Baarin ( ar, بعرين, ''Baʿrīn'' or ''Biʿrīn'') is a village in northern
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
Hama Governorate
Hama Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حماة / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥamā'') is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in western-central Syria, bordering Idlib Governorate, Idlib and Aleppo Governorates ...
, located in
Homs Gap roughly southwest of
Hama
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, ar ...
. Nearby localities include
Taunah
Taunah ( ar, التاعونة) is a Syrian village located in the Awj Subdistrict in Masyaf District. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Taunah had a population of 1,056 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants are predominant ...
and
Awj
Awj ( ar, عوج, also spelled Ouj or Uj) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located in the Homs Gap southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Aqrab and Tell Dahab to the east, Nisaf and Baarin to t ...
to the south,
Aqrab
Aqrab ( ar, عقرب, also spelled Akrab) is a Town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Nisaf and Baarin to the west, Awj to the southwest, Qarmas to the south, ...
and
Houla to the southeast,
Nisaf
Nisaf ( ar, نيصاف, also spelled Nasaf) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located west of Hama. Nearby localities include Kafr Kamrah to the southeast, Baarin and Taunah to the east, al-Bayyadiyah to ...
,
Ayn Halaqim and
Wadi al-Uyun
Wadi al-'Uyun ( ar, وادي العيون, also spelled Wadi al-Oyun, Wady Aloyon or Wadi al-Ayun; transliteration: "Valley of the Springs") is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located west of Hama.
...
to the west,
Masyaf,
Deir Mama
Deir Mama ( ar, ديرماما) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located west of Hama. It is situated at the eastern side of the coastal al-Ansariyah mountains. Nearby localities include Masyaf to t ...
and
Mahrusah
Mahrusah ( ar, محروسة, also spelled Mahrousa) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located west of Hama. Nearby localities include Jubb Ramlah to the north, Hanjur and Asilah to the northeast, Maari ...
to the north, and
Deir al-Fardis
Dayr al-Fardis ( ar, دير الفرديس, Dayr al-Fureidīs) is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Kafr Buhum to the northeast, Tumin and al-Rastan to the sout ...
and
al-Rastan to the east. According to the
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Baarin had a population of 5,559 in the 2004 census. Baarin is also the largest locality in the
Awj
Awj ( ar, عوج, also spelled Ouj or Uj) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located in the Homs Gap southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Aqrab and Tell Dahab to the east, Nisaf and Baarin to t ...
''
nahiyah
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 ...
'' ("subdistrict") which comprises thirteen villages with a population of 33,344.
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Hama Governorate. The village's inhabitants are predominantly
Alawites
The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isla ...
.
Today, Baarin spans about between houses, commercial buildings and agricultural land.
The village is built on the hillside below the medieval fortress of Baarin,
[Boulanger, 1966, p. 452.] and is situated along the main road between Masyaf and Hama.
The majority of the inhabitants are farmers, while the rest work in services and trade. The main water source of the village is the nearby al-Tannur spring.
History
Medieval period
In the early 12th-century Baarin served as a fortress of the
Crusaders who referred to it as "Mons Ferrandus" or "
Montferrand."
In 1133
Pons, Count of Tripoli
Pons ( 1098 – 25 March 1137) was count of Tripoli from 1112 to 1137. He was a minor when his father, Bertrand, died in 1112. He swore fealty to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos in the presence of a Byzantine embassy. His advisors sent hi ...
escaped to Baarin for refuge where, according to chronicler
William of Tyre, he was shortly besieged by the Muslim army of
Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
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...
led by
Zangi before being rescued by
King Fulk of Jerusalem.
After a failed attempt to capture
Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
, in July 1137 Zangi
besieged Baarin's fortress. However, the main purpose of the offensive was not to land a blow to the Crusaders, but rather, to increase the southward expansion of Zangi's kingdom towards
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
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, ...
, which was ruled by a
rival Muslim dynasty, and nearby Homs which was protected by Damascus.
[Abridge, 2010, p. 193.] Fulk and
Raymond of Tripoli attempted to relieve Baarin, but were preempted by Zangi's forces who engaged them in the hills outside the fortress. Raymond was captured, but Fulk managed to find safe haven in Baarin. Afterward Zangi renewed the siege. News that further Crusader reinforcements from Jerusalem and Tripoli were approaching compelled Zangi to accept Baarin's capitulation in late August, an act he had refused earlier.
[Mikaberidze, 2011, p. 967.] The Crusaders' garrison in the fortress had been unaware of the arrival of reinforcements. The besieged garrison were allowed to exit, prisoners were released and the strategic fortress of Baarin, which had been a source of disruption for Muslim forces, fell to Zangi's control.
In the summer of 1138 Zangi once again attempted to capture Homs and managed to successfully negotiate an agreement with that town's ruler
Shihab al-Din Mahmud
The Shihab dynasty (alternatively spelled Chehab; ar, الشهابيون, ALA-LC: ''al-Shihābiyūn'') was an Arab family whose members served as the paramount tax farmers and local chiefs of Mount Lebanon from the early 18th to mid-19th centu ...
whereby Homs would be ceded to Zangi in return for Mahmud's possession of Baarin and another two fortresses in the area. In August 1142 Raymond of Tripoli granted a number of fiefs to the
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...
, including Baarin. However, there is no record suggesting that the Crusaders captured the fortress from the Muslims by that time, suggesting that the revenues of the district of Baarin were at least partially under Crusader control or treated that way by Tripoli.
Between May–June 1175 the
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
army, under Sultan
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
's command, captured Baarin from the
Zengid ruler Izz al-Din ibn al-Za'frani who controlled no other fiefs. In 1178 Saladin transferred the fiefs of Baarin,
Kafartab
Kafartab ( ar, كفرطاب, also spelled ''Kafr Tab'' or ''Kafar Tab'', known as Capharda by the Crusaders) was a town and fortress in northwestern Syria that existed during the medieval period between the fortress cities of Maarat al-Numan in th ...
, and lands in
Maarrat al-Nu'man
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to his ally Shams al-Din Ali from the Banu al-Daya family as compensation for forcefully removing him from the valuable fortress of
Baalbek
Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...
. In 1198 the Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo and Saladin's son
az-Zahir Ghazi, allocated Baarin as a fief to
al-Mansur ibn Turanshah
Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) ...
. In 1202-03 a treaty was established between the Ayyubid rivals
al-Adil I of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
(Saladin's brother) and az-Zahir whereby al-Mansur would remain in control of Baarin and the nearby towns of
Hama
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and
Salamiyah
A full view of Shmemis (spring 1995)
Salamieh ( ar, سلمية ') is a city and district in western Syria, in the Hama Governorate. It is located southeast of Hama, northeast of Homs. The city is nicknamed the "mother of Cairo" because it was t ...
.
During a conflict between the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt and Hama,
Nasir Kilij-Arslan
Al-Nasir Kilij Arslan (also known as Kilij Arslan and Kiliç Arslan) was the Ayyubid emir of Hama from 1221 to 1229 (617AH–626AH). He was the son of al-Mansur I Muhammad and the younger brother of al-Muzaffar II Mahmud. The name Kilij Arslan ( ...
of Hama was imprisoned by al-Kamil of Egypt and only released when Kilij-Arslan handed Hama over to his brother
al-Muzaffar II Mahmud
Al-Muzaffar II Mahmud was the Ayyubid emir of Hama first in 1219 (616 AH) and then restored in 1229–1244 (626 AH–642 AH). He was the son of al-Mansur Muhammad and the older brother of al-Nasir Kilij Arslan.
Usurpation
In 1219, al-Mansur cal ...
. Baarin remained in Kilij-Arslan's control.
[Richards, 2008, p. 297. Translation of ]Ibn al-Athir
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...
's work. In 1229 the Hospitallers raided Baarin in response to a raid by the Ayyubid sultan
al-Kamil (al-Adil's successor) against the Crusader-held
Krak des Chevaliers
Krak des Chevaliers, ar, قلعة الحصن, Qalʿat al-Ḥiṣn also called Hisn al-Akrad ( ar, حصن الأكراد, Ḥiṣn al-Akrād, rtl=yes, ) and formerly Crac de l'Ospital; Krak des Chevaliers or Crac des Chevaliers (), is a medieva ...
(Hisn al-Akrad) fortress.
[Richards, 2008, p. 298. Translation of ]Ibn al-Athir
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...
's work. In late 1230 the Crusaders launched another attack against Baarin, plundering the town and other villages in its district. Men and women were taken captive, as well as a large group of
Turkomans.
During the
Mamluk
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
era Baarin served as one of three chief administrative towns in the ''mamlaka'' ("province") of Hama after the city of Hama itself. In 1301 a hailstorm hit the area of Baarin. In the 14th century the town was visited by Syrian-Ayyubid historian and geographer,
Abu'l-Fida
Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Shāhanshāh b. Ayyūb b. Shādī b. Marwān ( ar, إسماعيل بن علي بن محمود بن محمد بن عمر بن شاهنشاه بن أيوب بن شادي بن مروان ...
, who described it as having "springs round it and gardens, and lies 1 march west, and rather south of Hamah. There are near here the remains of an ancient town called Ar Rafaniyyah (
Raphanea
Raphanea or Raphaneae ( grc, Ῥαφάνεια; ar, الرفنية, al-Rafaniyya; colloquial: ''Rafniye'') was a city of the late Roman province of Syria Secunda. Its bishopric was a suffragan of Apamea.
History
Josephus mentions Raphanea i ...
), much celebrated in history. Hisn (the fort) of Barin was built by the Franks in 480 and odd (about 1090). The Muslims afterwards took it and kept it awhile, and then dismantled it." Until 1496-97 immigrants from Baarin to Hama were forced to reside in the same area and were taxed collectively. This practice ended when a decree abolished the collective tax and permitted Baarin migrants to live where they chose.
Modern era
Swiss traveler
John Lewis Burckhardt
Johann Ludwig (also known as John Lewis, Jean Louis) Burckhardt (24 November 1784 – 15 October 1817) was a Swiss traveller, geographer and Orientalist. Burckhardt assumed the alias ''Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah'' during his travels in Arabia ...
passed through Baarin in the beginning of the 19th-century, during Ottoman rule, describing it as "ruined castle." In 1838 English scholar
Eli Smith
Eli Smith (born September 13, 1801, in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (Whitney) Smith, and died January 11, 1857, in Beirut, Lebanon) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from Andov ...
classified Baarin as an Alawite village. Baarin was visited by
Albert Socin in the early 20th-century. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, Baarin was one of the two villages in the Sanjak of Hama to form its own ''
muqata'ah
Under the Ottoman Empire, ''Mukata’a'' were ''Hass (Ottoman), hass-ı hümayun'', parcels of land owned by the Ottoman crown. These were distributed through the ''iltizam'' auction system; rights to collect revenue from the land were sold to t ...
'', a fiscal entity (normally a cluster of villages) that served as a
tax farm. The other single-village muqata'a was
Kafroun
Al-Kafrun ( ar, الكفرون; also spelled ''Kafroun'') is a Syrian village in the Tartous Governorate. It is situated in the an-Nusayriyah Mountains range at above sea level, making it a summer resort for locals who want to escape the hot su ...
. Between 1815 and 1890, there were two reported incidents related to a blood feud between the residents of the village and the Bedouin tribe of al-Turki, where members of the latter killed villagers. In these cases ''
diyya
''Diya'' ( ar, دية; plural ''diyāt'', ar, ديات) in Islamic law, is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake. It is an alternative punishment to ' ...
'' ("blood money") was paid to settle the conflict.
In the early 1960s it was described as a large village and the fortress was completely destroyed.
When author and expert in
Ismai'li
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sa ...
studies Peter Willey visited Baarin in a 1970 expedition, he noted the town's large medieval castle was mostly in ruins, "although it must have been a substantial building."
[Willey, 2005, p. 227.]
In late October 2011, several Syrian security forces personnel from Baarin were killed in clashes with opposition rebels or roadside bomb attacks during the
Syrian Civil War. According to free-lance journalist
Nir Rosen Nir Rosen (born May 17, 1977 in New York City) is an American journalist and chronicler of the Iraq War, who resides in Lebanon. Rosen writes on current and international affairs. In 2014 he was a special adviser for the Centre for Humanitarian Di ...
, tensions existed between Baarin and the
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
-majority village cluster of
Houla to the east.
[Rosen, Nir]
A Tale of Two Villages
''Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...
''. 2011-10-24. Baarin hosted a number of Alawite families fleeing
Aqrab
Aqrab ( ar, عقرب, also spelled Akrab) is a Town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Nisaf and Baarin to the west, Awj to the southwest, Qarmas to the south, ...
after apparent intimidation by that village's residents.
[Rosen, Nir]
A Tale of Two Syrian Villages: Part Two
''Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...
''. 2011-10-26.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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{{Hama Governorate, masyaf
Populated places in Masyaf District
Alawite communities in Syria