al-Shaykh Saad
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Al-Shaykh Saad ( ar, الشيخ سعد ''ash-Shaykh Saʿad''; also Romanized ''Sheikh Saad''), historically also called Karnaim and Dair Ayyub ("Monastery of Job"), is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the
Daraa Governorate Daraa Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة درعا / ALA-LC: ') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the south-west of the country and covers an area of 3,730 km2. It is bordered by Jordan to the south, Qu ...
, located northwest of
Daraa Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jord ...
on the
Jordan–Syria border The Jordan–Syria border is 362 km (225 m) in length and runs from the tripoint with Israel in the west to the tripoint with Iraq in the east. Description The border starts in the west at the tripoint with Israel, though the precise locatio ...
. Nearby localities include Nawa,
Jasim Jasim ( ar, جاسم, also spelled Jasem) is a small city in the Izra' District of the Daraa Governorate in southern Syria. It is located 41 kilometers north of Daraa and is near the towns of Nawa to the south, Kafr Shams to the north, Inkhil to ...
and al-Harrah to the north,
Izra Izraʾ ( ar, إِزْرَع ) is a town in the Daraa Governorate of Syria, to the north of the city of Daraa. It is the administrative centre of the Izra' District, and sits at an altitude of 599 metres. Izra' had a population of 19,158 in 2004, ...
and
al-Shaykh Maskin Al-Shaykh Maskin ( ar, الشيخ مسكين, Al-Sheikh Meskīn), also spelled Sheikh Maskīn, Sheikh Miskeen, is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include Ibta' and ...
to the east,
Tafas Tafas ( ar, طفس, also spelled Tafs or Tuffas) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Saad and Nawa to the north, Da'el, Abtaa and al-Shaykh Mas ...
and
Da'el Da'el ( ar, داعل, also spelled Da'il) is a town in southern Syria located on the old road between Daraa and Damascus, located approximately 14 kilometers north of Daraa. Administratively, it belongs to the Daraa District of the Daraa Govern ...
to the southeast, and Adwan and
Tasil Tasil ( ar, تسيل, also spelled Tsil) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Izra District of the Daraa Governorate. Nearby localities include Nawa to the northeast, Adwan and al-Shaykh Saad to the east, Jalin and Tafas ...
to the west and
Jalin Jalin ( ar, جلين, also spelled Jileen or Jillin) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located northwest of Daraa. Nearby localities include Muzayrib to the southeast, Tafas to the east, al-Shaykh ...
to the southwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Shaykh Saad had a population of 3,373 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Daraa Governorate.


History


Bronze Age

An Egyptian stele, commemorating a campaign of
Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...
Ramesses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as ...
, is locally venerated in a mosque as the "Rock of Job" (see below).Hanauer, 1907, p
71
The
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
monolith, measuring , is split by a horizontal crack.Schumacher; Oliphant; Le Strange, 1886,
191


Iron Age

Initially the city was known as Karnaim. During
Aramaean 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 ...
and Assyrian rule, once the neighbouring city of Ashteroth lost its prominence, Karnaim annexed its name, becoming the capital of the land of
Bashan Bashan (; he, הַבָּשָׁן, translit=ha-Bashan; la, Basan or ''Basanitis'') is the ancient, biblical name used for the northernmost region of the Transjordan during the Iron Age. It is situated in modern-day Syria. Its western part, now ...
under the name Ashteroth-Karnaim. In the
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
, the city was referred to as Karnein,Negev; Gibson, 2005, p. 277. a place held sacred by its local inhabitants. In the days of Judas Maccabaeus (ca. 165 BCE) who fitted out a military expedition against the region, the sacred precinct was burnt to the ground.


Late Roman-Early Byzantine period

It was mentioned by several Christian scholars and pilgrims, including
Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...
, Egeria and
Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
, as the city of St. Job.Pringle, 1998, p
239
/ref>


Crusader/Ayyubid period

During the
Crusades 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 ...
, the town was part of the
Principality of Galilee The principality of Galilee was one of the four major seigneuries of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, according to 13th-century commentator John of Ibelin, grandson of Balian. The direct holdings of the principality centred around Tiberias, ...
. In 1129 the town was ceded by
William I of Bures William of Bures (died before the spring of 1144, or around 1157) was Prince of Galilee from 1119 or 1120 to his death. He was descended from a French noble family which held estates near Paris. William and his brother, Godfrey, were listed among ...
, Prince of Galilee, to the Abbey of St. Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat. This transfer was noted in the records of Baldwin II in 1130, and of
Pope Anastasius IV Pope Anastasius IV ( – 3 December 1154), born Corrado Demetri della Suburra, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 July 1153 to his death in 1154. He is the most recent pope to take the name "Anastasius" upon his ...
in 1154. In June 1187, before the Battle of Hattin,
Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
chose to assemble his troops in the town before starting his campaigns. The village was visited by Syrian geographer
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 for ...
in the early 13th-century, during Ayyubid rule. At the time, the village's name was ''Dair Ayyub'' ("the monastery of Job"). He noted that it was a village "of the Hauran, in the Damascus Province. This is where Job dwelt, and where Allah tried him. There is here a spring, where he struck with his feet the rock that was over it (and the water gushed out). Job's tomb also is here."


Ottoman period

The town was later known by the name of a more recent and local Muslim holy man, Shaykh Saad. The sheikh, according to tradition, was a native of Sudanese origins who brought many African slaves to work in the town. Shaykh Saad then established a Muslim "monastery" for his black slaves, and later granted them their freedom.Schumacher; Oliphant; Le Strange, 1886, p
155
/ref> A rivalry has since existed between the local ''
fellahin A fellah ( ar, فَلَّاح ; feminine ; plural ''fellaheen'' or ''fellahin'', , ) is a peasant, usually a farmer or Agriculture, agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. The word derives from the Arabic language, Arabic wor ...
'' who consider St. Job to be the patron of their town, and the descendants of the African slaves to whom Shaykh Saad was their saviour. The Africans also settled in
Jalin Jalin ( ar, جلين, also spelled Jileen or Jillin) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located northwest of Daraa. Nearby localities include Muzayrib to the southeast, Tafas to the east, al-Shaykh ...
.Schumacher; Oliphant; Le Strange, 1886, p
188
/ref> Under the Ottomans, the town became the capital of Hauran Sanjak for some time, and the residence of the local governor, or ''
Mutasarrıf Mutasarrif or mutesarrif ( ota, متصرّف, tr, mutasarrıf) was the title used in the Ottoman Empire and places like post-Ottoman Iraq for the governor of an administrative district. The Ottoman rank of mutasarrif was established as part of a ...
''. In 1596 al-Shaykh Saad appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Sayh Sa'd, being in 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 ...
'' of Jawlan Sarqi in the Qada of Hauran. It had a population of 3 households and 1 bachelor, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on
wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
,
barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...
, summer crops and
rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...
; a total of 2,100 akçe. Gottlieb Schumacher surveyed the town in 1884, and recorded that it was "miserable looking place, containing about 60 huts built of stone and mud, many of them now fallen to ruin. It has a population of about 220 souls, all without exception negroes."Schumacher; Oliphant; Le Strange, 1886, p
187
In a bid to bring Hauran under further centralization, in 1892 the Ottoman government of Damascus pressed for the completion of land registration in al-Shaykh Sa'ad—still the regional capital—as well in other major towns in the area. In 1918, towards the end of the
Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On ...
during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, al-Shaykh Saad was captured by the Arab Army headed by T. E. Lawrence. The town served as their launching point for the subsequent battle in
Tafas Tafas ( ar, طفس, also spelled Tafs or Tuffas) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located north of Daraa. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Saad and Nawa to the north, Da'el, Abtaa and al-Shaykh Mas ...
, where the Arabs defeated the
Ottoman army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
.Schneider, 2011, p. 294.


Association with St. Job


Home and tomb of Job

The town was associated with St. Job since at least the 4th-century CE. Karnein was mentioned in Eusebius' Onomasticon as a town of Bashan that was said to be the location of the house of St. Job. Egeria the pilgrim relates that a church was built over the place in March or February 384 CE, and that the place was known as the "town of Job", or "''civitas Job''." According to Egeria's account the body of St. Job was laid in a stone coffin below the altar.


"Job's Bath"

According to tradition, ''Hammam Ayyub'' is a fountain in the town where Job washed himself when he had
leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...
, and is reputed to have healing powers.Schumacher; Oliphant; Le Strange, 1886, p
194
/ref>


"Rock of Job"

Another holy artifact in the town is the "Rock of Job," known in local folklore as the place where he sat when he was afflicted with the disease, and is housed inside a mosque dedicated to Nabi Ayyub. The rock has been identified as an Egyptian stele dedicated to Ramesses II (see above).


References


Bibliography

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External links


Map of the town
Google Maps
Naoua-map, 20L
{{DEFAULTSORT:shaykh saad Populated places in Izra' District Mausoleums in Syria