Kafr Buhum
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Kafr Buhum (; also transliterated ''Kfarbuhum'' and ''Kafr Bihem''), commonly referred to as Kfarbo (), is a town 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
al-Rabiaa Al-Rabiaa (, also spelled al-Rabie or Rabi'a) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, west of Hama. Nearby localities include Tayzin and Matnin to the east, Kafr al-Tun to the north, Umm al-Tuyur to t ...
and Matnin to the northwest,
Tayzin Tayzin (, also spelled Tizin) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located just west of Hama. Nearby localities include Matnin to the north, al-Rabiaa to the southwest, Umm al-Tuyur to the west, Kafr ...
to the north, al-Khalidiyah to the east, Tell Qartal to the southeast, Birin to the south and al-Muah to the southwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Kafr Buhum had a population of 12,194 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Hama Governorate.
Its inhabitants are predominantly Christian.Socin, 1912, p. 371. It is 330 meters (1082 ft) above the sea level.


History


Ottoman period

Kafr Buhum was the birthplace of Patriarch
Ignatius III Atiyah Patriarch Ignatius III Atiyah (died 1634) was Melkite Patriarch of Antioch from 1619 to 1634. The first years of his patriarchate were marked by the split of the Melkite Church in two factions, a situation that lasted till the Synod of Ras-Baalbe ...
of 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 ...
(). In the mid-17th century, the village was noted as wealthy and had a population of 1,025 men, according to Patriarch
Macarius III Ibn al-Za'im Patriarch Macarius (or Makarios) III Ibn al-Za'im (; born Yousef Za'im, died 1672) was Patriarch of Antioch from 1647 to 1672. He led a period of blossoming of his Church and is also remembered for his travels in Russia and for his involvement in ...
(). Due to its access to irrigation from the
Orontes River The Orontes (; from Ancient Greek , ) or Nahr al-ʿĀṣī, or simply Asi (, ; ) is a long river in Western Asia that begins in Lebanon, flowing northwards through Syria before entering the Mediterranean Sea near Samandağ in Hatay Province, Turk ...
, Kafr Buhum was one of the cotton-growing villages of the Hama region in the 18th century. The date of the Monastery of St. George in Kafr Buhum is not known, though its oldest dated manuscript, penned by a local deacon, is from 1805. By the 19th century, during Ottoman rule (1516–1918), Kafr Buhum was one of the older-established villages in the environs 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 ...
. In a tax record from 1828–1829, it consisted of 72
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, making it one of the largest villages in 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 ...
. Kafr Buhum and
Maharda Maharda (, ; also transliterated ''Mhardeh'', ''Muhardah'', ''Mahardah'' or ''Mharda'') is a Christian city in western Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located about 23 kilometers northwest of Hama. It is situated along the O ...
, the two large Christian villages of the area, paid the
jizya Jizya (), or jizyah, is a type of taxation levied on non-Muslim subjects of a state governed by Sharia, Islamic law. The Quran and hadiths mention jizya without specifying its rate or amount,Sabet, Amr (2006), ''The American Journal of Islamic Soc ...
(poll tax for Christians), though this accounted for 2% of its overall taxes, suggesting a relative clemency by the authorities on the rural Christian communities at that time. Kafr Buhum contained a small Jewish community earlier during Ottoman rule but most had emigrated by the mid-19th century; Aleppine Jews maintained commercial interests in the village up to the mid-1830s. Kafr Buhum was also invested in by the urban elite of Hama, including the agha Abdallah Agha Tayfur, in the early 1840s.


Post-Syrian independence

In 1961 a cement factory was built in Kafr Buhum and at the time of its nationalization later in the decade it employed about 260 workers. Kafr Buhum's bid to become its own ''
nahiya 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 ...
'' (subdistrict) center, instead of part of
Hama Nahiyah Hama Subdistrict () is a Syrian nahiyah (subdistrict) located in Hama District in Hama. As of July 2023, the sub-district had a population of 750,640, of whom 162,258 (21.62%) were IDPs. Following Fall of the Assad regime the Subdistrict is now co ...
, was denied in 1991 due to opposition from the local administration of Hama city, which sought to avoid a weakening of its administrative influence in the area.


References


Bibliography

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Further reading

* Saloum, Sorgham Saloum (2000) . ''Kafr Buhum: Past and Present'' {{Hama Governorate, hama Populated places in Hama District Towns in Hama Governorate Eastern Orthodox Christian communities in Syria