Mieh Mieh

Not to be confused with Mieh Mieh refugee camp.

Mieh Mieh (or Mieh w Mieh, Mieh-ou-Mieh) is a village in southern Lebanon east of Sidon.

Etymology

The name of Mieh Mieh village derives from one of two origins:

First theory states that the village's name was mummy (from Phoenicians), due to discovering lot of Phoenicians mummies in Mieh Mieh's territories. What supports this theory is that the largest part of Mr. Ford's archeological collection that exists in the Lebanese National Museum is extracted from Mieh Mieh's territories.

The second theory suggests that due to that a lot of water sources existed in the area, thus the village was called Mayya w Mayya, which means water and water in the Assyrian language (al-louga al-syrianiyya).

History

Mieh Mieh was in the 17th century a farm owned by the rich families and the state or the prince. Christians started to come to village in the beginnings of the 18th century , the state gave some of its land to farmers , and they had to pay the 10% of the crops. The families of "Nakad" and "Faddoul" were the owners of half of the land there , than in the 19th century it came to American missionaries.

The ancestors were hard working people, they have passed by difficult times, especially the Turkish occupation, world war I & II, and they fought for their land, and refused to leave it for any price. Until the present time, Mieh w Mieh's inhabitants are still fighting in similar circumstances, and are focused with determination into staying in their lands. They have suffered a lot during the civil war in Lebanon due to its bearing of a refugee Palestinian camp.

Families

Saikaly, Semaan, Khalaf, Francis, Wakim, Abou Zeid, Abdallah, Abu-Akl, Al-Ammouri, Andraos, Assaad, Bou-Saba, Chamieh, Chemali, Choueiry, Dagher, Dib, El-Chabab, El-Hosni, Estephan, Haddad, Haikal, Hanna, Hayek, Jarjoura, Karam, Kozhaya, Maamari, Makhoul, Matta, Mousa, Najm, Nawfal, Rizkallah, Saghbini, Saliba, Sidhom, Skoury, Jobran, Costantine...

References