Dhurma or Darma ( ar, ضرما) is a small town located by road northwest of

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. It is the center of the small Dhurma Governorate of

Riyadh Province The Riyadh Province ( ar, منطقة الرياض '), also known as the Riyadh Region, is a region of Saudi Arabia, located in the geographic center of the country. It has an area of and with a 2017 population of 8,216,284, it is the second-la ...

, and had a population of 10,267 people according to the 2004 census. It lies in the wide Al-Batin valley, which it shares with its larger twin, Muzahmiyya.

History

The town appears in the 7th century poetry of Jarir as "Qarma" or "Garma", and is also mentioned by the same name in Yaqut's encyclopedia. It is unknown, however, when exactly the name evolved into "Dhurma". The village was important in pre-20th century

Nejd Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the H ...

as a western gateway to the region of

Wadi Hanifa Wadi Hanifa ( ar, وَادِي حَنِيْفَة, Wādī Ḥanīfah), historically known as Wadi al-Arad, is a ''wadi'' (valley) in the Najd region, Riyadh Province, in central Saudi Arabia. The valley runs for a length of from northwest to s ...

, which includes Riyadh and

Diriyah Diriyah ( ar, الدِرْعِيّة), formerly romanized as Dereyeh and Dariyya), is a town in Saudi Arabia located on the north-western outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Diriyah was the original home of the Saudi royal family, and served ...

, and often bore the brunt of the military campaigns directed at the region. Its traditional rulers were distant cousins of the

Al Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and ...

family, and Dhurma joined the

First Saudi State The Emirate of Diriyah (), also known as the First Saudi State, was established in February 1727 (1139 AH). In 1744, the emir of Najdi town called Diriyah Muhammad bin Saud and the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab formed an alliance ...

at the end of the 18th century. A large invasion of Saudi-ruled territory by the Yam tribe of

Najran Najran ( ar, نجران '), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated as a new town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen fr ...

, some 1000 km to the south, was repelled by the people of Dhurma in 1775 after an intense battle fought in a nearby forest of palm trees. Later, the

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 ...

ian- Ottoman forces of Ibrahim Pasha placed the town under siege on their way to the Saudi capital of Diriyah (see

Saudi-Ottoman War The Ottoman-Saudi War ( ar, الحرب العثمانية-السعودية, translit=al-ḥarb al-ʿUthmānīyah-al-Saʿūdīyah, ) also known as the Ottoman/Egyptian-Saudi War (1811–1818) was fought from early 1811 to 1818, between the Ot ...

). Dhurma offered remarkably stout resistance to the invading army, and even rejected Ibrahim's offer of a truce in exchange for allowing him to proceed to Diriyah. The town, however, surrendered in early 1818 and Ibrahim's retribution was especially harsh, allowing his troops to pillage the village with impunity. The town revived somewhat after those events, and was reported by

Philby Philby can refer to the following people * St John Philby a British intelligence officer and explorer * His son Kim Philby, a KGB mole double agent inside the United Kingdom's MI6 * Philby (The Kingdom Keepers), Philby (''The Kingdom Keepers'') ...

to have had a population of nearly 6,000 in 1917. Its fortunes have fallen dramatically in recent decades, however, because it was bypassed by the modern Riyadh-Mecca highway, and most of its original inhabitants have moved to neighboring Riyadh.

Climate

References

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 fo ...

, ''

Mu'jam Al-Buldan 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 fo ...

'' *Ibn Ghannam, ''Rawdhat Al-Afkar wal Afham'' (a history of

) *Philby, St. John B., ''The Heart of Arabia: A Record of Travel & Exploration'', Vol. 1, p. 126, G.P. Putnam's Sons, NY and London, 1923.

External links

Website
{{Portal, Saudi Arabia Populated places in Riyadh Province