Al-Kiswah ( ar, الكسوة ' also spelled Kissoué/Kiswe) is a city in the
Rif Dimashq Governorate
Rif Dimashq Governorate ( ar, محافظة ريف دمشق, ', literally, the "Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus", Damascus Suburb) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the c ...
,
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 ...
. It is located approximately south of
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
. It was the location of the 1303
Battle of Marj al-Saffar, and the childhood home of
Adnan Awad.
Administratively, Al-Kiswah belongs to
Markaz Rif Dimashq
Markaz Rif Dimashq District ( ar-at, منطقة مركز ريف دمشق, manṭiqat Markaz Rif Dimašq) or Damascus Central Countryside District is a district of the Rif Dimashq Governorate in southern Syria.
Geography
Markaz Rif Dimashq is loc ...
district. It is one of the largest towns of the district by terms of population.
History
The name "al-Kiswah" means “the garment”.
According to a tradition related by
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known fo ...
, this is because the king of Rum sent some messengers to demand tribute from a figure named King Ghassan; he had the messengers killed and then, at the site of al-Kiswah, he had their garments divided up.
Yaqut and
Ibn Battuta
Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berbers, Berber Maghrebi people, Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, ...
both described al-Kiswah as the first stage on the
hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
route out of Damascus.
similarly described al-Kiswah as a stopping place on the road south of Damascus and added that between the two places, the road went through a “beautiful pass” called the 'Aqabah ash-Shuhūrah.
He also wrote that it lay on a stream called the Nahr al-A'waj which flowed down from the “mountain of snow”, i.e.
Mount Hermon
Mount Hermon ( ar, جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC: ''Jabal al-Shaykh'' ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or ''Jabal Haramun''; he, הַר חֶרְמוֹן, ''Har Hermon'') is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of th ...
.
In 1838,
Eli Smith noted it as a predominantly
Sunni Muslim village.
[Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p]
148
/ref>
File:Al-Kiswah-farms.jpg, Kiswe farms
References
Bibliography
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External links
More information for Kiswe city
Main site for the city
Cities in Syria
Populated places in Markaz Rif Dimashq District
{{RifDimashqSY-geo-stub