Dhibin (Arabic: ذيبين; also spelled Dhaybin or Thibin) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Salkhad District of the al-Suwayda Governorate. It is located south of al-Suwayda, near the southern border with Jordan. Nearby localities include Bakka to the north, Salkhad to the northeast, Umm al-Rumman to the east, Samaj to the west and Samad to the northwest. In the 2004 census it had a population of 2,562. It is the administrative center of the Dhibin Nahiyah, which consisted of three villages with a collective population of 6,900 in 2004.[1]

Dhibin
ذيبين
Dhaybin, Thibin
Village
Dhibin is located in Syria
Dhibin
Dhibin
Location in Syria
Coordinates: 32°26′13″N 36°33′53″E / 32.43694°N 36.56472°E / 32.43694; 36.56472
Grid position297/205
Country Syria
GovernorateAs-Suwayda
DistrictSalkhad
SubdistrictDhibin
Population
 (2004)
 • Total2,562

History

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Dhibin was a mainly grain-growing village in the late 16th century, during Ottoman rule.[2] In the Ottoman tax registers of 1596, it was a village located the nahiya (subdistrict) of Butayna, in the Qadaa of Hauran. It had a population of twelve households and four bachelors, all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,000 akçe.[3]

By the early 19th century, the village had been abandoned like many of the other villages of Jabal Hauran due to Bedouin depredations.[2] Druze migrants from other parts of Syria populated the villages of Jabal Hauran by the 1860s. Dhibin became part of the sheikhdom of the Bani al-Atrash clan under the leadership of Ismail al-Atrash between 1860 and 1867.[4] The inhabitants of Dhibin moved to annex and seasonally inhabit the village of Umm el-Jimal (in modern-day Jordan) in 1909.[5] Dhibin's families divided the ruins of its ancient houses among themselves in 1910.[5] They lived there on and off until around 1930, when they permanently abandoned Umm al-Jimal.[5] Dhibin was the birthplace of Salim Hatum, a Syrian Army officer and key participant in the Baathist-led 1966 Syrian coup d'état.[6]

Archaeology

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Funerary material from the Middle Bronze Age has been found at Dhibin.[7] A mid-4th-century inscription on a ruined building recording the name of Roman emperor Valentinian I has been found in the village as well.[8]

References

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  1. ^ "General Census of Population 2004". Retrieved 2014-07-10.
  2. ^ a b Brown 2009, p. 379
  3. ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 215
  4. ^ Firro, 1992, p. 190
  5. ^ a b c Brown 2009, p. 383
  6. ^ Batatu, 1999, p. 338
  7. ^ Akkermans and Schwartz, 2003, p. 319
  8. ^ Kennedy, 2004, p. 76

Bibliography

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