| Official Name: | Samad |
| Native Name: | صماد |
| Pushpin Map: | Syria |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 250 |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Governorate |
| Subdivision Name1: | Daraa |
| Subdivision Type2: | District |
| Subdivision Name2: | Daraa |
| Subdivision Type3: | Subdistrict |
| Subdivision Name3: | Bosra al-Sham |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Population As Of: | 2004 census |
| Population Total: | 3,098 |
| Timezone: | EET |
| Utc Offset: | +2 |
| Timezone Dst: | EEST |
| Utc Offset Dst: | +3 |
| Coordinates: | 32.4761°N 36.5211°W |
Samad (Arabic: صماد; transliteration: Ṣamād, also spelled Smad) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located east of Daraa and immediately southeast of Bosra. Other nearby localities include al-Qurayya to the northeast, Hout to the east and Dhibin to the southeast. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Samad had a population of 3,098 in the 2004 census.[1]
An inscription dating back was found in Samad dating back to the Roman era testifying that a "public speaker's rostrum" was built by the local Arab tribe of Daban (Dabanenoi) in the village of Samad.[2]
During the late Mamluk era in the 15th century, Samad was the home of the Samadiyya branch of the Qadiriyya Sufi order founded by a certain Shaykh Salim, a student of Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani (died 1166).[3] [4] Leadership of the Samadiyya order was hereditary and led by Shaykh Salim's descendants from their zawiya (Sufi lodge) in Samad.[3] [4] In 1520 the Samadiyya order's sheikh (religious leader) Muhammad ibn Khalil ibn Ali ibn Isa ibn Ahmad al-Samadi (1505–1541) gained an audience with the Ottoman sultan Selim I and secured imperial support for his order.[3] He also relocated its principal zawiya to the as-Salihiyya suburb of Damascus in 1520 and then erected a new principal zawiya in the Shaghur neighborhood in 1525.[3] The order was named after Samad and maintained its name after the move of its main headquarters to Damascus during the early Ottoman era.[3]
Samad is possibly the place named Garita al-Janahiyya in the 1596 tax registers, being part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Malik as-Sadir in the Qada Hauran. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 32 households and 13 bachelors. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 11,000 akçe.[5]
In 1838, it was noted as a ruin, Sumad, situated in "the Nukra [Hauran plain], south of Bosra".[6]
As of 1980, Samad was a village with an estimated population 1,500, consisting of eight clans.[7] Between 1925 and at least 1980, the office of shaykh al-balad (village headman) has been filled by members of the al-Shuyukh clan.[7]
. Hanna Batatu. Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics. Princeton University Press. 1999. 0691002541.