ʽAsr, or Qaryat ʽAsr ( ar, قرية عصر ), also transliterated as ʽAsir, is a western suburb of
Sanaa
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Go ...
,
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...
,
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 ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet ( ephemeral) riverbed that contains water on ...
by the town, as well as the mountain nearby.
History
ʽAsr is mentioned in both the ''
Ghayat al-amani'' of
Yahya ibn al-Husayn Yahya may refer to:
* Yahya (name), a common Arabic male given name
* Yahya (Zaragoza), 11th-century ruler of Zaragoza
* John the Baptist in Islam, also known as Yaḥyā ibn Zakarīyā
See also
* Tepe Yahya
Tapeh Yahya () is an archaeological ...
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 (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the ...
, 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