"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٢‎٨‎٠] (٧٣٨/٥٦٥)

554
GALILEE
whom, according to Trietsch, 3,200 Moslems and 2,800
Christians.
Tiberias. Pop., according to Ruppin, 8,000, and according
to Trietsch, 10,000 ; chiefly Jews.
Communities and Sects .—In Lower Galilee most of the inhabi
tants are Moslems (Orthodox Sunnites), Christians (mostly
either Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholics), or Jews.
In Upper Galilee new elements appear. As a whole, in the
north-west districts, the Christians are Maronites and the
Moslems are Metdwileh (Shi‘ites). Both sects agree in fanatical
intolerance of all others. The Maronite centres are Kefr
Bir‘im, Rumeish, ‘Ain Ibl, and Dibl. Of the Metawileh, Bint
Umm Jubeil, north of Wadi el-Hindaj, is one of the largest
centres ; but the sect is in a majority all over the northern
area of Upper Galilee—at Tibnin, Ya‘ter, Haris, Haddatha,
and Khirbet Selem among other places—and in the environs
of Tyre it constitutes 70 per cent, of the population. Their vil
lages are generally mean, huddled, and poor in comparison with
other settlements ; but they have a rich and more enlightened
class residing in Tyre and Beit Umm Jubeil. Druses are found
at Rameh, Beit Jenn, El-Buqei 4 , and elsewhere. One writer
states that the Druses have fifteen settlements in Galilee ;
their spiritual head is the Sheikh ‘Aqil of Julis. Algerians
have settlements at Ras el-Ahmar, ‘Alma, Deishun, and Kefr
Sabt. Circassians live in a separate village of ‘Alma and at
other spots. Ansariyeh and Turkomans are found in certain
villages on the extreme north-eastern border.
For information as to the distribution and populations of
the Jewish colonies in Galilee—districts of Safed, Tiberias,
Lake Huleh, and Merj ‘Ayun—see I. D. 1203.
As a rule a village is peopled entirely by one sect, or at most
by two, and the several communities never intermarry.
Though the basis of separation is religious differences, there is
a considerable physical difference that enables one who knows
the people well to recognize at once to which community any
individual belongs. Taken as a whole the people of Northern
Palestine are, physically, finer than those of Southern Palestine