Lassa, Lebanon

Lassa لاسا
Lassa Location in Lebanon
Coordinates: 34°4′34″N 35°51′36″E
Country	Lebanon
Governorate	Keserwan-Jbeil
District	Byblos
Area
• Total	7.39 km2 (2.85 sq mi)
Elevation	1,130 m (3,710 ft)

Lassa (Arabic: لاسا) is a municipality in the Byblos District of Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate, Lebanon. It is 90 kilometers north of Beirut. Lassa has an average elevation of 1,130 meters above sea level and a total land area of 739 hectares. The village contains one public school, which enrolled 15 students in 2008. Its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims and a persecuted maronite minority

Lassa was the seat of the Shia Muslim houses of Moqdad & Hamadeh, which exercised control over large swaths of Mount Lebanon in the 17th and 18th centuries, including the districts of Jubbay al-Mnaytra, Bilad Jubayl (Byblos), Bilad al-Batrun and Jubbat Bsharray. Lassa was burnt by the Ottomans many times in reprisal for the Hamadeh lords' failure to remit tax incomes. In the late 18th century, the Hamadeh and their clans (al-'asha'ir al-hamadiyah) were driven out of Lassa and surrounding villages, to the eastern slopes of Mount Lebanon, the Hirmil region and the area of Ba'lbak. Some of the Shia Muslim families remained. The biggest family in Lassa is Al Moqdad. Al Eitawi family comes after it.