Abtaa ( ar, أبطع; transliteration: ''Ibṭaʿ'', also spelled ''Ibta'' or ''Obtei'a'') is a town in southern
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, administratively part of the
Daraa District
Daraa District ( ar, منطقة درعا) is a district (mantiqah) administratively belonging to Daraa Governorate, Syria. At the 2004 Census it had a population of 428,681. Its administrative centre is the city of Daraa
Daraa ( ar, دَرْ ...
in the
Daraa Governorate
Daraa Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة درعا / ALA-LC: ') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the south-west of the country and covers an area of 3,730 km2. It is bordered by Jordan to the south, Qune ...
. Nearby localities include
Da'el
Da'el ( ar, داعل, also spelled Da'il) is a town in southern Syria located on the old road between Daraa and Damascus, located approximately 14 kilometers north of Daraa. Administratively, it belongs to the Daraa District of the Daraa Governor ...
to the south,
Khirbet Ghazaleh
Khirbet Ghazaleh ( ar, خربة غزالة also spelled Khirbet Ghazalah) is a town in the Daraa Governorate, roughly 17 kilometers northeast of Daraa adjacent to Da'el in the west and near Izra' to the north. It is situated on the main highway bet ...
to the southeast,
Namer
Namer ( he, נמ"ר, ), means " leopard" and also a syllabic abbreviation of "Nagmash" (APC) and "Merkava", is an Israeli armoured personnel carrier based on a Merkava Mark IV tank chassis. Namer was developed by and is being assembled by th ...
to the east,
Qarfa
Qarfa ( ar, قرفــا, also spelled Garfa or Kurfa) is a village in southern Syria, administratively belonging to the Izra' District of the Daraa Governorate. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Maskin to the northwest, Izra to the northeast, M ...
to the northeast and
al-Shaykh Maskin
Al-Shaykh Maskin ( ar, الشيخ مسكين, Al-Sheikh Meskīn), also spelled Sheikh Maskīn, Sheikh Miskeen, is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include Ibta' and ...
to the north. According to the
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics Abtaa had a population of 14,283.
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Daraa Governorate.
History
Abtaa dates back to antiquity, having been mentioned in pre-Islamic
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
texts.
In 1596 Abtaa appeared in the
Ottoman tax registers as ''Bita and was part of the ''
nahiya
A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...
'' of ''Bani Malik al-Asraf'' in the
Sanjak Hauran. It had an entirely
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
population consisting of 44 households and 20 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 40% on various agricultural products, including
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
,
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...
, summer crops, goats and beehives; a total of 5,000
akçe
The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...
.
In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village, situated in the ''Nukrah'' district, south of
Al-Shaykh Maskin
Al-Shaykh Maskin ( ar, الشيخ مسكين, Al-Sheikh Meskīn), also spelled Sheikh Maskīn, Sheikh Miskeen, is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include Ibta' and ...
.
Smith
Smith may refer to:
People
* Metalsmith, or simply smith, a craftsman fashioning tools or works of art out of various metals
* Smith (given name)
* Smith (surname), a family name originating in England, Scotland and Ireland
** List of people wi ...
; in Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Second appendix, B, p
151
/ref> In the 1850s the Western traveler Josias Leslie Porter
Josias Leslie Porter DD LLD (1823–1889) was an Irish Presbyterian minister, missionary and traveller, who became an academic administrator. He was Moderator of the Irish General Assembly in 1875.
Early life
Born on 4 October 1823, he was you ...
noted that Abtaa contained a number of large "old houses of basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
, and a few broken columns."[Porter, 1858, p]
532
/ref>
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
Map of town
Google Maps
Cheik Meskin-map; 21L
Populated places in Daraa District
{{DaraaSY-geo-stub