Darkush ( ar, دَرْكُوش, Darkūš; also spelled Darkoush or Derkush) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate, located northwest of Idlib along the Syrian– Turkish borders on the Orontes River. Nearby localities include al-Janudiyah, Zarzur and al-Najiyah to the southwest,

Jisr al-Shughur Jisr ash-Shughūr ( ar, جِسْرُ ٱلشُّغُورِ, jisr aš-šuġūr, , also rendered as ''Jisser ash-Shughour'' and other spellings), known in antiquity as Seleucobelus ( el, Σελευκόβηλος, translit=Seleukóbēlos), is a city in ...

to the south and Millis and

Maarrat Misrin Ma'arrat Misrin ( ar, مَعَرَّةُ مِصْرِينَ, Maʿarrat Miṣrīn, also spelled Ma'arrat Masrin or Ma'aret Masreen) is a small city in northwestern Syria, administratively part of Idlib Governorate. Ma'arrat Misrin lies an elevation ...

to the east. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Darkush had a population of 5,295 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Idlib Governorate. The town is also the administrative center of the Darkush ''

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 ...

'' which consists of 19 villages with a combined population of 23,022. Its inhabitants are predominantly Sunni Muslims.Boulanger, 1966, p. 476.

History

An inscription at the town, dating back to

Roman times 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 ...

, attests to the existence of a shipwright in the town, building river-going boats to use on the Orontes. The town also has the remains of an ancient bridge. The

Christianization Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

of the city probably happened after 322. During the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

, the town was the property of the

Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It exte ...

until it was captured by

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 ...

in 1188. The town fell back to the Crusaders under

Bohemond VI of Antioch Bohemond VI (–1275), also known as the Fair, was the prince of Antioch and count of Tripoli from 1251 until his death. He ruled while Antioch was caught between the warring Mongol Empire and Mamluk Sultanate. In 1268 Antioch was captured by t ...

and Tripoli in 1260. The city was finally re-captured by the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in 1267. Nothing remains of the town's Crusader citadel, as it was quarried for building stones.Boulanger, ed., 1966, p. 477. Darkush was visited by 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 for ...

in the 1220s, during Ayyubid rule. He noted that it was a "fortress near Antâkiyyah, in the 'Awâsim Province." On 13 August 1822 the town and its surrounding areas were devastated by a massive earthquake. The earthquake is said to have killed 20,000 people all together.

Modern era

In the early 1960s it was described a large village of 2,500 residents and "one of the most picturesque" places in the area by geographer and author Robert Boulanger. During the ongoing Syrian civil war which started in March 2011, Darkush was captured by anti-government forces in November 2012. Until then, the town was roughly divided politically with the residents in the northern part supporting the opposition while the south largely supported the government. Damaged buildings formerly belonging to the security forces marked the dividing line between the two sections. By late January 2013, the town was firmly in rebel hands and is used as a launching point for military operations against government-held positions in the mountains to the south.

Geography

The town of Darkush lies in a ''

wadi Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water ...

'' in the Orontes River basin, at the foothills of the

an-Nusayriyah Mountains The Coastal Mountain Range ( ar, سلسلة الجبال الساحلية ''Silsilat al-Jibāl as-Sāḥilīyah'') also called Al-Anṣariyyah is a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north–south, parallel to the coastal plain.Federal ...

.Royal Geographic Society, 1886, p. 94.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Cities of Syria Populated places in Jisr al-Shughur District Towns in Syria