Sarmin ( ar, سَرْمِين, Sarmīn also spelled Sarmeen) 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

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Hama ...

, located 15 kilometers southeast of

Idlib ar, إدلبي, Idlibi , coordinates = , elevation_m = 500 , area_code = 23 , geocode = C3871 , blank_name = Climate , blank_info ...

. It has an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of about 390 meters. Nearby localities include Binnish to the north, Talhiyah to the northeast, Afs to the east,

Saraqib Saraqib ( ar, سَرَاقِب, Sarāqib also spelled Saraqeb) is a city in northwestern Syria, administratively belonging to the Idlib Governorate, located east of Idlib. During the course of the Syrian Civil War, the city fell into rebel forces ...

to the southeast,

al-Nayrab Al-Nayrab ( ar, النيرب) is a town in Syria, to the south-east of the city of Aleppo in northern Syria. With the urban development, the village was gradually absorbed by the city of Aleppo thus becoming part of it as a district. Al-Nayrab i ...

to the south and

Qminas Qminas ( ar, قميناس also spelled Qaminas or Kominas or Qmenas) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate, located southeast of Idlib. Nearby localities include Sarmin to the northeast and Saraqib ...

to southwest. The Taftanaz Military Airbase is located to the northeast. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Sarmin had a population of 14,530 in the 2004 census. It is the only locality in the Sarmin ''

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").General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Idlib Governorate. Its inhabitants are predominantly

Sunni Muslim 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 disagree ...

History

Medieval period

Sarmin was the site of a major military confrontation between the

Crusaders 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 in ...

and the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

. In the 13th century the town was celebrated, though small, and the inhabitants were

Ismaili Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sa ...

s, according to

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 ...

.le Strange, 1890, p
532
/ref> The

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 ...

ruler of

Hama , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

and scholar

Abu'l-Fida Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar b. Shāhanshāh b. Ayyūb b. Shādī b. Marwān ( ar, إسماعيل بن علي بن محمود بن محمد بن عمر بن شاهنشاه بن أيوب بن شادي بن مروان ...

described Sarmin as a town with much land and dependencies, with very fertile soil. The town had a

Friday mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.* * * * * * * ...

and lacked walls. In 1355 Sarmin was visited by Ibn Batutah, who wrote of the abundance of trees, mostly

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, growing there. Soap-making was widely practiced, and their "brick soap" was exported to Damascus and Cairo. In addition, a perfumed soap, colored red and yellow, was produced. Cotton products were also made. He also made reference to a "fine" mosque with nine domes.

Syrian Civil War

Sarmin was shelled during the Syrian Civil War, and one of its mosques was severely damaged. On August 12, 2017, unidentified people killed seven White Helmets in a raid on their office here. A school was hit by artillery, killing 5 children on January 1, 2020."Five children reported killed in attack on school in Syria run by Manchester based charity", CNN.com
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* {{Idlib Governorate, idlib Populated places in Idlib District Towns in Syria