Sarmin ( ar, سَرْمِين, Sarmīn also spelled Sarmeen) is a town in northwestern
Syria, administratively part of the
Idlib Governorate, located 15 kilometers southeast of
Idlib. It has an
altitude of about 390 meters. Nearby localities include
Binnish to the north,
Talhiyah to the northeast,
Afs to the east,
Saraqib
Saraqib ( ar, سَرَاقِب, Sarāqib also spelled Saraqeb) is a city in northwestern Syria, administratively belonging to the Idlib Governorate, located east of Idlib. During the course of the Syrian Civil War, the city fell into rebel forces ...
to the southeast,
al-Nayrab to the south and
Qminas
Qminas ( ar, قميناس also spelled Qaminas or Kominas or Qmenas) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate, located southeast of Idlib. Nearby localities include Sarmin to the northeast and Saraqib ...
to southwest. The
Taftanaz Military Airbase is located to the northeast.
According to the
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Sarmin had a population of 14,530 in the 2004 census. It is the only locality in the Sarmin ''
nahiyah
A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...
'' ("subdistrict").
[General Census of Population and Housing 2004](_blank)
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Idlib Governorate. Its inhabitants are predominantly
Sunni Muslims.
History
Medieval period
Sarmin was the site of a major
military confrontation between the
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
and the
Seljuk Turks
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
. In the 13th century the town was celebrated, though small, and the inhabitants were
Ismailis, according to
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 ...
.
[le Strange, 1890, p]
532
/ref> The Ayyubid ruler of Hama and scholar Abu'l-Fida described Sarmin as a town with much land and dependencies, with very fertile soil. The town had a Friday mosque
A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.*
*
*
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...
and lacked walls.[ In 1355 Sarmin was visited by Ibn Batutah, who wrote of the abundance of trees, mostly olives, growing there. Soap-making was widely practiced, and their "brick soap" was exported to Damascus and Cairo. In addition, a perfumed soap, colored red and yellow, was produced. Cotton products were also made. He also made reference to a "fine" mosque with nine domes.][
]
Syrian Civil War
Sarmin was shelled during the Syrian Civil War, and one of its mosques was severely damaged. On August 12, 2017, unidentified people killed seven White Helmets in a raid on their office here. A school was hit by artillery, killing 5 children on January 1, 2020."Five children reported killed in attack on school in Syria run by Manchester based charity", CNN.com
/ref>
References
Bibliography
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{{Idlib Governorate, idlib
Populated places in Idlib District
Towns in Syria