Al-Tayba ( ar, الطيبة, also spelled Tayyiba or Tayibah) is a village in eastern
Syria, administratively part of the
Homs Governorate
Homs Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حمص / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥimṣ'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in central Syria. Its area differs in various sources, from to . It is thus geographic ...
. It is located in the
Syrian Desert, near the
Euphrates River to the east and
al-Sukhnah and the village of
al-Kawm
El Kowm or Al Kawm is a circular, gap in the Syrian mountains that houses a series of archaeological sites. The El Kowm oasis is located northeast of Palmyra in Syria, near Al-Sukhnah. It shows some of the longest and most important cultural ...
to the west. Like many of the other desert towns in Syria, it is situated in a spring-fed
oasis. According to the
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Taybah had a population of 2,413 in the 2004 census.
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate.
History
Al-Taybah is an
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
name meaning "the Good."
[Musil, 1928, p. 76.]
In the early 13th-century Syrian geographer
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 for ...
noted al-Taybah was a "village in the district of 'Urd, lying between
Palmyra
Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...
and
Aleppo."
Al-Taybah was visited in 1616 by Italian explorer
Pietro Della Valle, who noted that the presence of several "old relics" in the village. The
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
was well-maintained and appeared to have previously served as a church tower. Residences consisted of mud huts, many of which were reinforced by ancient stone columns.
The village was abandoned sometime in the 18th century with its inhabitants migrating to nearby al-Sukhnah. The modern-day settlement was founded in 1870 after one of the descendants of the 17th-century emigrants from al-Taybah and a resident of al-Sukhnah obtained permission by the governor of the
Sanjak of Zor
The Sanjak of Zor ( tr, Deyr-i-Zor sancağı) was a sanjak of the Ottoman Empire, which was created in 1857. Some of its area was separated from the Baghdad Vilayet. Zor was sometimes mentioned as being part of the Aleppo Vilayet,[Deir ez-Zor
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). He established the new village with ten or twelve other families. The
Ottomans set up a
gendarmerie post there afterward.
[Mundy and Musallam, p. 42.] In 1838 al-Taybah was classified as an abandoned village by English scholar
Eli Smith.
At some point between 1914 and 1918, during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
when Ottoman authority in Syria was being challenged, al-Taybah was raided and looted by
Bedouin tribesmen from the area, resulting in a second exodus of the village's residents. It was reoccupied during
French Mandate
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate fou ...
rule which restored a level of security in al-Taybah.
During the
Syrian Civil war, the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
(ISIL) captured the village. However, on 20 August 2017, the Army stormed the Taybah area from their positions at the Al-Kawm axis, pushing their way through ISIL's front-lines. Unable to maintain their positions, ISIL was forced to retreat from Taybah, leaving the entire area for the Army to take control of after a short battle.
Syrian Army liberates important area to besiege ISIL north of Palmyra
Al-Masdar news, 20/08/2017.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Taybah
Populated places in Tadmur District