Al-Bireh, Rashaya
village in Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon
Al-Bireh, El Bire, Biré, El Bireh (Levantine Arabic: البيرة, romanized: el-Bīrreh) or Birra (at the time of the Crusades) is a town in the Rashaya District, south-eastern portion of the Bekaa Governorate of the Republic of Lebanon. Al-Bireh is part of the Rashaya municipal district. It lies west of the road between Majdel Anjar and Rashaya. Its population is estimated to be 9000. It is a small Sunni Muslim town with two mosques and two schools.
Geography
The oldest part of the town lies on top of Jabal Arbi Mountains while the newer parts lie in the Wadi al-Taym valley and is referred to as Izza. Neighboring towns include Rafid, Kamed, Khirbet-Rouha, and Mdouckha. The town is located about 80 km from Beirut and 40 km from Damascus, Syria.
Economy
More than 60% of the town's population have emigrated to Brazil, Argentina, United States, Canada, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Residents of the town have left to the US as early as the 18th Century and have aggregated in cities like Dearborn, Michigan.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Al-Bireh, Rashaya” is village in Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Al-Bireh, Rashaya and village, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “village in Beqaa Governorate, Lebanon” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4702301. Authority coordinates are 33.584, 35.819. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Al-Bireh, Rashaya”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Al-Bireh, Rashaya primary sources, Al-Bireh, Rashaya archive and Al-Bireh research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Al-Bireh, Rashaya”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Al-Bireh, Rashaya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.