′Ataman ( ar, عتمان), also spelled ′Atman, Athman, Osmane or Othman, 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
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 ...
, located 4 kilometers north of
Daraa
Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jordan ...
. Other nearby localities include
al-Yadudah to the west,
Tafas
Tafas ( ar, طفس, also spelled Tafs or Tuffas) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Saad and Nawa to the north, Da'el, Abtaa and al-Shaykh Mas ...
to the northwest,
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 Govern ...
to the north,
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 northeast,
al-Ghariyah al-Gharbiyah to the east and
al-Naimah
Al-Naimah ( ar, النعيمة), also al-Naima, al-Naimeh or Elnaymah, is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located east of Daraa. Nearby localities include Ataman to the northwest and Saida to the east.
...
to the southeast. According to the
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Ataman had a population of 8,929 in the 2004 census.
History
In the
Ottoman tax registers of 1596, it was a village located 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 Butayna,
Qada of
Hawran
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 ...
, under the name of ''Atman''. It had a population of 29 households and 15 bachelors, all
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 ...
s. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives; a total of 8,000
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 ...
.
[Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 215]
In 1838, during
Ottoman rule, Ataman was listed as a ''khirba'' (ruined or deserted village) in the Nukrah region by scholar
Eli Smith.
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
152
Archaeology
Ataman contains a few ancient ruins that were occupied by residents in the early 20th century.
According to orientalists
Enno Littmann
Ludwig Richard Enno Littmann (16 September 1875, Oldenburg – 4 May 1958, Tübingen) was a German orientalist.
In 1906 he succeeded Theodor Nöldeke as chair of Oriental languages at the University of Strasbourg. Later on, he served as a profes ...
and
Howard Crosby Butler
Howard Crosby Butler (March 7, 1872 Croton Falls, New York – August 13, 1922 Neuilly) was an American archaeologist. Butler graduated from Princeton University, and later pursued special studies at the Columbia School of Architecture and at the ...
, Ataman was likely not an ancient town, but rather "a group of fine residences, or villas, with a common monumental tomb".
Among the more notable ruins are an ancient bridge and a large
mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...
. The mausoleum consists of a large stone building topped by a square structure built in the
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to:
*Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible:
**First Epistle to the Corinthians
**Second Epistle to the Corinthians
**Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox)
*A demonym relating to ...
architectural form.
[Boulanger, 1966, p. 503.] The mausoleum is the most preserved of Ataman's ancient remains. Just north of the building are ruined structures consisting of parts of ancient
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s, large windows and doorways.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Map of the town Google Maps
Deraa-map, 22L{{Daraa Governorate, daraa
Populated places in Daraa District