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Sahwet al-Khudr

Village in Suwayda, Syria From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Sahwet al-Khudr (Arabic: سهوة الخضر, also spelled Sahwet al-Khidr or Sahwet el-Khodar) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Suwayda District of the Suwayda Governorate, located south of Suwayda. According to the 2004 census, it had a population of 3,625.[1] The village is named after a Byzantine-era church named dedicated to Saint George (known by local Druze as "al-Khudr"). It was resettled by Druze in the mid-19th century after a period of abandonment. Its inhabitants are predominantly Druze.[2]

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History

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This village is probably the center of Biblical "Kedar," a regional nation of nomadic shepherd-people who inhabited the general area.[3] The 19th century German visionary Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich mentions "Cedar" as also being a city, presumably this city (as verified by her detailed descriptions), to which Jesus visited, so she says, on an historically unrecorded journey.[4]

Sahwet al-Khudr receives its name from an ancient Byzantine church dedicated to Saint George, who is identified with "al-Khudr" by Muslims. An inscription on a monument in the church dates back to 306 CE.[5]

Ottoman era

In 1596 it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers under the name of Sahut al-Qamh, located in the Nahiya of Bani Nasiyya of the Qada of Hawran. The population was 142 households and 54 bachelors, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 40 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, goats and beehives; in addition to occasional revenues and a water mill; a total of 31,300 akçe.[6]

In 1838 Eli Smith noted that the place was located South of Juneineh and that it was in ruins.[7] Sahwet al-Khudr had been abandoned for a time, but was settled by Druze between 1857 and 1860 at the encouragement of Ismail al-Atrash, a prominent Druze sheikh (chieftain) in the Hauran.[8] In the mid-19th-century, Albert Socin, a European orientalist noted that Sahwat al-Khudr was "a dilapidated town with a castle and a church" surrounded by a forested area. The shrine of al-Khudr in the village was revered by all the religious sects of the vicinity.[9]

Modern era

In the late 1960s, French geographer Robert Boulanger described Sahwet al-Khudr as "a very picturesque place" with an old mosque that was formerly a pagan temple in Antiquity.[10] The mosque's prayer room contained a column with Nabataean inscriptions.[10] The people of the village slaughtered sheep outside of the mosque annually.[10]

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Geography

Nearby localities include Salah to the northeast, Mayamas to the north, Hibran to the northwest, Salkhad to the southwest and Urman to the south.

Religious buildings

  • Maqam al-Khidr (Druze Shrine)

See also

References

Bibliography

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