Hibran, Syria Explained

Official Name:Hibran
Native Name:حبران
Native Name Lang:ar
Other Name:Hebran, Hubran
Pushpin Map:Syria
Pushpin Mapsize:250
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Governorate
Subdivision Name1:Suwayda
Subdivision Type2:District
Subdivision Name2:Suwayda
Subdivision Type3:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name3:Suwayda
Settlement Type:Village
Unit Pref:Metric
Population As Of:2004 census
Population Total:3,166
Timezone:EET
Utc Offset:+2
Timezone Dst:EEST
Utc Offset Dst:+3
Coordinates:32.6056°N 36.6392°W
Grid Position:303/224

Hibran, also spelled Hebran or Hubran (Arabic: حبران|Ḥibrān), is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Suwayda Governorate, located south of Suwayda. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Hibran had a population of 3,166 in the 2004 census.[1]

History

Hibran was noted in the 1596 Ottoman census under the name of Hubran an-Nasara, being located in the nahiya of Bani Nasiyya in the Liwa of Hawran. It had a population of 23 households and 14 bachelors; all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on various agricultural products, including wheat (=1500 akçe), barley (900), summer crops (900), goats and beehives (100); a total of 3,400 akçe.

Ottoman tax records indicate the revenues of Hibran were farmed out to Muhammad Alam al-Din, a Druze emir who fled Mount Lebanon in 1667, in 1669–1671.

According to the historian Kais Firro, Hibran was one of twenty-eight villages in the Hauran settled by Druze before 1812; in 1838 Hibran was noted as Druse village by Eli Smith.

The Druze chieftain Ismail al-Atrash encouraged further Druze migration to Hibran, among a number of other Hauran villages, from Mount Lebanon in the 1850s.

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: General Census of Population and Housing 2004 . 2013-01-12 . Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) . Arabic.