City in Daraa, Syria
Nawa
(
Arabic
:
??????
,
romanized
:
Naw?
) is a city in
Syria
, administratively belonging to the
Daraa Governorate
. It has an altitude of 568 meters (1,864 ft). In 2007 it had a population of 59,170, making it the 28th largest city per geographical entity
[
clarification needed
]
in Syria.
During
classical antiquity
, it was known as Neve - a name encountereded by the
Bordeaux Pilgrim
in 333-334 and still mentioned by
Abulfeda
(1273?1331) in
Mamluk
times - or Naveh, and was part of the
Roman province
of
Arabia Petraea
.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
In the
Byzantine period
it was a Jewish city.
[5]
History
[
edit
]
Roman and Byzantine periods
[
edit
]
During the Roman and
Byzantine
periods, Nawa had a large
Jewish
population.
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
The city is mentioned in ancient Jewish sources, such as the 3rd century
Mosaic of Rehob
and the
Midrash Rabba
; it is also referred to by
George of Cyprus
("Descriptio orbis romani", ed.
Heinrich Gelzer
, 54) in the 7th century.
[1]
Numerous
basalt
architectural elements from the Byzantine period, bearing Jewish symbols?most prominently the
menorah
?were discovered reused as
spolia
within Nawa (A. Reifenberg, 'Ancient Hebrew Arts', 1952).
[
clarification needed
]
Early Islamic period
[
edit
]
Under the
Islamic
caliphates
of the
Rashidun
,
Umayyads
, and
Abbasids
, it was a part of
Jund Dimashq
and the principal city of
Hauran
.
Al-Mas'udi
wrote in 943 that a
mosque
dedicated to
Job
was located 5 kilometres (3 mi) from Nawa.
[6]
Ayyubid period
[
edit
]
By the 13th century, its status declined;
Yaqut al-Hamawi
recorded in 1225 that Nawa was "a small town of the Hauran," formerly the capital of the region. He describe it as the city where Job dwelled in and the burial place of
Shem
, the son of
Noah
.
[7]
In 1233, Imam
Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi
, a prominent
Muslim
scholar, was born in the city.
[8]
Ottoman period
[
edit
]
In 1596 Nawa appeared in the
Ottoman
tax registers
as
Nawi
and was part of the
nahiya
of Jaydur in the
Hauran Sanjak
. It had an entirely
Muslim
population consisting of 102 households and 43 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on
wheat
,
barley
, summer crops, goats and/or beehives; a total of 26,000
akce
.
[9]
Syrian civil war
[
edit
]
In July 2018, the citizens of Nawa were subject to heavy Syrian government and Russian military bombardment, in an effort to rid the city from its anti-government forces.
[10]
Geography
[
edit
]
Climate
[
edit
]
Al-Shirqat has a
cold semi-arid climate
(
Koppen climate classification
BSk
). Most rain falls in the winter. About 308 mm (12.13 in) of precipitation falls annually.
Climate data for Nawa
|
Month
|
Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jul
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Nov
|
Dec
|
Year
|
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)
|
13.4
(56.1)
|
15.0
(59.0)
|
18.9
(66.0)
|
23.5
(74.3)
|
28.4
(83.1)
|
31.9
(89.4)
|
34.0
(93.2)
|
34.0
(93.2)
|
31.7
(89.1)
|
27.5
(81.5)
|
20.8
(69.4)
|
15.4
(59.7)
|
24.5
(76.2)
|
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)
|
3.6
(38.5)
|
4.4
(39.9)
|
6.8
(44.2)
|
9.8
(49.6)
|
13.8
(56.8)
|
16.8
(62.2)
|
18.7
(65.7)
|
19.3
(66.7)
|
17.7
(63.9)
|
14.9
(58.8)
|
9.5
(49.1)
|
5.4
(41.7)
|
11.7
(53.1)
|
Average
precipitation
mm (inches)
|
70
(2.8)
|
65
(2.6)
|
45
(1.8)
|
21
(0.8)
|
9
(0.4)
|
1
(0.0)
|
0
(0)
|
0
(0)
|
2
(0.1)
|
10
(0.4)
|
29
(1.1)
|
56
(2.2)
|
308
(12.1)
|
Source: Climate-Data.org,Climate data
|
Ecclesiastical history
[
edit
]
The bishopric of Neve (Nawa) was a
suffragan
of
Bostra
, the
metropolitan see
of Arabia Petraea. Two of its bishops are known:
Isaac, mentioned by
Le Quien
as a third bishop, of about 540 (
Oriens christiana
, II, 864), was a bishop not of Neve but of
Nineve
, and lived at the end of the seventh century ("Echos d'Orient", IV, 11).
[1]
The Diocese of Neve is noticed in the
Notitia episcopatuum
of the patriarchate of
Antioch
in the 6th century ("Echos d'Orient", X, 145).
[1]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Vailhe, Simeon (1911).
"Neve"
.
Catholic Encyclopedia
. Vol. 10. New York.
{{
cite encyclopedia
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
a
b
Midrash Rabba
(
Lamentations Rabba
1:60).
- ^
a
b
Goodman, Martin (2002),
Jews in a Graeco-Roman World
, Clarendon Press: Oxford, p. 70
ISBN
0-19-815078-4
.
- ^
a
b
Huttenmeister and Reeg (1977),
Die antiken Synagogen in Israel
('The Ancient Synagogues in Israel', in German), vol. 1, Wiesbaden, pp. 336?339
ISBN
3920153685
.
- ^
a
b
c
Schumacher, G.
;
Oliphant, L.
;
Le Strange, G.
(1886). "Nawa".
Across the Jordan; being an exploration and survey of part of Hauran and Jaulan
. New York: Scribner and Welford. pp. 167-180 (see 172-
174
)
. Retrieved
3 June
2024
.
- ^
Le Strange, 1890,
p.515
- ^
le Strange, 1890,
p.516
- ^
Yahya ibn Sharaf
al-Nawawi
(d. 676/1277)
- ^
Hutteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 207
- ^
"Syrian city Nawa bombarded in deadly campaign after reconciliation talks fail"
. Associated Press. 18 July 2018
. Retrieved
18 July
2018
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Izra
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Hirak
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Jasim
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Nawa
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Shaykh Maskin
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Daraa
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