Qarfa

Qarfa قرفــا
Village
Qarfa
Coordinates: 32°48′55″N 36°12′5″E
Grid position	262/247 PAL
Country	Syria
Governorate	Daraa Governorate
District	Izra District
Nahiyah	Al-Shaykh Maskin
Population  (2004 census)[1]
• Total	4,885
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Qarfa (Arabic: قرفــا, also spelled Garfa or Kurfa) is a village in southern Syria, administratively belonging to the Izra' District of the Daraa Governorate. Nearby localities include al-Shaykh Maskin to the northwest, Izra to the northeast, Maliha al-Atash to the east, Namir to the southeast, Khirbet Ghazaleh to the south and Abtaa to the southwest. In the 2004 census by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Qarfa had a population of 4,885.[1]

History

Inside a private house in Qarfa a Greek inscription dedicating a church to Saint Bacchus was discovered. The inscription was dated to 589-590 CE and written on a stone lintel decorated with a cross.[2]

Ottoman era

In 1596, Qarfa appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Bani Malik al-Asraf in the Hawran Qada. It had a population of 42 households and 15 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, and goats or beehives, a total of 6,451 akçe. 5/24 of the revenue went to a Waqf[3]

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village (Kurfa) in the Nukrah district, east of Al-Shaykh Maskin.[4]

Modern era

On 13 August 1962 a tribal feud in Qarfa between the al-Makayed and al-Manasser clans resulted in five people being wounded. The fighting was a result of old rivalries. Security forces arrested several people from the town and the wounded were evacuated to the hospital.[5]

During the ongoing Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, opposition rebels from the Free Syrian Army attacked a petrol station in Qarfa, killing a relative of high-ranking government official Rustum Ghazaleh in early January 2013.[6]

Notable people

• Rustum Ghazaleh (1953–2015), Head of Syrian Political Security Directorate

References

1. General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Daraa Governorate. (in Arabic)
2. Chaniotis, 2003, p. 521.
3. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 212
4. Smith; in Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Second appendix, B, p. 152
5. Mideast Mirror. 14. Arab News Agency. (1962). Page 20.
6. FSA kills relative of Syrian security chief in Deraa. Al Arabiya. 2013-01-05.

Bibliography

• Chaniotis, A. (2003). Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Vol. 50. BRILL Academic Publications. ISBN 9050634087.
• Hütteroth, W.-D.; Abdulfattah, K. (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
• 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.

External links

• Map of the town, Google Maps
• Cheikh Meskine-map; 21L