Shamsin ( ar, شمسين ''Shamsîn'' also spelled Shemsin, Shamsinn or Shimsan) is a village in central
Syria, administratively part of the
Homs Governorate
Homs Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حمص / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥimṣ'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in central Syria. Its area differs in various sources, from to . It is thus geographic ...
, located south of
Homs. Nearby localities include
al-Qusayr to the west,
Damina al-Sharqiya to the northwest,
Shinshar
Shinshar ( ar, شنشار, Shinshār, also spelled Shanshar) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located between Homs to the north, al-Qusayr to the southwest and Shamsin to the south. According to the ...
to the north,
Dardaghan
Dardaghan ( ar, دردغان, also spelled ''al-Dardaghan'') is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located southeast of Homs. Nearby localities include Jandar to the west, Hisyah to the southwest and al-Riq ...
to the southeast and
Hisyah to the south. According to the
Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Shamsin had a population of 811 in the 2004 census.
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate. Its inhabitants are predominantly
Sunni Muslims.
History
In 1226, during
Ayyubid rule, 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 ...
visited Shamsin, noting it was "a place between Hims (Homs) and
Kara
Kara or KARA may refer to:
Geography Localities
* Kara, Chad, a sub-prefecture
* Kára, Hungary, a village
* Kara, Uttar Pradesh, India, a township
* Kara, Iran, a village in Lorestan Province
* Kara, Republic of Dagestan, a rural locality in Da ...
." Under the Ayyubids and later the
Mamluks who gained power in 1250, Shamsin was part of Mamlakat Hims ("Kingdom of Homs"), the smallest district in both sultanates.
In the mid-19th-century, Shamsin was described as "a small place" by German traveler Albert Socin. During this period, the village was walled and referred to as the site of an old ''khan'' (
caravanserai). It was populated by a few families, while the surrounding areas were dominated by the nomadic
`Anizzah tribe.
[Draper, 1854, p. 681.]
References
Bibliography
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{{Homs Governorate, homs
Populated places in Homs District