Zarzur ( ar, زرزور, also spelled Zerzur, Zarzour or Zurzur) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate, located northwest of Idlib along the Syrian– Turkish borders on the western bank of the Orontes River. Nearby localities include ''

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") center

Darkush Darkush ( ar, دَرْكُوش, Darkūš; also spelled Darkoush or Derkush) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate, located northwest of Idlib along the Syrian– Turkish borders on the Orontes River. Nearby ...

to the north, al-Ghafar to the east, Kafr Dibbin to the southeast, district center

Jisr al-Shughur Jisr ash-Shughūr ( ar, جِسْرُ ٱلشُّغُورِ, jisr aš-šuġūr, , also rendered as ''Jisser ash-Shughour'' and other spellings), known in antiquity as Seleucobelus ( el, Σελευκόβηλος, translit=Seleukóbēlos), is a city in ...

to the south and al-Janudiyah to the southwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Zarzur had a population of 3,126 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Idlib Governorate. Zarzur has been identified as the Bronze Age town of ''Zuzzura'' (known as ''Zunzurha'' by the

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...

) of the kingdom of

Alalakh Alalakh (''Tell Atchana''; Hittite: Alalaḫ) is an ancient archaeological site approximately northeast of Antakya (historic Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It flourished, as an urban settlement, in the Middle and Late Bronze Ag ...

.Gordon, 1980, p. 8. It is mentioned as ''Tundura'' in

Thutmose III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 2 ...

's list of settlements.Astour, 1965, p. 35. In the early 1960s it was described as a little village of 375 inhabitants. Although most of the inhabitants are Sunni Muslims, conversions to

Shia Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, m ...

began in 1945 as a result of the missionary activities of Muhammad Naji al-Ghafri. Naji's work was supported by the embassy of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in the capital Damascus and included funding the construction of a ''

hussainia A ḥosayniya or hussainiya (Arabic: حسينية ''husayniyya''), also known as an ashurkhana, imambargah, or imambara, is a congregation hall for Twelver Shia Muslim commemoration ceremonies, especially those associated with the Mourning of ...

'', a congregation hall for Shia commemorations. The entire clans of Tarmash, al-Manjad and Asayyad became Shia Muslims. Presently, roughly 25% of Zarzur's population follow Shia Islam. During the ongoing Syrian civil war, on 14 December 2012, a Shia mosque (''

'') was set alight by opposition rebels from an Islamist unit of the Free Syrian Army. As sectarian slogan promoting civil strife was written on the wall of the building.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

condemned the targeting of the ''hussainia'' by rebel forces, as well as the government's apparent use of the building for military purposes. Following the torching of the ''hussainia'', locals claimed Zarzur's Shia inhabitants fled the village fearing retaliatory attacks on the community as a result of their perceived support of the government.Syria rebels 'attacked' religious sites
'' Al Jazeera English''. 2013-01-24.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Idlib Governorate, Jisr al-Shughur Populated places in Jisr al-Shughur District Shia Muslim communities in Syria