Khabab () is a town located in southwest

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 the

Hauran The Hauran (; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, to the northeast by the al-Safa field, to the east and south by the Harrat ...

plain, part of the

Daraa Governorate Daraa Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ') is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the south-west of the country and covers an area of 2594 km2. It is bordered by Jordan to the south, Quneitra G ...

, 57 km (~36 miles) south 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 ...

and about the same distance from the city of

Daraa Daraa (, Levantine Arabic: ) is a city in southwestern Syria, north of the border with Jordan. It is the capital of Daraa Governorate in the Hauran region. Located south of Damascus on the Damascus–Amman highway, it serves as a way sta ...

. The old name of the town is ''Abiba'', which in

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

and Syriac means a plain green grass.

History

In 1596 Khabab appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as ''Habab'' and was part of the ''

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) of Bani Kilab in the Hauran Sanjak. It had a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

population consisting of 45 households and 30 bachelors, and 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 ...

population consisting of 3 households and 2 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives; a total of 12,800

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 209.

Demographics

Khabab had a population of 3,379 in 2004, according to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Daraa Governorate. The population inside the town is 8,000-10,000 (According to the seasons in summer most people return summer vacations) and around 40,000 who are living outside

, most of them are scattered between, France, United States, Canada,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and Australia and a number of Arab countries. - Population Growth: 1.01% - The proportion: Females 51%, Males 49%.

Religion

The population of Khabab is mostly made up of

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, in particular members of the

Melkite Greek Catholic Church The Melkite Greek Catholic Church (, ''Kanīsat ar-Rūm al-Malakiyyīn al-Kāṯūlīk''; ; ), also known as the Melkite Byzantine Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catho ...

. The latter’s Archeparchy of Bosra–Hauran has its see in the city's cathedral of the Dormition. Other churches include of Saint Rita and Saint Michael, plus a nunnery of the Besançon Charity Sisters.

Climate

Weather in Khabab follows the southern region of Syria, a moderate with a few waves of a cold winter and relatively hot in the summer. The climate in Khabab clearly shows the seasons sequence, summer the air tends to be heat during the day with a beautiful night with a dry breeze, and autumn begins with yellow leaves and cooler weather followed by cold winters, especially in the months of December and January and February, where spring begins with March. Rainfall average ~250 mm (till year 2000), temperature Min, Max (-4 Winter)-(38 Summer) C temperature average (4.4 Winter)-(30 Summer) C

Economy

The people in Khabab are farmers basically (as the most of southern Syria) reliance on agriculture was the only source of livelihood. In recent years, people's dependence on agriculture has remarkably dropped down for several reasons, including: * Dependency on rainfall and this affects the amount of the crop by the amount of rainfall and the most important rainfed crops are

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

and

lentil The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...

s. irrigation agriculture become commonly used for vegetables as:

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

es,

watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

s, etc., and common fruit trees as:

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

s became an important crop. * Most of the residents are employees in the public sector or the private sector, therefore, now monthly salary is the basic income source. * Youth migration to the main cities, especially the capital,

, and out-migration to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

region or Europe or America or Australia, and the youth generation in the town are no longer interested in following in the life pattern of their parents and grandparents, concerning agriculture. * The dispute over large areas of the town between the residents and the Bedouin who used to work for the residents of Khabab, and moved to the area between 1910 and 1918, this issues affected the agricultural activity, but the problem of the land has not been solved yet, and this is what makes many residents do not trust the future of agriculture in the town of Khabab anymore * That a number of people head to work in the areas of commercial and industrial.

Education and culture

The literacy rate is one of the highest levels in Syria, to the attention of the people in education, there are a large number of distinctive competencies of the people of the village .. The school was that follow the Archdiocese and the monastery the most important reasons to encourage the education and science in khabab as well as the surrounding villages. There are seven schools in the town, distributed as follows: kindergarten, two schools of basic education (primary) and four of middle and high stage. There is a high number of intellectuals and teachers work in the villages and cities of the province

Public infrastructure

Khabab have many public facilities as health clinic and a hospital under construction, a police station, a public consumer shop, and a train station.

References

Bibliography

Sources

khabab.net

External links

Map of town
Google Maps

Mesmiye-map; 19M
{{Authority control Populated places in Al-Sanamayn District Melkite Christian communities in Syria