Beit Sawa ( ar, بيت سوا; also spelled Bayt Sawa) is a village in southern

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

Markaz Rif Dimashq District 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 ...

of 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 c ...

, located just east 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 = , ...

. Nearby localities include Hammurah and

Saqba Saqba ( ar, سقبا; also spelled Sakba or Siqba) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Markaz Rif Dimashq District of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, 7 km east of central Damascus. Nearby localities include Jisrin to the s ...

to the south, Arbin to the west,

Mesraba Mesraba ( ar, مسرابا) is a Syrian village located in Douma District, Rif Dimashq Rif Dimashq Governorate ( ar, محافظة ريف دمشق, ', literally, the "Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus", Damascus Suburb) is one of the f ...

and Douma to the north. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Beit Sawa had a population of 6,249 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Rif Dimashq Governorate.

History

According to historian

Irfan Shahid In Islam, ‘Irfan (Arabic/Persian/Urdu: ; tr, İrfan), literally ‘knowledge, awareness, wisdom’, is gnosis. Islamic mysticism can be considered as a vast range that engulfs theoretical and practical and conventional mysticism, but the c ...

, who specializes in Byzantine history, it is possible that Beit Sawa was the site of the Damascene monastery of Sawa al-Haykal. "Haykal" refers to a religious building, such as a temple or monastery, where refugees and other struggling people could find safety.Shahid, 2002, p
287
Map of Beit Sawa found on p
441
/ref> The village was referenced in a verse by

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

-era poet Ubayd Allah ibn Qays al-Ruqayyat. Beit Sawa 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 fo ...

in the 1220s, noting that Beit Sawa was "a village of Damascus." In the late 18th-century, the farmlands of Beit Sawa were part of the principal religious endowment (''

waqf A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitabl ...

'') of the ''

ashraf Sharīf ( ar, شريف, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef or sherif, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, fr ...

'' families in the northern Syrian city of

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

. The endowment fund belonged to Abd al-Qadir Kaylani, a local scholar and businessman from Hama who died in 1744. During the current Syrian uprising that began in 2011, Beit Sawa and the nearby Hammurah fields, experienced intermittent shelling by

Syrian Army " (''Guardians of the Homeland'') , colors = * Service uniform: Khaki, Olive * Combat uniform: Green, Black, Khaki , anniversaries = August 1st , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six ...

for three days between June 30 to July 2, 2012. On 7 March 2018, the Syrian army captured Beit Sawa.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Rif Dimashq Governorate, markaz Populated places in Markaz Rif Dimashq District