Al-Haffa
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Al-Haffah () is a town in northwestern
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, administratively part of the
Latakia Governorate Latakia Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat al-Lādhiqīyah''), also transliterated as Ladhakia, is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay Province to the no ...
, located east of
Latakia Latakia (; ; Syrian Arabic, Syrian pronunciation: ) is the principal port city of Syria and capital city of the Latakia Governorate located on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, it has also been known as Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad Mar ...
. It is the center of
al-Haffah District Al-Haffah District () is a district of the Latakia Governorate in northwestern Syria. Administrative centre is the city of al-Haffah. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 81,213. Al-Haffah District is located in the area of An-Nu ...
, one of the four
districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
() of the Latakia Goverorate. Al-Haffah's population was 4,298 in the 2004 census by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and the al-Haffah subdistrict () had a population of 23,347.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Latakia Governorate.
About 90% of the town's inhabitants are
Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...
s, while
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
s constitute about 10% of the population. The communities have lived together in al-Haffah for centuries. The residents of al-Haffah are largely involved in agriculture. The town grows many types of fruits such as olives, figs, pomegranates, apples and pears.


Geography and layout

Al-Haffah is surrounded by mountains and located west of the Sahyun Castle (or Citadel of Salah al-Din), a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
. The town is built on a narrow and forested ridgeline with an elevation of between and above sea level, overlooking the coastal plain of Latakia and the northern part of the
Syrian Coastal Mountain Range The Coastal Mountain Range (, ''Silsilat al-Jibāl as-Sāḥilīyah'') also called Jabal al-Ansariya, Jabal an-Nusayria or Jabal al-`Alawīyin (Ansari, Nusayri or Alawi Mountains) is a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north–south, ...
. This positioning historically allowed it to dominate the surrounding countryside. Due to this placement and the surrounding terrain, the town has developed as a strip of built-up area along the Latakia–
Slinfah Slinfah (, ) is a Syrian town-resort, founded in 1929, administratively belonging to Al-Haffah District within the Latakia Governorate. It is located at an average height of 1130 metres above sea level on the An-Nusayriyah Mountains, 50 km e ...
road, surrounded by orchards. The homes and buildings, many two or three stories high, are clustered together with no open space in the town center.


History

The Sahyun Castle was conquered by the Ayyubids in 1188. Although al-Haffah has been attested since the medieval period, it lacks archaeological remains, as building activity in its immediate vicinity from as early as
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
rule was concentrated in the formidable Sahyun Castle, which is located on a more defensible site. The local geographer
Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...
mentioned al-Haffah in the early 13th century, during
Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...
rule, noting that it was a district to the west of
Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
comprising many villages and the producer of a fabric called . The Sunni Muslim inhabitants of the Sahyun area generally descend from the Turkmen and
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...
tribesmen settled in the mountain forts by the
Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...
sultan
Baybars Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (; 1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), commonly known as Baibars or Baybars () and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh (, ), was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Ba ...
and his successors to better control the road between
Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
and the coastal plain.


Ottoman period

In 1860 al-Haffah was visited by the American missionary R. J. Dodds of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Dodds described it as "a beautiful village ... in a fertile and rather populous Muslim district, Sahyun". He noted that it had approximately 2,000 inhabitants, of whom most were Muslims and about 150 were
Greek Orthodox Christians Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Roma ...
.


French Mandatory period

In 1919 al-Haffah was part of the uprising against the French occupation of Syria led by Umar al-Bitar in the Sahyun region, part of the wider
Hananu Revolt The Hananu Revolt (also known as the Aleppo RevoltMoubayed 2006, p. 604. or the Northern revolts) was an insurgency against French military forces in northern Syria, mainly concentrated in the western countryside of Aleppo, in 1920–1921. Suppo ...
across northwestern Syria, and in alliance with the Alawite Revolt led by
Saleh al-Ali Salih al-Ali (1883 – 13 April 1950) was a Syrian Alawite military commander who led the Alawite revolt of 1919–1921 against the French mandate of Syria. Background Salih al-Ali was born in 1883 to a family of Alawite notables from al-Shayk ...
. Syria came under French Mandatory rule in 1923. In 1924, al-Haffah was promoted as the capital of the Sahyun ''
mantiqah Minṭaqah ( ; plural ) is a term used for a first-level administrative division in Saudi Arabia and Chad and for a second-level administrative division in several other Arab countries. It is often translated as ''region'' or ''district'', but th ...
'' (district), which had formerly been the nearby town of
Babanna Babna (, also spelled ''Babanna'' or ''Bab Ana'') is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the al-Haffah District, located northeast of Latakia and north of al-Haffah city. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, ...
. During this period, Sunni Muslims constituted 71% of the town's population, Christians 28% and Alawites 1%.


Post-Syrian independence

Through the 1950s, al-Haffah's influence extended north to
Jabal al-Akrad Jabal al-Akrad ( ''Jabal al-Akrād'', ''Mountain of the Kurds'') is a rural mountainous region with an elevation that ranges from above sea level, in northwestern Syria at the northern end of the Coastal Mountain Range or Jabal Ansariya. It is ...
, south to the Mahalibeh area and east to part of the Ghab Plain. In 1960, al-Haffah had a population of 2,750, of which 85% were Sunni Muslims and 15% were Christians. Although relatively small in size, it contained the typical characteristics of a city, namely government offices for religious and civil affairs and a gendarmerie battalion for policing the district. Further, it hosted the chief
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 ...
(market) of its mountainous district and its elites drew in the land rents of the surrounding countryside and dominated its trade network. The Agrarian Reform Laws of the 1960s diminished the rent incomes of the town's landowning notables, the bulk of whom eventually relocated to Latakia, especially its Saliba neighborhood, or
Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, though often keeping their homes in al-Haffah as summerhouses. The widening of the governorate capitals' power, in this case the
Latakia Governorate Latakia Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat al-Lādhiqīyah''), also transliterated as Ladhakia, is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay Province to the no ...
, on the one hand, and the creation of new districts in the countryside in 1967–1970, in this case the Qardaha District, weakened the influence of al-Haffah which lost a significant part of its traditional hinterland (al-Haffah District lost the Fakhura area, about 20% of the district's territory, to Qardaha District as well as Shatha, which became part of the
Hama Governorate Hama Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥamā'') is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in western-central Syria, bordering Idlib Governorate, Idlib and Aleppo Governorates to the north, Raqqa Gove ...
). According to the anthropologist
Fabrice Balanche Fabrice Balanche (born November 3, 1969, in Belfort, France) is a French geographer and specialist in the political geography and geopolitics of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and the wider Middle East. He was described by the Carnegie Endowment for Inter ...
, these factors explain the weak average annual population growth of 2% of al-Haffah between 1970 and 1981. Balanche also notes that the geography of the region, specifically the deep ravines which cut through east-west, hinders al-Haffah's potential, as many of its (subdistrict) towns, like
Kinsabba Kinsabba (, also spelled Kansaba) is a town in northwestern Syria administratively belonging to the Latakia Governorate, located northeast of Latakia. Nearby localities include Slinfah to the south, al-Haffah to the southwest, Balloran and Um ...
, Muzayraa and Ayn al-Tineh, connect more easily with the city of
Latakia Latakia (; ; Syrian Arabic, Syrian pronunciation: ) is the principal port city of Syria and capital city of the Latakia Governorate located on the Mediterranean coast. Historically, it has also been known as Laodicea in Syria or Laodicea ad Mar ...
, bypassing al-Haffah. Social differences also contribute to the weak commercial influence of al-Haffah on its district. Before the agrarian reforms, the Sunni notables of al-Haffah owned much of the mostly
Alawite Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate A ...
countryside villages, whose inhabitants were
sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...
s; while these villages benefited from the redistribution of the notables' lands, old resentments and persistent sectarian tensions deterred many Alawite villagers from visiting al-Haffah, except for administrative matters or visits to the weekly souk. By 1994 or 1997, the Christian proportion of the population had declined to 10%. Al-Haffah's commercial influence is presently limited to the mostly Sunni Muslim villages in its immediate vicinity, and it is economically dependent on the city of Latakia, with which it has more socioeconomic ties than with the localities in its district.


Syrian civil war

During the Syrian civil war, on 5 June 2012, al-Haffah was captured by rebels from the
Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA; ) is a Big tent, big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition (2011–2024), Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defe ...
, leading to eight days of heavy fighting and government shelling that ended when the rebels withdrew from the city. After government forces restored control over the city, UN observers reported severe damage in al-Haffah, with several homes, shops and government buildings, such as the post office, burnt and the hospital destroyed. The observers noted that the city appeared to have been deserted. In early March 2025, the town of Al-Haffah in Syria's Latakia province became a focal point of intense violence during clashes between government forces and insurgents loyal to the ousted Assad regime. On March 7, 2025, reports indicate that seven civilians were executed in the Al-Haffah district by government defense and security forces. These events were part of a broader series of massacres targeting Alawite communities in the region, resulting in significant civilian casualties and escalating sectarian tensions. The violence in Al-Haffah and surrounding areas drew international condemnation, with organizations like the United Nations calling for immediate investigations into potential war crimes. The massacres led to significant internal displacement, as thousands of Alawite civilians fled their homes seeking safety.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Haffah Cities in Syria Populated places in al-Haffah District