Kafr Batna (, also spelled Kfar Batna and Kafar Batna) is a town in the

Rif Dimashq Governorate Rif Dimashq Governorate (, Literal translation, lit. "Damascus Countryside Governorate" or "Damascus Suburb") is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the southwestern part of the country. ...

in southern

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 ...

and a suburb of

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 ...

.Burns, 2005, pp
14
15Siddique, Haroon
Syrian troops battle to retake Damascus suburbs
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. 2012-02-29. Retrieved on 2012-02-19. It is approximately east of the

Bab Sharqi Bab Sharqi (; "The Eastern Gate"), also known as the Gate of the Sun, is one of the seven ancient city gates of Damascus, Syria. Its modern name comes from its location in the eastern side of the city. The gate also gives its name to the Christ ...

neighborhood. Kafr Batna had a population of 22,535 in 2004.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Rif Dimashq Governorate.

History

Kafr Batna's name suggests it was previously an

Aramaean The Arameans, or Aramaeans (; ; , ), were a tribal Semitic people in the ancient Near East, first documented in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. Their homeland, often referred to as the land of Aram, originally covered cent ...

village during the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. During a

Qays Qays ʿAylān (), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe may not have functioned as a unit in pre-Islamic Arabia (before 630). However, by the ea ...

i revolt against the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

governor of Syria, Qaysi rebels led by Muhammad ibn Bayhas camped out in the town in 842 CE before proceeding to Damascus. There, they attracted the support of other villages in the Ghouta region which aided them in their failed insurrection.

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 ...

visited the town in 1226, 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, and described it as "a village in the Ghautah of Damascus, in the Iklim (District) of Da'iyyah." He also noted that some members of the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

tribe, which ruled Syria until the mid-8th-century, still lived in Kafr Batna. The

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

annexed Syria including Kafr Batna in the early 16th-century and continued to rule until 1918. By 1535, the settlement was home to 77 households and 6 bachelors. In the mid-18th-century, a prominent businessman and scholar from Hamah, Abd al-Qadir al-Kaylani, endowed large swathes of farmland property in Kafr Batna in a ''

waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...

'' (religious endowment) to be supervised by his wife al-Sharifa Rahmana. During the Ottoman period, a Sheikh Muhammad ibn Isa al-Qari' endowed a share of his vineyards in the town which was supervised by members of his family.

Syrian uprising

Some of Kafr Batna's inhabitants have participated on the side of the opposition during the Syrian uprising against the government in Syria. On 29 January 2012, Syrian Army tanks entered the suburb to force out rebels from the opposition

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 ...

(FSA) who were positioned there. Although it has not been verified, opposition activists reported that five FSA soldiers and 14 civilians, including at least one minor, were killed during the raid.Forces battle to retake Damascus suburbs
The Daily Star. 2012-01-30. Retrieved on 2012-02-19. On 4 February 2013, it was reported that the suburb was taken over by the rebels as part of a large push into the capital On 5 February 2018, the military launched airstrikes on the town. The attack killed 78 people, mostly civilians, including 19 children. On 17 March, the Syrian army captured Kafr Batna. Kafr Batna was recaptured by rebel forces in the 2024 Rebel Offensives and Fall of Damascus.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Google-map
{{Rif Dimashq Governorate, markaz Populated places in Markaz Rif Dimashq District Towns in Syria