The following is an excerpt of a letter Elias Abu-Saba wrote to his niece Selwa A. Saikaly in 2001 ----------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 11:05:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Dr. Elias Abu-saba Subject: History of Mie ou Mieh Mieh Mieh ( I use Mia-Mia } as a Christian community began around the tuirn of the eighteenths century. It was owned by a Druze landowner called Nassif El Nakad. He had one hundred and ninety nine farms. When he bout the number two hundred farm, his tenents said: "Sheikh Nassif has one hundred and one hundred farms". Thus the name of that farm stuck with Mieh wo Mieh. Mieh means one hundred and wo means and. I was told this by a prominant Druze judge. Druzism is a Muslim sect who live mostly in Lebanon and Syria and some inPalestine. Another prominent family, this time Christian bout it from the Druze Sheikhs. When was that I do not know at this time, but I can find out. I know for a fact that the second church that was built in Mieh Mieh wa sbuilt in 1754. When the the people of Mieh Mieh demolished that church in 1934 to replace it with a bigger and more modern one they found the corner srone with the date mentioned above. Your father was six years old then. I was four. I remember that even but not the dated stone. One of the village elders gave methat information. How did I establish that the christian community began around 1700 AD. I infer3ed that from other historical events events that I knew of from history books. The first family that came there as share croppers were the Francises. They came from the Chouf mountains to the north east of Mia-Mia. Most probably they were tenents at another farm owned by a Druze chieftan. The Wakims followed. They cme from Houran, the plains south East of Damascus. There are Wakims there still. Some of the Mia-Mia Wakims had established contacts with their Syrian relatives. The next family was the Saikalies. I do not know where they came from. There merchants in Beirut known to Saikalies. We made close contacts with. Abu-Azar, your grand father had close contacts with some of them. Some that other branch, the Beirutees, immigrated to Palestine. They came back to Lebanon when the State of Israel was created. I have a close friend who is a Beirutee Saikaly. He is a professor of history at the American Universirty of Beirut. Last Summer he was in Washington D.C. and ran into May Nasri Saikaly a second cousin of mine. The Abu-Sabas came to Mieh Mieh in the mid nineteenth century. My grandfather was either the first or the second to arrive there. I will tell more about thegeneology in another letter. The American Missionaries came to Lebanon in the second half of the nineteenth century. They bought tracts of land in different sites in Lebanon and built schools and the University. One of the sites was in Mia-Mia. They bout the land from a Christian landowner. My grandfather Assaf Abu-Saba was the oversear on that Land. That was in 1882 or a year before. They bout property in old Sidon and cultivate the farm land in Mia_Mia. Mieh Mieh history comprises four major turning points. The first one, we covered in our previous letter. In that letter, I stated how the community coalesced around the beginning of 1700 with farmewrs settling on that farm. The druze owners sold to Christians who in turn brought Chriatian farmers to till their land. Who was tyhe family that bought it from the Druze, I have no information on that. That will be some thing to research. Yet I know who were the owners or owner who sold it to the American missionaries in the early 1880s. Also I know that my grandfather, Assaf Georges Abu-Saba, was the overseer of the farm and represented the Fddoul Family the owner of the farm at that time. The Faddouls were Catholics. So was my father. The Faddouls were residentds of Deir Al Qamar, the seat of the government of Lebanon for over two hundred years begining around 1600 and ending in 1840. I also suspect that Assaf Abu-Saba came from Deir Al Qamar. Other thanMieh Mieh, Deir Al Qamar has a large number of Agu-Sabas. The second turning point happened with the coming of the American Missionaries to Mieh Mieh. When the Missionaries bought the land, my grand father remained in his position as seer, but the missionaries brought another person, Mikhael Bustani, from Dibyyef, a Christian town near Deir Al Qamar. I know also from first hand information that my grandfather and Mr. Bustani became very good friends to the extent that when my grandfather died in 1896, Mr. Bustani looked after Assaf's children. My Uncles and my father tilled the land for Mr. Bustani and ended up buying mosty of it from his children. The last piece of land was bought by my father from Majid Bustani, a son of Mikhael. By the way, the sons of Majid are some of the Wealthiest in Lebanon now. One by the name of Nabil is a member of Parliament in Lebanon. I met him once and reminded him of our connection. He did not appreciate hearing that since they were having hard time in that period. Mr. Bustani died in mid 1930s. How can the Missionaries be considered decisive in the history of the village? The missionaries opened schools in the village. They founded Girard Institute from which your father and I graduated as did many others in the village beginning in 1910. They also created jobs that raised the level of living of Mieh Mieh in comarison to other villages in the area. They started a building project which comprised of several large buildins. They began the school in the old city of Sidon, but mained a work camp for their students in Mieh Mieh until they built the first building. It was know by Beola{?}. ---------------------------- (Elias my be referring to Ramapo Hall i Mieh-ou-Mieh)