Aqraba ( ar, عقربا; transliteration: ''ʿAqrabāʾ'', also spelled ''Akraba'' or ''Aqrabah'') is a village 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

al-Sanamayn District Al-Sanamayn District ( ar , منطقة الصنمين) is a Districts of Syria, district (mantiqah) in Daraa Governorate, Syria. According to the census of 2004, it had 167,993 inhabitants. Its capital city, administrative center is the village of ...

of 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 ...

. In the 2004 census by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Aqraba had a population of 4,413.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Daraa Governorate.

Geography

Aqraba is situated in the Jaydur area of the

Hauran The Hauran ( ar, حَوْرَان, ''Ḥawrān''; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, eastwards by the al-Safa (Syria), al-Safa ...

region and is immediately east of the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

. It is located 50 kilometers southwest 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 = , ...

, 15 kilometers north of

Jasim Jasim ( ar, جاسم, also spelled Jasem) is a small city in the Izra' District of the Daraa Governorate in southern Syria. It is located 41 kilometers north of Daraa and is near the towns of Nawa to the south, Kafr Shams to the north, Inkhil to th ...

, 4 kilometers north of al-Harra and Tel al-Hara and 10 kilometers southeast of

Kafr Shams Kafr Shams ( ar, كفر شمس, also spelled Kfar Shams or Kafr ash-Shams) is a small city in southern Syria administratively belonging to the Al-Sanamayn District of the Daraa Governorate. It is northwest of al-Sanamayn, just east of the Golan H ...

.Ma'oz, p. 13. Nearby places include Naba al-Sakher to the east, Masharah to the northeast, al-Mal and al-Tiha to the north and

Kafr Nasij Kafr Nasij ( ar, كفر ناسج, also spelled ''Kafar Nasej'') is a village in the al-Sanamayn District of the Daraa Governorate in southern Syria. Nearby localities include al-Tiha to the west, Aqraba and al-Harra to the southwest, Zimrin to t ...

to the northeast.

History

In the 6th century, Aqraba served as a residence of the Ghassanid Arab princes, who ruled the

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

and

Palaestina Secunda Palæstina Secunda or Palaestina II was a Byzantine province from 390, until its conquest by the Muslim armies in 634–636. Palaestina Secunda, a part of the Diocese of the East, roughly comprised the Galilee, Yizrael Valley, Bet Shean Valley a ...

provinces on behalf of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. An inscription in the village mentions a certain "''Nuʾmān''", which probably refers to a Ghassanid prince of that name. The 6th-century Arabic poets

al-Nabigha Al-Nābighah (), al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī, or Nābighah al-Dhubyānī; real name Ziyad ibn Muawiyah (); was one of the last Arabian poets of pre-Islamic times. "Al-Nabigha" means "genius or intelligent" in Arabic. His tribe, the Banu Dhubyan ...

and

Hassan ibn Thabit Ḥassān ibn Thābit ( ar, حسان بن ثابت) (born c. 563, Medina died 674) was an Arabian poet and one of the Sahaba, or companions of Muhammad, hence he was best known for his poems in defense of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was b ...

both mention the Ghassanid presence in Aqraba. The village contained two monasteries dating from the Ghassanid period.Shahid 2002, p
184
/ref> The village was later mentioned by the 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 fo ...

, who noted it belonged to the Jawlan district of Damascus and that "Ghassanid kings dwelt here of old".le Strange 1890, p
390

Ottoman era

In 1596 Aqraba appeared in the Ottoman tax registers, situated in 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 Jaydur, part of

Hauran Sanjak The Hauran ( ar, حَوْرَان, ''Ḥawrān''; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, eastwards by the al-Safa field, to the ...

. 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 27 households and 13 bachelors. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, mostly wheat, but also some on barley and summer crops; in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 16,600

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 ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 207

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

Sanameine-map, 19L
{{Daraa Governorate, sanamayn Ghassanids Populated places in Al-Sanamayn District Villages in Syria