Baba Amr (/

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''Bâba ʿAmr'') is a city district (''hayy'') in southwestern

Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...

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 ...

. In 2004, it had a population of 34,175 (the ''hayy'' of Sultaniya which abuts Baba Amr to the south was also counted in this figure).General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate. Abutting Baba Amr and Sultaniya from the north and south respectively are the city districts of Inshaat and the village of Jobar. To the west are the villages of Aysun, Shalluh and al-Mazra'a and to the east is Homs'

Palestinian refugee camp Palestinian refugee camps were first established to accommodate Palestinians who were displaced by the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight during the 1948 Palestine war. Camps were established by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UN ...

History

Baba Amr was named after Amr ibn Abasah, who was buried in Homs. In the early 20th century, Baba Amr was a village in Orontes plain southwest of Homs. The modern district was formed largely as a result of

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

migration from the desert steppe east of Homs to the city's suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s. The Bedouin moved to the area due to land reforms by the

Ba'athist Ba'athism, also spelled Baathism, is an Arab nationalist ideology which advocates the establishment of a unified Arab state through the rule of a Ba'athist vanguard party operating under a revolutionary socialist framework. The ideology ...

government of leaders Salah Jadid and

Hafez al-Assad Hafez al-Assad (6 October 193010 June 2000) was a Syrian politician and military officer who was the president of Syria from 1971 until Death and state funeral of Hafez al-Assad, his death in 2000. He was previously the Prime Minister of Syria ...

which saw many semi-nomadic Bedouin settle in the suburbs of major cities. Most of Baba Amr's inhabitants self-identify as members of the

Mawali ''Mawlā'' (, plural ''mawālī'' ), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the te ...

and Hassana tribal confederations. The inhabitants are predominantly

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. During the Syrian Civil War, Baba Amr was the epicentre of fighting in the 2012 Homs offensive.

References

{{reflist Neighborhoods of Homs