Burj Qa'i ( ar, برج قاعي, also spelled Burj al-Qa'y or simply al-Burj) is a village in central

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

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 geographical ...

, located northwest of

Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...

. Nearby localities include

Taldou Taldou ( ar, تلدو, Talldū, also spelled Tall Daww, Taldo, Tall Dhu or Taldao) is a town in the Houla region of northern Syria, north of Homs in the Homs Governorate. Nearby towns include Burj al-Qa'i to the east, Tallaf to the northeast, Kaf ...

and the

Houla The Houla Region or Houla Plain ( ar, الحولة ''Al-Ḥūla'') is an area consisting of three villages in the Homs Governorate of central Syria, northwest of the city of Homs. The biggest village in the Houla region had 20,041 inhabitants in ...

5 kilometers to the west,

Talaf Talaf ( ar, طلف}) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Musa al-Houla to the north, Hirbnafsah to the northeast, Kisin to the east, Burj Qa'i to t ...

to the north,

Kisin Cizin is a Mayan god of death and earthquakes. He is the most important Maya death god in the Mayan culture. Scholars call him God A. To the Yucatán Mayas he was Hun-Came and Vucub-Came. He also has similarities to Mictlāntēcutli. Name an ...

to the northeast,

Kafr Nan Kafr Nan ( ar, كفرنان, Kafrnan, also spelled Kfarnan) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located north of Homs. Nearby localities include Burj Qa'i to the west, Kisin to the northwest, Gharnatah to ...

to the east,

Tasnin Tasnin ( ar, تسنين, Tāsnīn, also spelled ''Tasneen'') is a village in middle of Syria, northern of Homs administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located 20 kilometers northwest of Homs in between the cities of al-Rastan and Talbiseh ...

and

Akrad Dayasinah Karad Dayasinah ( ar, كراد داسنية, also known as ''Akrad Dayasinah'' or ''Akrad Dasnieh'', also known as Shamah) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Homs District Homs District ( ar-at, منطقة حمص, man� ...

to the southeast and

Ghur Gharbiyah Ghawr Gharbiyah ( ar, غور غربية, also spelled ''Ghor Gharbiya'' or ''Ghouri'') is a town in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, northwest of Homs. Nearby localities include Qazhal to the southeast, Akrad Dayasi ...

to the south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Burj Qa'i had a population of 2,351 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate. Its inhabitants are predominantly

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...

s and ethnic Turkmens.Rosen, Nir
A Tale of Two Syrian Villages: Part two
''

Al-Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة‎, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...

'' (AJE). 2011-10-26. During the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

in Syria, Burj Qa'i was a village of army veterans by the 3rd-century CE. The local

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

was Semea, a goddess previously worshiped in northern areas of Syria. A temple dedicated to Semea was constructed in 196-97 upon the decision of the village's Council of Six.

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

later spread to Burj Qa'i during the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

period, as evidenced by the existence of a Christian tomb in the village dating to 457. A Christian

martyrion A martyrium (Latin) or martyrion (Greek), plural ''martyria'', sometimes anglicized martyry (pl. martyries), is a church or shrine built over the tomb of a Christian martyr. It is associated with a specific architectural form, centered on a cent ...

built in 539-40 through funds raised by a bishop named Peter also exists in Burj Qa'i. The building's construction was supervised by the episcopal officials Leontius and Isaiah, who were ''

oikonomos ''Oikonomos'' ( el, οἰκονόμος, from - 'house' and - 'rule, law'), Latinization of names, latinized œconomus, oeconomus, or economos, was an Ancient Greek word meaning "household manager." In Byzantine empire, Byzantine times, the ter ...

''.

Pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

s and Christians inhabited Burj al-Qa'i simultaneously in the period between 457 and 532. In 1838, during late Ottoman rule, Burj al-Qa'i was classified as a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

village in the

region by Americal biblical scholar

Eli Smith Eli Smith (born September 13, 1801, in Northford, Connecticut, to Eli and Polly (Whitney) Smith, and died January 11, 1857, in Beirut, Lebanon) was an American Protestant missionary and scholar. He graduated from Yale College in 1821 and from Andov ...

. The village was also mentioned in passing in the fifth volume of the ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' in the mid-1840s. In the aftermath of the

Houla massacre The Houla massacre ( ar, مجزرة الحولة) was a mass murder of civilians by Syrian government forces that took place on May 25, 2012, in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, in the town of Taldou, in the Houla Region of Syria, a string ...

on 25 May 2012, during the ongoing Syrian civil war, Burj Qa'i hosted around 5,000 refugees fleeing nearby

, the scene of the massacre. Most refugees took shelter in schools, public buildings or the homes of host families. The

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

(ICRC) visited in June to provide food, medicines and mattresses to the displaced. In early October 2012 Syrian state television reported that

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 ...

forces killed several opposition fighters in Burj Qa'i.Turkey warns Syria it will respond 'with greater force' if shelling persists
''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

''. 2012-10-10.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burj Qai Populated places in Homs District