Baba Amr ( ar, بابا عمرو/
ALA-LC
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: ''Bâba ʿAmr'') is a city district (''hayy'') in southwestern
Homs in central
Syria. In 2004, it had a population of 34,175 (the ''hayy'' of Sultaniya which abuts Baba Amr to the south was also counted in this figure).
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate. Abutting Baba Amr and Sultaniya from the north and south respectively are the city districts of Inshaat and the village of
Jobar
Jobar ( ar, جَوْبَر, Jawbar) also spelled Jawbar, Jober or Joubar, is a municipality of the Syrian capital Damascus. A once historical village on the outskirts of Damascus, it is now a suburb of the capital city. It lies 2 km northeas ...
. To the west are the villages of Aysun,
Shalluh and
al-Mazra'a and to the east is Homs'
Palestinian refugee camp
Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian e ...
.
History
Baba Amr was named after
Amr ibn Abasah Amr ibn Abasa ( ar, عمرو بن عبسة) was one of the Sahaba and one of the narrators of hadith.
Biography
By his own account, 'Amr ibn 'Abasa met Muhammad in Mecca in the early days of his prophethood, and asked him, "What are you?" He replie ...
, who was buried in Homs. In the early 20th century, Baba Amr was a village in
Orontes plain southwest of Homs. The modern district was formed largely as a result of
Bedouin migration from the desert steppe east of Homs to the city's suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Bedouin moved to the area due to land reforms by the
Ba'athist government of leaders
Salah Jadid
Salah Jadid (1926 – 19 August 1993, ar, صلاح جديد, Ṣalāḥ Jadīd) was a Syrian general, a leader of the left-wing of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Syria, and the country's ''de facto'' leader from 1966 until 1970, when h ...
and
Hafez al-Assad which saw many semi-nomadic Bedouin settle in the suburbs of major cities.
Most of Baba Amr's inhabitants self-identify as members of the
Mawali
Mawlā ( ar, مَوْلَى, plural ''mawālī'' ()), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874.
Before the Islamic prophet ...
and Bani Hassan tribal confederations.
The inhabitants are predominantly
Sunni Muslims.
During the
Syrian Civil War, Baba Amr was the epicentre of fighting in the
2012 Homs offensive
The 2012 Homs offensive was a Syrian Army offensive on the armed rebellion stronghold of Homs, within the scope of the Siege of Homs, beginning in early February 2012 and ending with the U.N. brokered cease fire on 14 April 2012.
The offensiv ...
.
References
{{reflist
Neighborhoods of Homs