Umm Haratayn (; also transliterated ''Umm Hartein'' or ''Umm Harteyn'') is a village in central

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 ...

, administratively part of the Suran Subdistrict of Hama District. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Umm Haratayn had a population of 528 in the 2004 census. The inhabitants of Umm Haratayn are

Alawites Alawites () are an Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ...

History

Umm Haratayn is one of several villages on the al-A'la plateau to contain

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

-era ruins, namely a rectangular citadel with towers on its corners. In the late 19th century, the village was owned by the Bani Khalid tribe, which sold it to the Kaylani family of

Hama Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...

in 1890. The inhabitants were

Alawite Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate A ...

tenant farmers who settled in the village in the 1920s or early 1930s at the initiative of its Hama landlords to cultivate its lands.

References

Bibliography

* * Archaeological sites in Hama Governorate {{Hama Governorate, hama Alawite communities in Syria Populated places in Hama District