Uqayribat ( ar, عقيربات

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''ʿUqayribāt'') also spelled ''Oqeirbat'', ''Uzeiribat'', ''′Aqayrbat'', ''′Agareb'', ''Aaqerbate'', ''Occariba'' or ''Occaraba'' is a Syrian town in the Uqayribat Subdistrict of the

Salamiyah District Salamiyah ( ar, سلمية ') is a district ( mantiqah) administratively belonging to Hama Governorate, Syria. At the 2004 Census it had a population of 187,123. Its administrative district is the city of Salamiyah. Sub-districts The district of ...

in Hama Governorate. It is situated at the western foot of Jabal Bal'as and along the route connecting

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

(

Tadmur Palmyra (; ar, تَدْمُر, Tadmor; Palmyrene: ''Tadmor'') is a city in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate. It is located in an oasis in the middle of the Syrian Desert northeast of Damascus and southwest of the Eu ...

) to the southeast with Salamiyah to the west. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), ′Uqayribat had a population of 2,745 in the 2004 census.

History

Uqayribat is identified as the site of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

-era town of Occaraba, listed on the

Peutinger Table ' (Latin for "The Peutinger Map"), also referred to as Peutinger's Tabula or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated ' (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the '' cursus publicus'', the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-ce ...

. In the '' Notitia Dignitatum'', a Roman document, Occaraba is mentioned as a garrison of the ''equites promoti Illyriciani'' legion. The Czech explorer

Alois Musil Alois Musil (30 June 1868 – 12 April 1944) was a Czech theologian, orientalist, explorer and bilingual Czech and German writer. Biography Musil was the oldest son born in 1868 into an poor farming family in Moravia (then Cisleithanian pa ...

did not locate any Roman remains in the village during his early 20th-century expedition in the region. According to the 9th-century

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

geographer, Ibn Khordazbeh, during the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

era, Uqayribat was one of the administrative subdistricts of Homs, along with al-Qastal, Salamiyah and Zumayn, all of which were part of the larger district of

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 ...

. It remained an administrative subdistrict of Homs by the 13th century as well. In 1900, the modern-day village of Uqayribat was founded by a group of farmers who migrated 100 kilometers northwest from their hometown of

to cultivate and settle the place. The settlement was built on a small elevation. The Ottomans, who ruled Syria between 1517 and 1917, established a

gendarme Wrong info! --> A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...

post at the new settlement. Uqayribat soon after became the center of the surrounding region, which too was developing agriculturally and which was increasingly settled by formerly nomadic Bedouin tribesmen throughout the early 20th century. In 1908, Musil noted that the village and its agriculturally productive vicinity belonged to the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

sheikh of Palmyra. During the Syrian Civil War, ISIS captured the town from the Syrian Armed Forces in 2014. On 3 September 2017 the town was regained by the

Syrian Arab 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-D ...

. However, on 9 September 2017, the army lost large parts of the town. On 15 September 2017, the Syrian army recaptured the town Uqayribat after the huge counter-attack and the heavy air raids of the Russian aircraft and helicopters. Many civilian casualties occurred. In 2018, a large

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

was discovered in Uqayribat which belongs to an early

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 ...

church.

References

{{Hama Governorate, salamiyah 1900 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Towns in Hama Governorate Populated places established in 1900 Populated places in Salamiyah District