Kab-Elias
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Qabb Ilyas City مدينة قب الياس Qab Elias, Qoub Elias, Kabelias | ||
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 Municipal Public Garden
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  Qabb Ilyas City
Location in Lebanon
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| Coordinates: 33°47′37″N 35°49′21″E / 33.79361°N 35.82250°ECoordinates: 33°47′37″N 35°49′21″E / 33.79361°N 35.82250°E | ||
| Country | Lebanon | |
| Governorate | Beqaa | |
| District | Zahle | |
| Population (2011) | ||
| • Total | 50,000 | |
| Website | http://www.kabelias.org | |
Qabb Ilyas (Arabic: قب الياس; ALA-LC: Qab Ilyās / Lebanese Arabic: [Abblyes]) also spelled Kab Elias, Qab Elias, Qob Elias, Qoub Elias) is a municipality in Zahle District, in eastern Lebanon. Qabb Ilyas is 15 kilometers from Zahleh and 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the Lebanese capital Beirut. Its average elevations is 950 meters (3,120 feet) above sea level. Its area is approximately 32 km². Qabb Ilyas is the third largest city in the Beqaa Valley, after Zahleh and Baalbek in terms of area size and geography. The majority of the residents are Sunni Muslims.
According to the 19th-century Lebanese historian Haydar al-Shihabi, the town was originally called al-Muruj. Local tradition holds that the town's current name "Qabb Ilyas" is derived from Qabr Ilyas ("grave of Ilyas"), but was shortened over time to Qab Ilyas. Ilyas was an 8th-century muqaddam from Mount Lebanon, who was killed during a raid in the Beqaa Valley by the forces of the Abbasid governor of Damascus.
In the late 16th century, the Bedouin chieftain of the Beqaa Valley, Mansur ibn Furaykh, used Qabb Ilyas as one of his headquarters. He had a palatial home built in the village. Two years after his execution in Damascus by the Ottoman authorities in December 1593, the Druze sheikh Ali Jumblatt took over the Beqaa Valley during his rebellion against the governor of Damascus Eyalet. During this rebellion, Mansur's home was seized by the Druze Ma'ani emir, Fakhr ad-Din II, who refused to restore it to Mansur's brother Murad ibn Furaykh despite an imperial Ottoman decree. The sons of Mansur, Nasrallah and Muhammad, continued to struggle for control of the property during Fakhr ad-Din's exile as the Shia Harfushi sheikh Yunus al-Harfush took possession of the home.
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