Besirin (; also transliterated ''Bsirin'' or ''Bsarin'') 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 District Hama District ( ') is a district ( mantiqah) administratively belonging to Hama Governorate, Syria. At the time of the 2023 Census, it had a population of 1,054,000 Its administrative centre is the city of Hama. It is now controlled by the Syrian ...

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 Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Besirin had a population of 4,697 in the 2004 census.

History

Besirin was mentioned as the hometown of an Orthodox Christian scribe named 'Mattai' on three Syriac manunscripts he produced, which were dated to 1294, 1295 and 1297. In the mid-16th century, Besirin had a

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 ...

community following the

Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (), also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Rum (endonym), Rūm Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (), is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox church within the wider ...

. According to the Ottoman

Defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

record of the

Hama Sanjak The Hama Sanjak () was a prefecture (sanjak) of the Ottoman Empire, located in modern-day Syria. The city of Hama was the Sanjak's capital. It had a population of 200,410 in 1914. The Sanjak of Hama shared same region with Sanjak of Homs and Sanjak ...

taken in 1594, the village was an entirely Christian settlement home to 134 households and 11 bachelors. 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.

References

Bibliography

* * * Populated places in Hama District {{HamaSY-geo-stub