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Al-Rafid, Syria
Town in Quneitra, Syria From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Al-Rafid (Arabic: الرفيد) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Quneitra Governorate (Golan Heights), in the portion of the province under the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Rafid had a population of 2,263 in the 2004 census.[1] By June 2015, the population had increased to roughly 7,100 (of whom 3,100 were IDPs from the surrounding region).[2]
Transhumance shaped settlement in the Golan for centuries because of its harsh winters. The winters "forced tribespeople until the 19th century to live in hundreds of rudimentary 'winter villages' in their tribal territory. Starting in the second part of the 19th century, villages like al-Rafid became "fixed and formed the nucleus of fully sedentary life in the 20th century Golan."[3] The inhabitants largely belong to the Na'im tribe, which has been established in the Golan region since the 15th–16th centuries.[4]
The town has been claimed by pro-Assadist forces during the Syrian Civil War.[5]
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