Ma'an, Syria

Ma'an (Arabic: معان, also spelled Maan) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located north of Hama. Nearby localities include Suran to the southwest, Murik to the northwest, al-Tamanah to the north, Atshan to the northeast, Tuleisa to the east, Fan al-Shamali to the southeast and Kawkab to the south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Ma'an had a population of 1,561 in the 2004 census.^[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Alawites.^[2]

Ma'an معان
Town
Ma'an Location in Syria
Coordinates: 35.359586°N 36.795702°E / 35.359586; 36.795702
Country	Syria
Governorate	Hama
District	Hama
Subdistrict	Suran
Control	Syrian Salvation Government
Population  (2004)
• Total	1,561
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

History

Ma'an was sold by the Mawali, a semi-Bedouin tribe in central Syria, to the Kaylani notable family of Hama. The inhabitants of Ma'an, as of the early 1930s, were Sunni Muslim Arab tenant farmers.^[3] By a later point, the majority of the inhabitants were Alawites.^[4] The Kaylani family sold it to a citizen of Lebanon, who later sold most of its lands to the local farmers before the 1958 Agrarian Reform Laws, which redistributed lands to the peasants across Syria.^[5] The palace of the original owner the village remains standing. Built of basaltic stone, it consists of two stories and contains warehouses, stables, kitchens and a courtyard.^[5]

The village was connected to the electric grid in 1977. In 1990, a municipality was established to administer the village. As of 2010, pistachio orchards spanned about 80% of Ma'an's lands and pistachio, olive and grape cultivation and poultry farming represented the village's main economic activity.^[5]

In late December 2012, during the Syrian civil war, Islamist rebel fighters from the al-Nusra Front took over large parts of the town as part of a wider offensive in the Hama Governorate. During the battle, 11 rebels and 20 Syrian Army soldiers were killed.^[2] It was the site of the Maan massacre in 2014. On 13 October 2016 the town was recaptured by the Syrian Arab Army.^[6]