The name Kherbet Rouha literally translates to mean "broken soul". A legend says the village originally was named Madinat Al Rouha'a, which translates to mean the City of Souls, but many wars and natural disasters "broke" the village seven times giving it a broken soul.^{[citation needed]} It is also believed that the meaning of Kherbet Rouha is of Turkish origin, Kherbet meaning "village" and Rouha meaning "soul" making the translation of the name to "Village of Souls'.^{[citation needed]}

In 1838, Eli Smith noted Kherbet Rouha's population being Sunni Muslims and Christians.^[2]

Renowned Kade Ferris (1969-2023), Son of the Native American genre artist Albert Lee Ferris, studied the lineage and genealogy of the citizens of Kherbet Rouha. Kade stated:

"A NATIVE AMERICAN LINEAGE Uniquely, the Ferris/Thraya family received a strong influx of Native American (Ojibwe/Metis) heritage in North Dakota. Abdullah (Albert) Ferris emigrated to the United States in 1897 and later married an Ojibwe Indian woman named Veronica McCloud, bearing him three sons: Edward, Roy, and Sam. Each of these sons married Ojibwe/Metis women and their descendants are found at the Turtle Mountain Reservation to this day. Veronica later married another Lebanese man named Allick, and bore him daughters – creating another line of descendants. "^[3]

Agriculture edit

Kherbet Rouha's land is both on the mountain side and in the valley. Until recently, most of Kherbet Rouha's occupants lived off of their land. The majority of the valley's land was used for growing wheat, chickpeas (hummus), lentils, sunflower, cucumbers, and sometimes a local breed of watermelons which don't grow very large, but are brighter red inside with a thin shell and have few but much-larger-than-usual seeds. The mountain land is usually used to grow trees and vine fruits because of the difficulty with plowing inclined land. The most common are figs, olives, grapes, quince and sumac. Also, many people grow mint and parsley in their home gardens.^{[citation needed]}

Traditionally, many people kept livestock as well, most homes until as recent as the early 80s had a donkey or two for transportation. When a home kept livestock, they had a large flock of goats, sheep or a combination, or they had one or two cows and a few chickens and instead focused on their agriculture. Due to the geography of the land, it is still difficult to plow many of the olive and fig orchards and grape vineyards so traditional methods utilizing animals is common place.^{[citation needed]}

Due to its conservative Muslim Sunni background, the owners of grape vineyards never sold their grapes for wine production no matter how financially strapped they were. Instead, many made raisins and a grape syrup known as "dibis" to sell. Also being part of the mountain region, Kherbet Rouha belongs to a group of villages that were famous for selling dairy products such as yogurt, cheese and kishk (a dried powder made of yogurt and cracked wheat which is cooked into a soup, it preserves well due to the fat in the yogurt, the added salt and the drying process).^{[citation needed]}

To preserve agriculture, the villagers built their homes on the mountain side, and in many cases used the mountain as a wall of the house and left the valley land for farming. In recent years, as former immigrants returned home, there was a shortage of living space, and homes have become more commonly built in the valley land. Very few citizens still farm their land, especially those who are temporary residents who rely on their income from an outside source.^{[citation needed]}

Education edit

In the past 10–15 years, and due to the recently built universities in the area, the youth in the village have become more ambitious with regards to their studies, and the number of university graduates is growing exponentially each year. There has been a "westernization" of village life as people focus on the industrialized job market and earn higher degrees. Even agriculture is controlled by a few members of the community who thrive in it. A big percentage of the graduates studied at LIU.^{[citation needed]}

Commerce edit

Many new apartment buildings have been built with rental and ownership options, most commonly buildings are built with multi-purpose to increase revenue and the first floor general are made up of retail and service rental units, the second floor houses medical and professional offices and any other consecutive floors contain residential apartments for rent or purchase. Within Kherbet Rouha, there are multiple options of shoe stores, bakeries (desserts only), gas stations, home repair, computer/electronic devices shops, specialty clothing shops, grocers, furniture shops, and barber shops.^{[citation needed]}

• Khirbet Rouha, Localiban