How a House in Mount Lebanon’s Zabbougha Survived Wars, Famine and Loss

How a House in Mount Lebanon’s Zabbougha Survived Wars, Famine and Loss

Zabbougha is a tiny village in Lebanon’s mountainous district, or “qada,” of North Metn. The year-round population is roughly 200. It contains one grocery store, three churches and, curiously enough, a tiny wine museum. It is also where my father’s family is from and where I live, in a house that was originally built by my fifth great-grandfather, Mufrij Karam, sometime in the 18th century. But our story starts in the late 1890s, when my grandfa…