Official Name: | Muhasan |
Native Name: | Arabic: مُوحَسَّن |
Pushpin Map: | Syria |
Pushpin Mapsize: | 250 |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Type1: | Governorate |
Subdivision Name1: | Deir ez-Zor |
Subdivision Type2: | District |
Subdivision Name2: | Deir ez-Zor |
Subdivision Type3: | Subdistrict |
Subdivision Name3: | al-Muhasan |
Unit Pref: | Metric |
Population As Of: | 2004 census |
Population Total: | 9501 |
Timezone: | EET |
Utc Offset: | +2 |
Timezone Dst: | EEST |
Utc Offset Dst: | +3 |
Coordinates: | 35.2394°N 40.3244°W |
Muhasan (Arabic: مُوحَسَّن|al-Mūh̨assan, also spelled al-Mohassan or Almu Hasan) is a town in eastern Syria, administratively part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, located along the Euphrates River, south of Deir ez-Zor and 120 kilometers west of the border with Iraq. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Muhasan had a population of 9,501 in the 2004 census.[1]
In the early 1950s the Syrian Communist Party began gaining support in several Arab and Sunni Muslim towns in the country, including Muhasan which came to be locally known as "Little Moscow," in reference to capital of the former Soviet Union. In the summer of 1953 the peasant tribesmen of the al-Aqaydat tribe initiated resistance against the encroachments of a regionally powerful mercantile clan specializing in the grain trade, money lending and gas pumps and having one of their own as Minister of Agriculture. Under guidance from communist teachers in Deir ez-Zor and local communist activists from the town's primary school, the peasant musha ("collective farming") landholders formed a public company and purchased two gas pumps and two tractors with domestically raised funds, thereby ending their dependence on the wealthy clan.[2]