Al-Qahtaniyah (; ; ), formerly Qubur al-Bid, is a town in northeastern

Al-Hasakah Governorate Al-Hasakah Governorate (; ; , also known as , ''Gozarto'') is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is located in the far north-east corner of Syria and distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water ...

, northeastern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. It is the

administrative center An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

al-Qahtaniyah Subdistrict Al-Qahtaniyah Subdistrict () is a subdistrict of Qamishli District in northeastern al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria. The administrative centre is the town of al-Qahtaniyah. At the 2004 census, the subdistrict had a population of 65,68 ...

, which consists of 103 localities. Historically an Assyrian city, at the 2004 census, it had a population of 16,946. The Female Protection Forces of the Land Between Two Rivers trained in this city.

Etymology

Al-Qahtaniyah was officially called Qbor el-Bid until 1962. Its old name was derived from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

words "Qbor" ("graves") and "el-Bid" ("white") – i.e. "white graves."

Demographics

The majority of the towns inhabitants are

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

, followed by a large number of

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

Churches in the town

* Syriac Orthodox Church of Our Lady (ܥܕܬܐ ܕܝܠܕܬ ܐܠܗܐ ܡܪܝܡ ܠܣܘܪ̈ܝܝܐ ܬܪ̈ܝܨܝ ܫܘܒܚܐ كنيسة السيدة العذراء للسريان الأرثوذكس)

History

In 1927, the Kurdish tribal chief Haco Agha of the influential Haverkan tribe immigrated from Turkey together with more than 600 families and settled in the town. On 13 March 2004, after the 2004 Qamishli riots when 40 Kurdish civilians were killed, residents of Al-Qahtaniyah who protested the killings were shot at and injured by Syrian forces. As of 2004, Al-Qahtaniyah is the sixth largest town in Al-Hasakah governorate. In late July 2012, during the Syrian civil war, the

YPG The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG mostly consists of K ...

took control of the town.

Notable people

Ciwan Haco Ciwan Haco is a Syrian Kurdish singer. He was born in Tirbespî near Qamishli in northern Syria. His grandfather was originally from Doğançay in Turkey. After finishing high school, he left for Germany in order to continue his studies. He stu ...

(1957*),

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

singer * Muhammad Khayr Ramdan Yusef * Sleman Henno (1918-2006)

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

priest who wrote and published a book about the massacres of Assyrians in Turabdin * Tuma Gawriye Nahroyo (1936-2022) The first Assyrian author who wrote and published the first poetry collection in Surayt

References