Dabiq ( ar, دابق ) is a town in northern Syria, about northeast of Aleppo and around south of Syria's border with Turkey. It is administratively part of the Akhtarin ''nahiyah'' (subdistrict) of the

A'zaz District Azaz District ( ar, منطقة أعزاز, manṭiqat A'zāz) is a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Azaz Azaz ( ar, أَعْزَاز, ʾAʿzāz) is a city in northwest Syria, roughly n ...

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of t ...

. Nearby localities include

Mare' Mare' ( ar, مارع ''Māriʿ'', locally pronounced ''Mēreʿ''), also spelled Marea, is a town in northern Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. It is the largest town and administrative centre of the Mare' nahiyah in the Azaz District. Locat ...

to the southwest, Sawran to the northwest, and

Akhtarin Akhtarin ( ar, أخترين, Akhtarīn) is a town in northern Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. The largest town and administrative centre of Nahiya Akhtarin of the A'zaz District has a population of 5,305 in the 2004 census. Located north ...

town to the southeast. In the 2004 census, Dabiq had a population of 3,364. The town was the site of the

battle of Marj Dabiq The Battle of Marj Dābiq ( ar, مرج دابق, meaning "the meadow of Dābiq"; tr, Mercidabık Muharebesi), a decisive military engagement in Middle Eastern history, was fought on 24 August 1516, near the town of Dabiq, 44 km north of ...

in 1516, in which the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

decisively defeated the

Mamluk Sultanate The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16t ...

. In Islamic eschatology, it is believed that Dabiq is one of two possible locations (the other is Amaq) for an epic battle between invading Christians and the defending Muslims which will result in a Muslim victory and mark the beginning of the end of times. The Islamic terrorist group

Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

believes Dabiq is where an epic and decisive battle will take place with Christian forces of the West, and have named their online magazine after the village. After being driven out of the town of Dabiq by the Turkish military and Syrian rebels in October 2016, IS replaced this publication with a new one named '' Rumiyah''.

History

During Caliph Sulayman's reign (715–717), Dabiq, near the Arab–Byzantine frontier, succeeded Jabiyah's role as the main military camp in Syria.Lammens, p. 360. Dabiq 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. He noted that it was "a village of the '

Azaz Azaz ( ar, أَعْزَاز, ʾAʿzāz) is a city in northwest Syria, roughly north-northwest of Aleppo. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Azaz had a population of 31,623 in the 2004 census.

District lying 4 leagues from Halab ( Aleppo). Near it is a green and pleasant meadow, where the Omayyad troops encamped, when they made the celebrated expedition against Al Massissah, which was to have been continued even to the walls of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

. The

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

of Caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, who led the expedition, lies here." In August 2014 the

(IS) conquered the town, destroying the Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik shrine. On 16 October 2016, Syrian National Army rebels captured the town from IS.

In Islamic eschatology

In Islamic eschatology as found in the

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

, the area of Dabiq is mentioned as a place of some of the events of the Muslim Malahim (which would equate to the Christian apocalypse, or

Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

Abu Hurayrah Abu Hurayra ( ar, أبو هريرة, translit=Abū Hurayra; –681) was one of the companions of Islamic prophet Muhammad and, according to Sunni Islam, the most prolific narrator of hadith. He was known by the ''kunyah'' Abu Hurayrah "Fathe ...

, companion to Muhammad, reported in his Hadith that Muhammad said: Scholars and hadith commentators suggest that the word ''Romans'' refers to Christians. The hadith further relates the subsequent Muslim victory, followed by the peaceful takeover of

with invocations of

takbir The Takbir ( ar, تَكْبِير, , "magnification f God) is the name for the Arabic phrase ' (, ), meaning "God is the greatest". It is a common Arabic expression, used in various contexts by Muslims and Arabs around the world: in formal Salah ...

and

tasbih ''Tasbih'' ( ar, تَسْبِيح, ) is a form of ''dhikr'' that involves the glorification of Allah in Islam by saying: ''"Subhan Allah"'' (; lit. "Glory be to God"). It is often repeated a certain number of times, using either the phalanges ...

, and finally the defeat of the

Masih ad-Dajjal Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (), otherwise referred to simply as the Dajjal, is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology similar to the Antichrist in Christianity, who will pretend to be the promised Messiah, appearing before the Day of Judgment accordin ...

following the return and descent of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

References

Bibliography

* * {{Aleppo Governorate, azaz Apocalypticism Islamic eschatology