Qara or Kara ( ar, قارة) is a Syrian city in the

An-Nabek District an-Nabek District ( ar-at, منطقة النبك, manṭiqat an-Nabek) is a district of the Rif Dimashq Governorate in southern Syria. Administrative centre is the city of an-Nabek An-Nabek or Al-Nabek ( ar, ٱلنَّبْك, an-Nabk) is a Syr ...

of the

Rif Dimashq Governorate Rif Dimashq Governorate ( ar, محافظة ريف دمشق, ', literally, the "Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus", Damascus Suburb) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the ...

. It is located between the

Qalamoun Mountains The Qalamoun Mountains ( ar, جبال القلمون, Jabāl al-Qalamūn) are the northeastern portion of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, and they are northeast of the Syrian capital Damascus. They run from Barada River, Barada River Valley in the s ...

and the Eastern Lebanon mountains range, north of the capital Damascus on the road to the city of Homs. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Qara had a population of 12,508 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Rif Dimashq Governorate. Its inhabitants are mostly Sunni Muslims and

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Christians.

History

It was the southernmost town in the

Jund Hims ''Jund Ḥimṣ'' ( ar, جند حمص, " military district of Homs") was one of the military districts of the caliphal province of Syria. Geography The capital of Jund Hims was Homs, from which the district received its name. Its principal urb ...

military district of Greater Syria during the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

. Abu'l-Fida described it in his Geography of 1321 as "a large village half way between Damascus and Homs. It is a waystation for the caravans. Most of its inhabitants are Christians. It lies 1½ marches from Homs and 2 marches from Damascus." Since the 14th century Qara has been eclipsed by an-Nabek its neighbor to the south. The Sufi scholar

Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Isma′il al-Nabulsi (an-Nabalusi) (19 March 1641 – 5 March 1731), was an eminent Sunni Muslim scholar, poet, and author on works about Sufism, ethnography and agriculture. Family origins Abd al-Ghani's family descen ...

visited Qara in 1690, remarking that the village's houses were "very small", confusing this along with the encountered unfriendliness of the inhabitants as a sign of hostility to outsiders. However, the conditions of Qara were common in villages located in the lawless regions of the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

at that time. While Qara's population had originally been Christian, by the 17th century it was a mixed Muslim-Christian village.

References

Bibliography

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External links

"Photograph of Qara street"
Flickr.com Populated places in An-Nabek District Cities in Syria Eastern Orthodox Christian communities in Syria {{RifDimashqSY-geo-stub

History

See also

References

Bibliography

External links