Al-Suqaylabiyah
Al-Suqaylabiyah
السقيلبية | |
|---|---|
  Al-Suqaylabiyah Location in Syria | |
| Coordinates: 35°22′11″N 36°22′48″E / 35.36972°N 36.38000°E | |
| Country | Syria |
| Governorate | Hama |
| District | Al-Suqaylabiyah |
| Subdistrict | Al-Suqaylabiyah |
| Control |  Syrian opposition |
| Elevation | 220 m (720 ft) |
| Population (2004) | |
• Total | 17,313 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | +3 |
Al-Suqaylabiyah (Arabic: السقيلبية, romanized: As Suqailabiya) is a Greek Orthodox Christian Syrian city administratively belonging to Hama Governorate. Al-Suqaylabiyah is located at a height of 220 meters above sea level. According to the 2004 official census, the town has a population of 17,313.
History
[edit]The name goes back to the ancient Seleucia ad Belum, a town of Hellenistic foundation that was located almost at the same place. The site was abandoned during the Middle Ages.
Ottoman period
[edit]Suqaylabiyah was listed as an uninhabited or ruined village in 1838.[1] It was reestablished later in the 19th century by Greek Orthodox Christians who had emigrated from the Hauran region in southern Syria in the late 18th century to escape persecution by the Ottoman authorities. The emigrants first settled in Ayn al-Kurum, in the foothills of the largely Alawite Jabal Ansariya mountains, before moving down to the site of al-Suqaylabiyah. The Hauran Christians were joined in this enterprise by several Christian families originally from the Jabal Ansariya.[2] During the 1860 Syrian Civil War, local Bedouin tribes attacked al-Suqaylabiyah.[3]
French Mandatory period
[edit]In 1933, al-Suqaylabiyah was a relatively large village of 3,400 inhabitants.[2]
Post-independence
[edit]In July 2020, the Syrian government announced a plan to build a replica of the Hagia Sophia in al-Suqaylabiyah with Russian assistance as a reaction to its transformation into a mosque by Turkish authorities.[4] Two years later, in July 2022, a missile attack during the church inauguration ceremony claimed two lives and left a dozen others injured.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ Robinson & Smith 1841, p. 178.
- ^ a b Comité de l'Asie française 1933, p. 132.
- ^ Douwes 2000, p. 38.
- ^ "Russia to fund small-scale replica Hagia Sophia in Syria that will be used as a church". The Art Newspaper. 6 August 2020.
- ^ سوريا.. قتلى وجرحى بقصف استهدف حفل افتتاح كنيسة "آيا صوفيا" (in Arabic). Alhurra. 24 July 2022.
Bibliography
[edit]- Comité de l'Asie française (April 1933). "Notes sur la propriété foncière dans le Syrie centrale (Notes on Landownership in Central Syria)". Bulletin du Comité de l'Asie française (in French). 33 (309). Comité de l'Asie française: 131–137.
- Douwes, Dick (2000). The Ottomans in Syria: a history of justice and oppression. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1860640311.
- Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
