Dhibin ( ar, ذيبين; also spelled ''Dhaybin'' or ''Thibin'') is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the

Salkhad District Salkhad District ( ar-at, منطقة صلخد, manṭiqat Ṣalḫad) is a district of the As-Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria. Administrative centre is the city of Salkhad Salkhad ( ar, صَلْخَد, Ṣalḫad) is a Syrian city in the ...

of the

al-Suwayda Governorate As-Suwayda or Al-Suwayda Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة السويداء / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat as-Suwaydā’'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is the southernmost governorate and has an area of 5,550 km ...

. It is located south of

al-Suwayda As-Suwayda ( ar, ٱلسُّوَيْدَاء / ALA-LC romanization: ''as-Suwaydāʾ''), also spelled ''Sweida'' or ''Swaida'', is a mainly Druze city located in southwestern Syria, close to the border with Jordan. It is the capital of As-Suwayda ...

, near the southern

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

with

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

. Nearby localities include Bakka to the north,

Salkhad Salkhad ( ar, صَلْخَد, Ṣalḫad) is a Syrian city in the As-Suwayda Governorate, southern Syria. It is the capital of Salkhad District, one of the governorate's three districts. It has a population of 15,000 inhabitants. It is located ...

to the northeast, Umm al-Rumman to the east, Samaj to the west and Samad to the northwest. In the 2004 census it had a population of 2,562. It is the administrative center of the Dhibin Nahiyah, which consisted of three villages with a collective population of 6,900 in 2004.

History

Dhibin was a mainly grain-growing village in the late 16th century, during Ottoman rule.Brown 2009, p
379
/ref> 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 ...

'' (subdistrict) of Butayna, in the

Qadaa of Hauran A kaza (, , , plural: , , ; ota, قضا, script=Arab, (; meaning 'borough') * bg, околия (; meaning 'district'); also Кааза * el, υποδιοίκησις () or (, which means 'borough' or 'municipality'); also () * lad, kaza , ...

. It had a population of twelve households and four bachelors, all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,000 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 215 By the early 19th century, the village had been abandoned like many of the other villages of Jabal Hauran due to Bedouin depredations. Druze migrants from other parts of Syria populated the villages of Jabal Hauran by the 1860s. Dhibin became part of the sheikhdom of the Bani al-Atrash clan under the leadership of

Ismail al-Atrash Ismail al-Atrash () (died November 1869) was the preeminent Druze sheikh (chieftain) of Jabal Hauran, a mountainous region southeast of Damascus, in the mid-19th century. His family had moved to the area in the early 19th century. As relative newco ...

between 1860 and 1867. The inhabitants of Dhibin moved to annex and seasonally inhabit the village of

Umm el-Jimal Umm el-Jimal ( ar, ام الجمال, "Mother of Camels"), also known as Umm ej Jemāl, Umm al-Jimal or Umm idj-Djimal, is a village in Northern Jordan approximately 17 kilometers east of Mafraq. It is primarily notable for the substantial ruins ...

(in modern-day

) in 1909.Brown 2009, p
383
/ref> Dhibin's families divided the ruins of its ancient houses among themselves in 1910. They lived there on and off until around 1930, when they permanently abandoned Umm al-Jimal. Dhibin was the birthplace of

Salim Hatum Salim Hatum ( ar, سليم حاطوم) (1928 – 26 June 1967) was an officer in the Syrian Army who played a significant role in Syrian politics in the 1960s. A member of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, he was in ...

, a Syrian Army officer and key participant in the Baathist-led

1966 Syrian coup d'état The 1966 Syrian coup d'état refers to events between 21 and 23 February during which the government of the Syrian Arab Republic was overthrown and replaced. The ruling National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party were removed from power ...

Archaeology

Funerary material from the Middle Bronze Age has been found at Dhibin. A mid-4th-century inscription on a ruined building recording the name of Roman emperor

Valentinian I Valentinian I ( la, Valentinianus; 32117 November 375), sometimes called Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor, he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces. Val ...

has been found in the village as well.Kennedy, 2004, p
76
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Map of the town
Google Maps {{Al-Suwayda Governorate, salkhad 19th-century establishments in the Ottoman Empire Archaeological sites in as-Suwayda Governorate Druze communities in Syria Populated places in Salkhad District