Shin ( ar, شين ''Shîn'') is a town in northwestern

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

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 geographical ...

, located west of

Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...

. Nearby localities include

Rabah Rabah is a Local Government Area in Sokoto State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Rabah. It has an area of 2,433 km and a population of 149,165 at the 2006 census. The postal code of the area is 842. Rabah was the home town ...

to the north,

al-Mahfurah Al-Mahfurah ( ar, محفورة) is a village in northern Syria located northwest of Homs in the Homs Governorate. Nearby towns include Shin to the southwest, Suwayri to the south, Sharqliyya to the northeast, al-Qabu to the north, Fahel to the ...

to the northeast, Tarin to the east, Suwayri to the southeast, Hadidah to the south,

Mizyeneh Mizyeneh or Mazyanah ( ar, المزينة) is a small Greek Orthodox Christian village located in Western Syria close to the Lebanese borders and administratively belonging to the Homs Governorate. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Stat ...

and al-Huwash to the southwest and Muqlus to the northwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Shin had a population of 13,020 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the Shin ''

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 ...

'' ("subdistrict") which consists of 22 localities with a collective population of 27,951 in 2004.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate. The inhabitants of the town are predominantly

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

s and

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

s. Although many had converted to the heterodox Alawite sect of Sulayman al-Murshid (known as Murshidians) during 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 ...

period (1920–46), the population readopted the orthodox Alawite faith since then.

Etymology

The name Shin is possibly coming from 2 sources

Syriac language The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic language, Aramaic dialect that emerged during ...

and it means the moon, and

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

language and it means peace

History

The town has been built above an

Arameans The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean ...

Khirbat (Town), and there are many other old Aramaians ruins The majority of population used to work in agriculture, planting

Olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

s, Wheat, Figs and Apples,

References

Populated places in Homs District Towns in Syria Alawite communities in Syria {{HomsSY-geo-stub