Aqrab (, also spelled Akrab) is a village in central

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

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 ...

, located southwest of

Hama Hama ( ', ) is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located north of Damascus and north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one o ...

. Nearby localities include Nisaf and Baarin to the west, Awj to the southwest, Qarmas to the south, Taldou and Houla to the southeast, Talaf and the subdistrict (''

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, 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 divisi ...

'') center Hirbnafsah to the east, Bisin and Jidrin to the northeast and al-Bayyadiyah to the northwest.

History

According to the Ottoman Defter records, the population of the village increased from 10 households in 1526 to 39 households by 1594. In an Ottoman government record from 1818, Aqrab was listed as one of two Turkmen villages belonging to the Qirra ('Villages') Khaliliyya; the other village was neighboring Ik'una and the two villages together consisted of 49

feddan A feddan () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the feddan is the only n ...

s and paid 10,350 qirsh in taxes, as well as 7,380 qirsh in illegal exactions to the mutasallim of

, Faraj Agha. At the time, the '' multazims'' (tax farmers) of Aqrab were locals from the village. In 1838, it was recorded as a

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 ...

village. In the late 19th or early 20th centuries, Aqrab's inhabitants sold all or most of their lands to the urban notables of Hama, turning its small landowners into tenant farmers. By the early 1930s, the prominent Kaylani family of Hama were the village's owners and the inhabitants were largely Sunni Muslim Turkmens. The urban landowners of Hama, referred to as " feudalists" in a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

report, continued to own Aqrab as late as 1958.

Syrian civil war

Since the beginning of the ongoing Syrian civil war in 2011, several Alawite families threatened by Sunni rebel fighters have fled Aqrab for nearby predominantly Alawite villages such as Baarin. On 11 December 2012, bomb attacks in the village left between 125-200Up to 200 hurt in attack on Syrian Alawite village - activists
'' The Daily Star''. 2012-12-11. Originally published by ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

''. civilians dead or wounded according to opposition activists. Most of the casualties were reportedly Alawites,Scores reportedly killed in Syria's Hama
''

Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language News broadcasting, news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is ...

''. 2012-12-11. and local witnesses blamed FSA rebels from Houla and

al-Rastan Al-Rastan () is the third largest city in the Homs Governorate, located north of its administrative capital Homs and from Hama. Nearby localities include Talbiseh and al-Ghantu to the south, al-Zaafaraniyah and al-Mashrafah to the southeast, Mur ...

for the killings.

Demographics

According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Aqrab had a population of 8,422 in the 2004 census, making it the largest locality in the Hirbnafsah ''nahiyah''.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Hama Governorate. The population of Aqrab is roughly two-thirds

, with the remainder being

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 ...

s. Many of Aqrab's Sunni inhabitants are of Turkmen descent. The Alawite inhabitants live mostly in the enclave of Jbeili where they make up about 200 families.Rosen, Nir
A Tale of Two Syrian Villages: Part two
''

Al-Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; , ) is a 24-hour English-language news channel operating under Al Jazeera Media Network, which is funded by the government of Qatar. Al Jazeera introduced an English-language division in 2006. It is the first global E ...

'' (AJE). 2011-10-26. By August of 2018, the total population of Aqrab had declined to between 4,000 and 5,000 people.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Hama Governorate, hama Populated places in Hama District Turkmen communities in Syria