jordan river (possibly of: Trans-Jordan , Perea , or

513-420: Is estimated that that action eliminates no more than 30% of overall crops. Although important during the civil war, opium cultivation has become marginal, dropping from an estimated 30 metric tonnes per year in 1983 to negligible amounts in 2004. Due to increasing political unrest that weakened the central Lebanese government during the 2006 Lebanon War and 2007 Opposition boycott of the government, and due to

570-457: Is home to Lebanon's famous vineyards and wineries . Wine making is a tradition that goes back 6000 years in Lebanon . With an average altitude of 1000 m above sea level , the valley's climate is very suitable to vineyards. Abundant winter rain and much sunshine in the summer helps the grapes ripen easily. There are more than a dozen wineries in the Beqaa Valley, producing over six million bottles

627-547: The Decapolis ). When then [Moses] he received the supreme authority, with the good will of all his subjects, God himself being the regulator and approver of all his actions, he conducted his people as a colony into Phoenicia, and into the hollow Syria (Coele-syria), and Palestine, which was at that time called the land of the Canaanites, the borders of which country were three days' journey distant from Egypt. Syria holds

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684-867: The Mediterranean Sea . From the 1st century BC, when the region was part of the Roman Empire , the Beqaa Valley served as a source of grain for the Roman provinces of the Levant . Today the valley makes up 40 percent of Lebanon's arable land . The northern end of the valley, with its scarce rainfall and less fertile soils, is used primarily as grazing land by pastoral nomads . Farther south, more fertile soils support crops of wheat, maize , cotton , and vegetables, with vineyards and orchards centered on Zahlé . The valley also produces hashish and cultivates opium poppies , which are exported as part of

741-515: The ancient Greek regional name for the Levantine colonies and colonial territories which they had established and which were "formerly comprehended as part of Assyria " (see Name of Syria ). Syria had an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including from west to east; Commagene , Sophene , and Adiabene . In Pliny's time, Syria was administratively divided into

798-478: The illegal drug trade . In Baalbek , that is part of a valley to the east of the northern Beqaa Valley, there are evidence of continual habitation dating back almost 8000–9000 years. Ard Tlaili is a small tell mound with an archaeological site, located on a plain at the foot of the Lebanon Mountain, just 11 km (7 mi) northwest of Baalbeck, in the Beqaa Valley. It dates to around 5780-5710 BC and has

855-722: The 8th and 7th century BC, Sobah, now under Imperial Assyrian rule , served as the residence for an Assyrian governor, Bel-liqbi . By the time of Alexander the Great , the valley was reportedly inhabited by the Itureans , possibly an Arabic or Aramaean people. According to the Histories of Alexander the Great , the Itureans were Arab peasants living in the hills above Tyre who slaughtered about 30 Macedonians , which prompted Alexander to conduct an expedition against them. Later on,

912-531: The Beqaa Valley, where most of the country's hashish and opium was produced. The war led various groups to turn to drug trafficking for income. Syria, which controlled most of the Valley, profited significantly from the trade. Palestinian terrorist groups, including the PLO , also participated in the hashish trade, making millions of dollars. The trade collapsed during the worldwide crackdown on narcotics led by

969-676: The Civil War. You may delineate the Promised Land of Moses from the Book of Numbers (ch. 34): as bounded on the south by the desert tract called Sina, between the Dead Sea and the city of Kadesh-barnea , [which is located with the Arabah to the east] and continues to the west, as far as the river of Egypt, that discharges into the open sea near the city of Rhinocolara ; as bounded on

1026-638: The Eleutherus. According to Polybius , a former officer of the Ptolemaic Empire named Ptolemy Thrasea, having fought in the 217 BCE Battle of Raphia , defected to the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great . Antiochus gave him the title " Strategos and Archiereus of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia". Some scholars speculate that this title may have been used previously by the Ptolemies, but no direct evidence exists to support this. The region

1083-512: The Euphrates itself. The Decapolis was so called from its ten cities enumerated by Pliny. What Pliny calls Decapolis , Ptolemy makes his Cœle-Syria ; and the Cœle-Syria of Pliny , is that part of Syria about Aleppo . The governor of Syria retained the civil administration of the whole large province undiminished, and held for long alone in all Asia a command of the first rank. It

1140-589: The Itureans broke away from the weakened Seleucid Empire to form the Kingdom of Chalcis . From their base in the Bekaa, the Itureans expanded their territory to include the Phoenician cities of the coast and came close to Damascus . Their territory was eventually absorbed into the rest of Roman Syria . The valley was of considerable importance to the Roman Empire as one of the important agricultural regions in

1197-623: The Muslim mystics Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi and Abdul Qadir Gilani ; with the latter he undertook a journey to Mecca . He became a disciple also to Hammad ad Dabbas and then Oqeil al Manbidji, from who he received the Khirqa . With time he became a teacher himself. He chose an ascetic way of life, left Baghdad and settled in Lalish. Despite his desire for seclusion, he impressed the local population with his asceticism and miracles . He became well known in present-day Iraq and Syria and disciples moved to

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1254-613: The United States in the early 1990s. Under pressure from the U.S. State Department, the occupying Syrian Army plowed up the Beqaa's cannabis fields and sprayed them with poison. Prior to 1991 it was estimated that income generated from illicit crops grown in the Beqaa was around $ 500 million. According to the UNDP the annual per capita income at that time in the Baalbek and Hermel district did not exceed $ 500. The same agency estimated

1311-636: The area of Judea began diminishing with the eruption of the Maccabean Revolt in 165 BC. With Seleucid troops being involved in warfare on the Parthian front, Judea succeeded in securing its independence by 140 BC. Despite attempts of Seleucid rulers to regain territories, the conquests of Pompey in 64 BC were a decisive blow to them, and Syria became part of the Roman Republic . Judging from Arrian and The Anabasis of Alexander ,

1368-539: The boundaries of the nations under their sway.... Here turning our course and passing round, we take in Palestine-Syria, and beyond it a part of Arabia. The Phoenicians hold the country next to Palestine on the sea, and beyond the Phoenician territory are Coele-Syria, and the parts stretching from the sea as far inland as the river Euphrates, namely Palmyra and the sandy country round about, extending even to

1425-521: The capital Antioch in particular, he ordained its partition into a northern and a southern half, and gave to the governor of the former, which was called Coele-Syria, two legions, to the governor of the latter, the province of Syro-Phoenicia, one [legion]. There is also the colony of Laodicea, in Coele Syria, to which also the divine Severus granted the Italian Law on account of its services in

1482-608: The century of Syrian Wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids. The Battle of Panium in 200 BC, during the Fifth Syrian War, was the final decisive battle between the two sides in ending Ptolemaic control over the region. The 171–168 BC conflicts over Coele-Syria, between Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Ptolemy VI Philometor , are discussed in Livy 's history of Rome (in XLII. 29 and XLV. 11–12). Seleucid control over

1539-605: The district is inhabited with Druze and Christian Lebanese, while the other northern section is mainly inhabited by Sunni Lebanese. Due to wars and the unstable economic and political conditions Lebanon faced in the past, with difficulties some farmers still face today, many previous inhabitants of the valley left for coastal cities in Lebanon or emigrated from the country altogether, with the majority residing in North America , South America or Australia . The Beqaa Valley

1596-566: The early Iron Age , the Beqaa Valley came to be dominated by Phoenician -and Aramaic -speaking populations. In the 11th and 10th centuries BC, the Aramaeans founded the kingdom of Aram-Zobah (also Sobah), mentioned in the Bible . Many scholars suggest it was located in the Beqa'a valley. The precise whereabouts of Zobah , a prominent city at the time, remains a subject of scholarly debate. In

1653-588: The east. It is the northern continuation of the Jordan Rift Valley , and thus part of the Great Rift Valley , which stretches from Syria to the Red Sea . Beqaa Valley is 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) wide on average. It has a Mediterranean climate of wet, often snowy winters and dry, warm summers. The region receives limited rainfall, particularly in

1710-623: The eastern provinces, and it was known for its many temples . The region also gained the attention of Palmyrene Queen Zenobia , who built the Canalizations of Zenobia , linking the valley with Palmyra. Zahle is the largest city and the administrative capital of the Beqaa Governorate . It lies just north of the main Beirut – Damascus highway, which bisects the valley. The majority of Zahle's residents are Lebanese Christian ,

1767-546: The entire", such that the term originally identified all of Syria. The word "Coele", which literally means "hollow" in Koine Greek , is thought to have come about via a folk etymology referring to the "hollow" Beqaa Valley between Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains . However, the term Coele-Syria was also used in a wider sense to indicate "all Syria" or "all Syria except Phoenicia", by

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1824-418: The exception of the town of Deir el Ahmar , whose inhabitants are Christians . The Baalbek and Hermel districts have a Christian and Sunni minority, mainly situated further north along the border with Syria. The western and southern districts of the valley also have a mixed population of Muslims , Christians , and Druze . The town of Joub Janine with a population of about 12,000, is situated midway in

1881-477: The figure for the rest of Lebanon was $ 2,074. Since the mid-1990s, the culture and production of drugs in the Beqaa Valley has been in steady decline. By 2002, an estimated 2,500 hectares of cannabis were limited to the extreme north of the Valley, where government presence remains minimal. Every year since 2001 the Lebanese Army plows cannabis fields in an effort to destroy the crops before harvest. It

1938-523: The first days of spring set his army in motion for Egypt and advanced into Coelo-Syria. When near Rhinocolura he was met by envoys from Ptolemy, who ...begged him to say clearly what he wanted rather than to attack Ptolemy as an enemy—by force of arms—after previously being his friend. Authors of the Roman period differ on the limits of Coele-Syria, some extending and others contracting them. The Geography of Strabo notes that Coele Syria Propria (Proper)

1995-403: The green colored pall, which covers the tomb; and the distribution of large trays with smoking harisa (a ragout with coagulated milk). Four books attributed to Sheikh Adi have been preserved: Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( Arabic : وادي البقاع , romanized :  Wādī l-Biqā‘ , Lebanese Arabic : [bʔaːʕ] ; also romanized as Bekaa , Biqâ , and Becaa )

2052-534: The historians of Alexander the Great , as well as more ancient authors, gave the name of Syria to all the country comprehended between the Tigris and the Mediterranean. The part to the east of the Euphrates, afterwards named Mesopotamia was called "Syria between the rivers;" that to the west was called by the general name Coele-Syria, and although Phoenicia and Palestine were sometimes separated from it. Yet, it

2109-560: The lack of viable alternatives, UN promises of irrigation projects and alternative crop subsidies that never materialized, drug cultivation and production have significantly increased. They remain a fraction of the civil war era production and are limited north of the town of Baalbek , where the rule of tribal law protecting armed families is still strong. Coele-Syria Coele-Syria ( / ˈ s iː l i  ...   / ; Ancient Greek : Κοίλη Συρία , romanized :  Koílē Syría , lit.   'Hollow Syria')

2166-458: The majority being Melkite Greek Catholic , Maronite Catholic , and Greek Orthodox Christians . The town of Anjar , situated in the eastern part of the valley, has a predominantly Armenian Lebanese population and is famous for its 8th-century Arab ruins. Further east, the town of Majdal Anjar has a Sunni Muslim majority. The majority of the inhabitants of the northern districts of Beqaa, Baalbek and Hermel , are Lebanese Shiites , with

2223-408: The mountains in the region north of Mosul not far from the local Hakkari Kurds . As people flocked to his residency in the hills, he would end up founding a religious order later referred to as al-'Adawiyya ('the followers of 'Adi'). He died between 1160 CE (555 Hijra ) and 1162 CE (557 Hijra) in the hermitage that he had built with his followers in the mountain. In his writings he reasoned that it

2280-527: The north, because Mount Lebanon creates a rain shadow that blocks precipitation coming from the sea. The northern section has an average annual rainfall of 230 millimetres (9.1 in), compared to 610 millimetres (24 in) in the central valley. Nevertheless, two rivers originate in the valley: the Orontes (Asi), which flows north into Syria and Turkey , and the Litani , which flows south and then west to

2337-710: The present day despite periods of unrest, destruction, and persecution by outsiders. In 1254, as a result of a violent conflict with the members of the Adawiyya order, the Atabeg of Mosul , Badr al-Din Lu'lu ordered the bones of Sheikh Adi to be exhumed and burned. As the holiest site in the Yezidi religion, his tomb (marked by three conical cupolas) still attracts a great number of people even outside holy festivals and pilgrimages. Nightly processions by torch light include exhibitions of

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2394-457: The region. Their successors, however, became embroiled in a series of conflicts over this issue. And king Demetrius made Apollonius his general, who was governor of Celesyria: and he gathered together a great army, and came to Jamnia. And when he could not overcome Onias, he went to Apollonius, the son of Tharseas, who at that time was governor of Celesyria, and Phenicia. Antiochus was so incensed, ...He at once sent his fleet to Cyprus, and in

2451-530: The south. The Beqaa valley was known as Amqu during the Bronze Age . The identity of the inhabitants is not known for certain, but the region was part of the Amorite Kingdoms of Amurru and Qatna . To the southwest of Baalbek was Enišasi , a city or city-state mentioned in the 1350 - 1335 BC Amarna letters correspondence , written by two rulers of the city Šatiya and Abdi-Riša . By

2508-789: The southernmost pottery belonging to the Halaf Culture . Labweh is a village at an elevation of 950 metres (3,120 ft) on a foothill of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Baalbek District, Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, Lebanon, settled since the Neolithic period . In the Middle Bronze IIA , the Beqa Valley was a highway between the regional power of Qatna in the north and its vassal Hazor in

2565-701: The term "Coele Syria and Phoenicia" or "Coele Syria" was also used in a narrower sense to refer to the former Ptolemaic territory which the Seleucids now controlled, being the area south of the river Eleutherus . This usage was adopted by Strabo and the Books of the Maccabees . Later during the Roman Period c.350 CE, Eunapius wrote that the capital of Coele-Syria was the Seleucid city of Antioch , north of

2622-402: The thoughts of others, becoming invisible, and moving a mountain by force of his word. He also returned the life of a man who was crushed by a rock. Some Muslims respect him as one of the pioneers of asceticism and the scholars of Sufism who held firmly to the Quran and Sunnah. This hermitage within the Valley of Lalish , would continue to be occupied by his followers and his descendants until

2679-426: The valley of Lalish to live close to Sheikh Adi. Following he founded the Adawiyya order. The Valley of Lalish is located within the environs of the village of Ba'adra , 20 miles to the east of Rabban Hormizd Monastery of the Church of the East . Before he died, he named his successor his nephew Sakhr Abu l-Barakat . Physically, he was said to be very tanned and of middle stature. He lived an ascetic lifestyle in

2736-438: The valley, and its population is Sunni . Joub Janine is the governmental center of the region known as Western Beqaa, with municipal services like the serail , which is the main government building in the area, emergency medical services ( Red Cross ), a fire department , and a courthouse . Other towns in the Western Beqaa district are Machghara , Sabghine, Kamed al Lawz , Qab Elias , Sohmor , Yohmor . The towns are all

2793-432: The west by the sea along the coasts of Palestine, Phoenicia, Coele-Syria, and Cilicia; as bounded on the north by the circle formed by the Taurus Mountains and Zephyrium and extending to Hamath, called Epiphany-Syria; as bounded on the east by the city of Antioch Hippos and Lake Kinneret, now called Tiberias , and then the Jordan River which discharges into the salt sea, now called the Dead Sea. Libanius (died 392 CE)

2850-425: The writers; Pliny , Arrian , Ptolemy and also Diodorus Siculus , who indicated Coele-Syria to at least stretch as far south as Joppa , while Polybius stated that the border between Egypt and Coele-Syria lay between the towns of Rhinocolara and Rhaphia . The first and only official use of the term was during the period of Seleucid rule of the region, between c. 200 BCE and 64 BCE. During this period,

2907-456: Was God who created the devil and evil for which he cited passages of the Quran and the Hadiths . He also taught that the true Muslim should adhere to the teachings in the Quran and the Sunna and that only the ones who follow the principles of the Muslim caliphs Abu Bakr , Uthman and Ali are true believers. According to some sources, he established the Sufi Adawiyya order. He is said to have performed several miraculous acts such as reading

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2964-402: Was a region of Syria in classical antiquity . The term originally referred to the "hollow" Beqaa Valley between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges, but sometimes it was applied to a broader area of the region of Syria . The area is now part of modern-day Syria and Lebanon . It is widely accepted that the term Coele is a transcription of Aramaic ܟܠ kul , meaning "all,

3021-406: Was again to pull out after only a few months, after Demetrius had won a battle over his general and Antigonus entered Syria in force up to Antigonuses, this brief success had enabled Seleucus to make a dash for Babylonia which Seleucus secured. In 302 BC, Ptolemy joined a new coalition against Antigonus and reoccupied Coele-Syria, but quickly withdrew on hearing a false report that Antigonus had won

3078-466: Was disputed between the Seleucid dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty during the Syrian Wars . Alexander the Great 's general Ptolemy first occupied Coele-Syria in 318 BC. However, when Ptolemy joined the coalition against Antigonus I Monophthalmus in 313 BC, he quickly withdrew from Coele-Syria. In 312 BC Seleucus I Nicator , defeated Demetrius , the son of Antigonus, in the Battle of Gaza which again allowed Ptolemy to occupy Coele-Syria. Though he

3135-505: Was often comprehended as the whole country as far as Egypt. In the Wars of the Diadochi , Coele-Syria came under the control of Antigonus I Monophthalmus . Then in 301 BCE, Ptolemy I Soter exploited events surrounding the Battle of Ipsus to take control of the region. The victors at Ipsus finalized the breakup of Alexander's empire. Coele-Syria was allocated to Ptolemy's former ally Seleucus I Nicator , who—having been previously aided by Ptolemy—took no military action to gain control of

3192-487: Was only in the course of the second century that a diminution of his prerogatives occurred, when Hadrian took one of the four legions from the governor of Syria and handed it over to the governor of Palestine. It was Severus who at length withdrew the first place in the Roman military hierarchy from the Syrian governor. After having subdued the province —which had wished at that time to make Niger emperor, as it had formerly done with its governor Vespasian —amidst resistance from

3249-421: Was previously known as Palestine (who's northernmost city was Caesarea, Plin. NH 5.69: "Caesarea ..finis Palastine") or Judaea or Cœle. Antiochus made a friendship and league with Ptolemy , and gave him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, and yielded up to him Cœle-Syria and Samaria and Judæa and Phœnicia by way of dowry. Intending to write the history of the Romans, I have deemed it necessary to begin with

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