Maskanah ( ar, مَسْكَنَة) also spelled, Meskene is a town in northern
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, administratively part of the
Manbij District
Manbij District ( ar, منطقة منبج, mantiqah, manṭiqat Manbiǧ) is a Districts of Syria, district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Manbij. At the 2004 census, the district had a population ...
of the
Aleppo Governorate
Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the ...
. The town is located southeast of
Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
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on the
Lake Assad
Lake Assad ( ar, بحيرة الأسد, ''Buhayrat al-Assad'') is a reservoir on the Euphrates in Raqqa Governorate, Syria. It was created in 1974 when construction of the Tabqa Dam was completed. Lake Assad is Syria's largest lake, with a maximu ...
part of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
. Nearby localities include
Dayr Hafir
Dayr Hafir ( ar, دَيْر حَافِر / ALA-LC: ''Dayr Ḥāfir'') is a Syrian city in the Aleppo Governorate, east of Aleppo on the Aleppo-Raqqa highway, to the north of Sabkhat al-Jabbul. It is the regional centre of Dayr Hafir District ...
,
Humaymah Kabirah and
Tell Ayoub to the northwest and
al-Thawrah
Al-Thawrah ( ar, ٱلثَّوْرَة, aṯ-Ṯawrah), also known as Al-Tabqah ( ar, ٱلطَّبْقَة, aṭ-Ṭabqah, also ), is a city in Raqqa Governorate, Syria, approximately west of Raqqa. The name "al-Thawrah" literally means "The Revo ...
to the southeast. According to the
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Maskanah had a population of 15,477 in the 2004 census.
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Aleppo Governorate. The Syrian government took control of Maskanah on 3 June 2017.
History
The
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
city of
Emar
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lies a few kilometres north of the present town. The earliest mention of Maskanah comes through
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...
where it is mentioned in the context of
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa (Roman province), Africa. As a young man he advanced thro ...
's campaigns against the
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...
.
After the
Muslim conquest of Syria
The Muslim conquest of the Levant ( ar, فَتْحُ الشَّام, translit=Feth eş-Şâm), also known as the Rashidun conquest of Syria, occurred in the first half of the 7th century, shortly after the rise of Islam."Syria." Encyclopædia Br ...
, the town was overshadowed by the nearby
Balis. The region was under the lordship of the rulers of
Aleppo
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until the 12th century when the
Atabegs of Mosul started asserting more control. The area was devastated by the
Mongol invasions
The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire ( 1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...
in the 13th and 14th centuries.
In 1210, during
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
rule, the al-Adil Minaret was constructed. The brick structure was built in the simple,
Persian architectural style. It was restored during
Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad ', , (, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian statesman and military officer who served as President of Syria from taking power in 1971 until his death in 2000. He was also Prime Minister of Syria from 1970 to 1 ...
's rule (1970-2000) and is one last historic architectural remains in the town.
During
Ottoman times, the area was mostly inhabited by nomadic tribes.
In 1838 Maskanah was classified as a ruined village ("''khirba''") by Biblical scholar
Eli Smith
Eli Smith (born September 13, 1801, in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (Whitney) Smith, and died January 11, 1857, in Beirut, Lebanon) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from Andov ...
. The cultivable lands of the
Aleppo Vilayet, including Maskanah, were confiscated in 1876 by
Sultan Abdulhamid II as his own personal property. The lands were later integrated back into the state as public property. In 1915 the town was visited by orientalist
Alois Musil
Alois Musil (30 June 1868 – 12 April 1944) was a Czech theologian, orientalist, explorer and bilingual Czech and German writer.
Biography
Musil was the oldest son born in 1868 into an poor farming family in Moravia (then Cisleithanian pa ...
who mentions the town having barracks, a large ''
khan
Khan may refer to:
*Khan (inn), from Persian, a caravanserai or resting-place for a travelling caravan
*Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name
*Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by ...
'', and the residence of the head of the telegraph service.
A year later, Maskanah became a major deportation route during the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
where an estimated 80,000 Armenians died.
Under the
French mandate
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate foun ...
, the town was the center of a ''
qadaa
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
, ...
'', and served as a center for milk production and cattle merchants. In 1945 the village had 430 inhabitants.
![Maskanah nahiyah](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Maskanah_nahiyah.svg)
On 3 June 2017, the city was
captured by the
Syrian Armed Forces
The Syrian Arab Armed Forces ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْمُسَلَّحَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةُ السُّورِيَّةُ, al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥah al-ʿArabīyah as-Sūrīyah) are the military forces of the Syrian Arab Re ...
from
ISIL
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
.
Tribes
The pre-Islamic Hadidin tribe is attested in the region of Maskanah through a tomb of Shaykh Hadid, a venerated ancestor of the tribe. After the Muslim conquest, the area was continuously inhabited by the
Anizzah and
Banu Bakr
The Banu Bakr bin Wa'il ( ar, بنو بكر بن وائل '), or simply Banu Bakr, were an Arabian tribe belonging to the large Rabi'ah branch of Adnanite tribes, which also included Abd al-Qays, Anazzah, Taghlib. The tribe is reputed to have en ...
tribes. The 17th and 18th centuries saw another wave of migration to the area by the Anizzah. Nowadays, the region is mostly composed of the Anizzah and
Shammar
The tribe of Shammar ( ar, شَمَّر, Šammar) is a tribal Arab Qahtan confederation, descended from the Yemeni tribe of Tayy as they originated in Yemen before migrating into present day Saudi Arabia, It is the biggest branch of Tayy tribe. I ...
tribes.
Geography
The town lies on the left bank of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
in an area where the river bends eastwards due to a Pleistocene terrace. The town's distance to the river has varied over the years due to changes in the river's bed.
Maskanah lies on the border between the
Syrian Desert
The Syrian Desert ( ar, بادية الشام ''Bādiyat Ash-Shām''), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of sou ...
to the south, and the northern fertile
Manbij Plain
Manbij plain ( ar, سهل منبج ) is a vast plain on the eastern Aleppo plateau in northern Syria and southeastern Turkey. The plain runs along the western bank of river Euphrates for approximately 140 km from Nizip to Maskanah, with an a ...
.
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
{{Aleppo Governorate, manbij
Populated places in Manbij District
Towns in Aleppo Governorate