Mount Abdulaziz or ''Abd al-Aziz'' () is a mountain ridge located in the southwestern part of the Hasakah Governorate, some 35 km west-south-west from the center of the city of Hasakah, in northeastern

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 ...

. The mountain has taken its name after Abdul Aziz, a descendant of

Abdul-Qadir Gilani Abdul Qadir Gilani (; ; c. 1077/78 – 1166) was a Hanbali scholar, preacher, and Sufi leader who was the eponym of the Qadiriyya, one of the oldest Sufi orders. He was born c. 1077/78 in the town of Na'if, Rezvanshahr in Gilan, Persia, a ...

and military commander in

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

's army who had once taken the mountain as a fortified place. The former name of the mountain was ''ʾAl-Ḥiyāl'' الحيال. The mount is currently under the control of Kurdish YPG forces who captured it in May 2015 from the

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

(IS).

Geography

The mountain extends from east to west and has a length of 85 km, a width of 15 km, and an area of 84,050 hectares. Jabal Abdulaziz consists of a series of hills and valleys with heights between 300 and 932 meters. It is the sole topographic elevation in Northeast Syria. The nearest topographic elevation are the Bishri mountains to the south-west. To the east, the Sinjar mountain range begins in Iraq.

Geology

The surroundings of Mount Abdulaziz have been surveyed in view of establishing an oil industry several times. In 1949 the Iraqi Oil Company conducted drillings to the west of the mountain. Through the International Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation of 1958 between the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the

Syrian Arab Republic 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 ...

(SAR), high ranking soviet geologists mapped the area.

Rompetrol Rompetrol is a petroleum, crude oil development, producer, and refiner based in Romania. It also markets and distributes refined petroleum products through its chain of gasoline and diesel fuel stations. Established as a state-owned company in ...

of Romania conducted several drillings to collect seismic data in the south of Mount in the 1970s.

Population

In the Ottoman era, the area was transiently populated by nomadic Arab herders who wandered the arid plains between the ridge and the area of

Mardin Mardin (; ; romanized: ''Mārdīn''; ; ) is a city and seat of the Artuklu District of Mardin Province in Turkey. It is known for the Artuqids, Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris ...

(now in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

). With the post-Ottoman establishment of the Syro-Turkish border and the increasing promotion of sedentary agriculture by colonial and state authorities, these tribes began to be forced to permanently settle during the French Mandate, with the first permanent settlement established in the 1950s. As of 2007, there are around twenty villages and thirty smaller farming settlements scattered around the foot of the ridge with a total population of between 13,000 and 15,000 individuals. All of the inhabitants of the area are Arabs of the Baqqarat al-Jabal tribe, save for one village of the Sayyad tribe (which has integrated with the former). It is one of the poorest areas in Syria, largely due to arid conditions and exacerbated by land use restrictions in place around the nature reserve established on the mountain. Many inhabitants have migrated to Hasakah city and the nearby town of Tall Tamer to seek better conditions.

References

Mountain ranges of Syria Geography of Al-Hasakah Governorate {{AlHasakahSY-geo-stub

Geography

Geology

Population

See also

References