Qastun (), also spelled Kastun or Kustun, is a village in northern

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 northwest 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 ...

and 35 kilometers southwest of

Idlib Idlib (, ; also spelt Idleb or Edlib) is a city in northwestern Syria, and is the capital of the Idlib Governorate. It has an elevation of nearly above sea level, and is southwest of Aleppo. It is located near the border with Turkey. History ...

. It is situated in the Ghab plain, on the eastern bank of 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 ...

. Nearby localities include al-Ziyarah to the west,

Qarqur Qarqur (, also spelled Qarqar or Karkour) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northwest of Hama. It is situated in the al-Ghab plain, on the eastern bank of the Orontes River. Nearby localities in ...

to the northwest, Farikah to the north, Maaratah to the northeast, al-Muzarah to the southeast and al-Ankawi to the south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Qastun had a population of 6,187 in the 2004 census, making it the largest locality in the al-Ziyarah sub-district (''

nahiyah 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 ...

'').General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Hama Governorate.

History

Qastun is identified as the ancient

Aramean 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 ce ...

town of Qattun or "Qatan" of 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 ...

. It is listed in an Assyrian text from Kultepe. The site of the ancient town is about 16 hectares and is spread between the two parts of Qastun i.e. Qastun al-Gharbi and Qastun al-Sharqi. The latter sits on an elevation 25 meters above the surrounding territory alongside the Qastun River. The Syrian geographer

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 Qastun 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 in 1225, noting that it was "a fortress that was in the district of Ar Ruj in the Halab (Aleppo) Province." During the conflict between the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

s (successors to the Ayyubids) and a

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

alliance, an elite Mongol force of some 1,500 soldiers raided Qastun in 1271, massacring and plundering its Turkoman inhabitants. In the Spring of 1298, a Mamluk army led by

al-Muzaffar III Mahmud Al-Muzaffar III Mahmud was the Kurdish Ayyubid emir of Hama from 1284 to 1300. He was the son of Al-Mansur Muhammad II whom he succeeded. Hama was at this time was ruled by a line of Kurdish Muslim princes from the Ayyubid dynasty and was also ...

, the Ayyubid vassal of

, launched a campaign to conquer Armenian-held

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

, but only reached Qastun, before being recalled to

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Modern era

When the nearby

Zeyzoun Dam The Zeyzoun Dam is a failed embankment dam near Zayzun, Hama Governorate, Syria. It impounded water pumped from the nearby Orontes River, which has been used for irrigation of the surrounding countryside for centuries. The dam was completed in 1 ...

collapsed in June 2002, floods destroyed and damaged hundreds of houses in Qastun and the nearby villages of Qarqur, al-Ziyarah and Zeizoun. According to the

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (also known as SOHR; ), founded in May 2006, is a United Kingdom-based information office whose stated aim is to document human rights abuses in Syria; since 2011 it has focused on the Syrian Civil War. ...

, a man was shot dead at a security checkpoint in Qastun on 4 September 2012, during the ongoing Syrian civil war. According to an opposition activist from Hama, 25 children were killed by shooting or stabbing in Qastun and nearby al-Aqbayr on 6 June 2012 by pro-government forces.Ahmad, Meher
Syrian Humanitarian Situation Sours
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. September 2012. Page. 65.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Hama Governorate, suqaylabiyah Populated places in al-Suqaylabiyah District Populated places in al-Ghab Plain