Burj Qa'i ( ar, برج قاعي, also spelled Burj al-Qa'y or simply al-Burj) is a village in central 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 ...

, located northwest of Homs. Nearby localities include

Taldou Taldou ( ar, تلدو, Talldū, also spelled Tall Daww, Taldo, Tall Dhu or Taldao) is a town in the Houla region of northern Syria, north of Homs in the Homs Governorate. Nearby towns include Burj al-Qa'i to the east, Tallaf to the northeast, Ka ...

and the

Houla The Houla Region or Houla Plain ( ar, الحولة ''Al-Ḥūla'') is an area consisting of three villages in the Homs Governorate of central Syria, northwest of the city of Homs. The biggest village in the Houla region had 20,041 inhabitants in ...

5 kilometers to the west,

Talaf Talaf ( ar, طلف}) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Musa al-Houla to the north, Hirbnafsah to the northeast, Kisin to the east, Burj Qa ...

to the north, Kisin to the northeast,

Kafr Nan Kafr Nan ( ar, كفرنان, Kafrnan, also spelled Kfarnan) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located north of Homs. Nearby localities include Burj Qa'i to the west, Kisin to the northwest, Gharnatah to ...

to the east, Tasnin and Akrad Dayasinah to the southeast and Ghur Gharbiyah to the south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Burj Qa'i had a population of 2,351 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate. Its inhabitants are predominantly Sunni Muslims and ethnic Turkmens.Rosen, Nir
A Tale of Two Syrian Villages: Part two
'' Al-Jazeera English'' (AJE). 2011-10-26. During the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

in Syria, Burj Qa'i was a village of army veterans by the 3rd-century CE. The local pagan deity was Semea, a goddess previously worshiped in northern areas of Syria. A temple dedicated to Semea was constructed in 196-97 upon the decision of the village's Council of Six.

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

later spread to Burj Qa'i during the

Byzantine 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 ...

period, as evidenced by the existence of a Christian tomb in the village dating to 457. A Christian martyrion built in 539-40 through funds raised by a bishop named Peter also exists in Burj Qa'i. The building's construction was supervised by the episcopal officials Leontius and Isaiah, who were ''

oikonomos ''Oikonomos'' ( el, οἰκονόμος, from - 'house' and - 'rule, law'), latinized œconomus, oeconomus, or economos, was an Ancient Greek word meaning "household manager." In Byzantine times, the term was used as a title of a manager or tr ...

''. Pagans and Christians inhabited Burj al-Qa'i simultaneously in the period between 457 and 532. In 1838, during late Ottoman rule, Burj al-Qa'i was classified as a Muslim village in the

region by Americal biblical scholar Eli Smith. The village was also mentioned in passing in the fifth volume of the ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' in the mid-1840s. In the aftermath of the Houla massacre on 25 May 2012, during the ongoing Syrian civil war, Burj Qa'i hosted around 5,000 refugees fleeing nearby

, the scene of the massacre. Most refugees took shelter in schools, public buildings or the homes of host families. The

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

(ICRC) visited in June to provide food, medicines and mattresses to the displaced. In early October 2012 Syrian state television reported that Syrian Army forces killed several opposition fighters in Burj Qa'i.Turkey warns Syria it will respond 'with greater force' if shelling persists
'' Haaretz''. 2012-10-10.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burj Qai Populated places in Homs District