
By: Andrew Neather
Listening to winemaker Fabrice Guiberteau enthuse about his terroir, you could almost be in Provence. Rows of golden-leaved vines stretch away in the autumn sun beneath a high ridge, cypress trees in the distance. The harvest for Guiberteau’s supple reds has gone well. But this isn’t Provence, it’s Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. And as the sound of a muezzin drifts across the vines from the nearby village of Kefraya, we’re grateful that it isn’t gunfire from the Syrian border, 20km east. To add to the tensions of making wine in the Middle East, producers such as Château Kefray now a face a nervous future in country buffeted by spillover from Syria’s civil war.
“With everything that’s going on, it’s always at the back of our minds: what if we couldn’t produce wine any more?” says George Sara of Château Ksara, up the road in Zahle.
Relatives of Lebanese soldiers, who were captured by Islamist militants in Arsal, sit near a vehicle with a banner of soldier Ali al-Bazzal, during a protest demanding the release of soldiers and pressuring the government to act, as families block the North entrance of downtown Beirut December 6, 2014. Syria's al Qaeda offshoot Nusra said on Friday it killed captive Lebanese soldier al-Bazzal in retaliation for the arrest by Lebanese authorities of women identified as wives of Islamist militants. Families of Lebanese soldiers held by militants blocked roads in Beirut and highways between major cities on Saturday, pressing the government to do more to free them. More than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces are being held by Sunni Islamists. REUTERS/Aziz Taher (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)
Relatives of Lebanese soldiers, who were captured by Islamist militants in Arsal, protest demanding the release of the remaining soldiers and pressuring the government to act, as families block a road in Saifi village in Beirut December 6, 2014. Families of Lebanese soldiers held by militants blocked roads in Beirut and highways between major cities on Saturday, pressing the government to do more to free them. More than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces are being held by Sunni Islamists

Families of Lebanese soldiers who were kidnapped by Islamic militants, block a main road during a protest after an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria says it has killed a kidnapped soldier Ali Bazzal, seen in poster with his daughter, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014. The Nusra Front group said it shot dead Ali Bazzal, one of the Lebanese soldiers that was kidnapped by the group on Friday night in retaliation for the Lebanese government's detention of the wives and children of militants. The Nusra Front and the Islamic State group have been holding more than 20 Lebanese soldiers and policemen since August. They have so far killed four of them. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Residents burn tyres as they block Qalamoun international highway in Tripoli December 6, 2014. Families of Lebanese soldiers held by militants blocked roads in Beirut and highways between major cities on Saturday, pressing the government to do more to free them. More than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces are being held by Sunni Islamists. One leading Sunni militant, Abu Ali al-Shishani, has pledged to attack Lebanese women and children and end talks to free the soldiers, after his wife was detained by authorities. REUTERS/Stringer (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)

Afnan Al-Hassan, 16, the sister of Lebanese soldier Khaled al-Hassan, who was kidnapped by Islamic militants, weeps as she sits in the middle of a main road during a protest after an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria said it has killed a kidnapped Lebanese soldier, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014. The Nusra Front group said it shot dead Ali Bazzal one of the Lebanese soldier that was kidnapped by the group on Friday night in retaliation for the Lebanese government's detention of the wives and children of militants. The Nusra Front and the Islamic State group have been holding more than 20 Lebanese soldiers and policemen since August. They have so far killed four of them.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Mother of Lebanese soldier Lameh Muzahim, who was kidnapped by militants, pray in front of his photo placed on a protest tent in front the government palace in down town Beirut, Lebanon, 06 December 2014. Media reports state al-Nusra Front announced on 05 December it had shot dead detained Lebanese soldier Ali Bazzal to avenge the arrest of two women, one of whom was identified as the divorcee of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The purported killing of al-Bazzal has sparked anger among families of some 27 soldiers and policemen taken hostage by al-Nusra and Islamic State since August. (Protestas, Líbano) EFE/EPA/NABIL MOUNZER

A Lebanese journalist speaks on his phone in front a big poster, center, showing one of the Lebanese soldiers, who was kidnapped by Islamic militants, carrying his daughter, which is set by his family over a tent that they set up for an open sit-in in front of the government palace, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, late Friday, Dec. 5, 2014.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Families of Lebanese soldiers held by militants blocked roads in Beirut and highways between major cities on Saturday, pressing the government to do more to free them.
More than two dozen members of the Lebanese security forces are being held by Sunni Islamists. One leading Sunni militant, Abu Ali al-Shishani, has pledged to attack Lebanese women and children and end talks to free the soldiers, after his wife was detained by authorities.
The threat, delivered in a video distributed on jihadist websites, was published on Friday hours before the group said it had killed one of the Lebanese soldiers it holds.
Lebanese authorities earlier this week said they had detained a wife of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The wife of Shishani has also been arrested.
Officials say Shishani is a fighter in the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's official Syrian wing. But in the video he praises Baghdadi, whose Islamic State splintered off from al Qaeda. Islamic State and Nusra have both clashed and worked closely with each other at different times.
(Reuters) - Lebanese gunmen opened fire on and burned Syrian refugee tents in north Lebanon, wounding two refugees, security sources said on Sunday, two days after a Lebanese soldier was killed by Syrian militants to countrywide outrage. Lebanon has the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world, with one in four residents a refugee, many of them living in the poorest areas. Resentment against Syrian refugees has grown amid accusations that the displaced population is hiding militants in tented settlements to stage attacks on the Lebanese army.
The security sources said that the gunmen had not been identified but that they were young men from the northern Lebanese town of Mashha in Akkar province, where the attack took place.
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army said Saturday that troops had arrested at least 900 people in the month of November on terror …
Khazen History


Historical Feature:
Churches and Monasteries of the Khazen family

St. Anthony of Padua Church in Ballouneh
Mar Abda Church in Bakaatit Kanaan
Saint Michael Church in Bkaatouta
Saint Therese Church in Qolayaat
Saint Simeon Stylites (مار سمعان العامودي) Church In Ajaltoun
Virgin Mary Church (سيدة المعونات) in Sheilé
Assumption of Mary Church in Ballouneh
1 - The sword of the Maronite Prince
2 - LES KHAZEN CONSULS DE FRANCE
3 - LES MARONITES & LES KHAZEN
4 - LES MAAN & LES KHAZEN
5 - ORIGINE DE LA FAMILLE
Population Movements to Keserwan - The Khazens and The Maans
ما جاء عن الثورة في المقاطعة الكسروانية
ثورة أهالي كسروان على المشايخ الخوازنة وأسبابها
Origins of the "Prince of Maronite" Title
Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century
Historical Members:
Barbar Beik El Khazen [English]
Patriach Toubia Kaiss El Khazen(Biography & Life Part1 Part2) (Arabic)
Patriach Youssef Dargham El Khazen (Cont'd)
Cheikh Bishara Jafal El Khazen
Patriarch Youssef Raji El Khazen
The Martyrs Cheikh Philippe & Cheikh Farid El Khazen
Cheikh Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Hossun El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou-Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Francis Abee Nader & his son Yousef
Cheikh Abou-Kanso El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou Nader El Khazen
Cheikh Chafic El Khazen
Cheikh Keserwan El Khazen
Cheikh Serhal El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Rafiq El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Hanna El Khazen
Cheikha Arzi El Khazen
Marie El Khazen