Qarfa

Qarfa (Arabic: قرفــا) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Izraa District in the Daraa Governorate. Nearby localities include ash-Shaykh Miskin to the northwest, Izraa to the northeast, Mlaihat al-Atash to the east, Namer to the southeast, Khirbet Ghazaleh to the south and Abtaa to the southwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Qarfa had a population of 4,885 in the 2004 census.^[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Sunni Muslims.

Qarfa قرفــا
Town
Qarfa
Coordinates: 32°48′55″N 36°12′5″E
Grid position	262/247 PAL
Country	Syria
Governorate	Daraa
District	Izraa
Nahiyah	Shaykh Miskin
Population  (2004 census)[1]
• Total	4,885
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

History

Inside a private house in Qarfa a Greek inscription dedicating a church to Saint Bacchus was discovered. The inscription was dated to 589-590 CE and written on a stone lintel decorated with a cross.^[2]

Ottoman era

In 1596, Qarfa appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Bani Malik al-Asraf in the Hawran Qada. It had a population of 42 households and 15 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, and goats or beehives, a total of 6,451 akçe. 5/24 of the revenue went to a Waqf^[3]

In 1838, it was noted as a Sunni Muslim village (Kurfa) in the Nukrah district, east of ash-Shaykh Miskin.^[4]

Modern era

On 13 August 1962 a tribal feud in Qarfa between the al-Makayed and al-Manasser clans resulted in five people being wounded. The fighting was a result of old rivalries. Security forces arrested several people from the town and the wounded were evacuated to the hospital.^[5]

Civil War

Main article: Syrian civil war

During the ongoing civil war, which began in 2011, opposition rebels from the Free Syrian Army attacked a petrol station in Qarfa, resulting in the death of a relative of high-ranking government official Rustum Ghazaleh in early January 2013.^[6]

Religious buildings

• The Old Mosque
• Sayyida Aisha Mosque (formerly known as the Islamic Unity Mosque)
• Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf Mosque (formerly known as the Bassel al-Assad Mosque)

Notable people

• Rustum Ghazaleh (1953–2015), Head of Syrian Political Security Directorate