Al-Kiswah ( ar, الكسوة ' also spelled Kissoué/Kiswe) is a city in the

Rif Dimashq Governorate Rif Dimashq Governorate ( ar, محافظة ريف دمشق, ', literally, the "Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus", Damascus Suburb) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the ...

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 ...

. It is located approximately south of

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. It was the location of the 1303 Battle of Marj al-Saffar, and the childhood home of

Adnan Awad Adnan Awad (born 1942 in Palestine) was a captain in the Palestinian Liberation Army who joined the 15 May Organization and prepared to bomb the Noga Hilton hotel in Geneva, Switzerland on August 31, 1982, but instead fled the scene and later turn ...

. Administratively, Al-Kiswah belongs to

Markaz Rif Dimashq Markaz Rif Dimashq District ( ar-at, منطقة مركز ريف دمشق, manṭiqat Markaz Rif Dimašq) or Damascus Central Countryside District is a district of the Rif Dimashq Governorate in southern Syria. Geography Markaz Rif Dimashq is loc ...

district. It is one of the largest towns of the district by terms of population.

History

The name "al-Kiswah" means “the garment”. According to a tradition related by

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 ...

, this is because the king of Rum sent some messengers to demand tribute from a figure named King Ghassan; he had the messengers killed and then, at the site of al-Kiswah, he had their garments divided up. Yaqut and

Ibn Battuta Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berber Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, largely in the Muslim ...

both described al-Kiswah as the first stage on the

hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried o ...

route out of Damascus.

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 ...

similarly described al-Kiswah as a stopping place on the road south of Damascus and added that between the two places, the road went through a “beautiful pass” called the 'Aqabah ash-Shuhūrah. He also wrote that it lay on a stream called the Nahr al-A'waj which flowed down from the “mountain of snow”, i.e.

Mount Hermon Mount Hermon ( ar, جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC: ''Jabal al-Shaykh'' ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or ''Jabal Haramun''; he, הַר חֶרְמוֹן, ''Har Hermon'') is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of th ...

. In 1838,

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 And ...

noted it as a 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 disagre ...

village.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p
148
/ref> File:Al-Kiswah-farms.jpg, Kiswe farms

References

Bibliography

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External links

More information for Kiswe city

Main site for the city
Cities in Syria Populated places in Markaz Rif Dimashq District {{RifDimashqSY-geo-stub