ʽAsr, or Qaryat ʽAsr ( ), also transliterated as ʽAsir, is a western suburb of
Sanaa
Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...
,
Yemen
Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...
,
located in
Main District of
Amanat al-Asimah Governorate.
It is located just north of the road to
al-Hudaydah, at the western edge of the Sanaa plain.
The name ''ʽAsr'' is also used for the small
wadi
Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...
by the town, as well as the mountain nearby.
History
ʽAsr is mentioned in both the ''
Ghayat al-amani'' of
Yahya ibn al-Husayn and the ''
Kitab al-Simt'' of
Muhammad ibn Hatim al-Yami al-Hamdani, with the earliest reference to it taking place in the year 1198 (594
AH).
In recent decades, ʽAsr has grown from a village into a major suburb of Sanaa, driven in part by the presence of an existing
souk
A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets that have doors ...
, which has grown into a center of commercial activity.
The growth is also fueled by some industries relocating to ʽAsr.
References
{{Reflist
Villages in Sanaa Governorate