Howayek (surname)

Howayek have their origins in the Arab Christian tribe of the Ghassanids (Bani Ghassan بني غسان). They include the Maalouf and Jebara families. Those families originally settled in Houran, southern Lebanon.[1] The Hawayek family was mostly settled in Sirghaya, in south west Lebanon.

After the Crusaders' departed the Middle East the Christian communities fell victim to the persecution of the Mameluks and the Ottoman Turks after them. The Mameluks had conquered Syria and Lebanon and remained rulers until the early 16th century when they themselves were consumed by the expanding Ottoman Empire.

The Howayek family refugees maintained their community life around their Maronite patriarchate along with the majority of the Maronite Christian families who preferred this system to the alternatives. The relatively uninhabited Keserwan region in Lebanon allowed for Maronite settlement and the patriarchate was established in Batroun, North Lebanon. The Hawayek clan was known to centre on the town of Hsarat, Mount Lebanon, in the 18th century.

With the move to Mount Lebanon the families were required to register with the Ottoman Turkish authorities. Because the majority were weavers the Ottoman registration office in Batroun recorded them as Houwayyek (meaning weaver). Others believe that the name is after the plant (Haeik, الحائك).

The demographic expansion of the Maronite Christians continued towards the Chouf and Metn. This resulted in the Hawayek family splitting into the main three locations they are found in today. With the Chouf exodus went the Hawayeks that settled in Bdadoun, and in the 19th century part of them moved and settled in Helta in the North of Lebanon.
Since then they moved into other parts of the Lebanon: Amsheet, in Byblos; Jdeidet, in Metn; and Lebanese capital city of Beirut (Greater Beirut). They are known to be also located in the following places: Ain Saadeh, Bsaeba, Baabda, Hadath, Bawshriyeh, Jezzine, Rashkideh and Aoura.

The peasants in the Lebanon did not own the land they worked which was owned by the Christian feudal lords who gave the farmers an allowance for the work they did. Unlike North Lebanon the Chouf region belonged to the Druze lords and did not fall under the Christian fiefdoms. This now meant that the Hawayeks who moved there had to take farming jobs under new rules as they were not allowed to own land. The Hawayeks who remained in the North owned the land they worked on. As the population grew the Druze lords allowed the peasants to build Churches on their land. In later years the Druze chieftains paid the farmers by allocating them land. It is only at that time that the Hawayeks began to own land in the Chouf and Aley districts.

At the turn of the 20th century the improved financial status of the family allowed its children higher education than was previously possible. Many received their education from the country's higher education institutions and some travelled abroad to study.

With all the Lebanese waves of emigration people from the Hawayek family also left. The Ottoman period, the Lebanese Civil War and the later economic decline all caused members of the Hawayek to flee Lebanon seeking security and economic stability. A large section of the family emigrated to countries outside Lebanon and mainly to the United States, Canada, France, Argentina, Brazil or Australia.