Ghabaghib

History

Ayyubid period

On 16 January 1192, news reached Jerusalem that Alam al-Din Sulayman, an emir ("commander") of Ayyubid general Saladin, had died in Ghabaghib on his way to Aleppo. Later, in the early 13th-century, the town was visited by Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi who noted that it was "a village in the nearer districts of Hauran, 6 leagues from Damascus."

Ottoman period

A tower was built in the town on the orders of Ottoman Sultan, Selim I. In 1596, Ghabagib appeared in the Ottoman tax registers being part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Kilab in the Qada of Hauran. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 6 households and 5 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives; a total of 2,000 akçe.

In 1838, Ghabaghib was noted as a Muslim village, situated in the Nuqra (southern Hauran plain) north of al-Shaykh Maskin. In the mid-19th-century, Ghabaghib was a small village with structures built of black basalt stone. The town, situated along the Hajj caravan route between Damascus and Mecca, served as an intermediate rest stop between Khan Dannun and al-Sanamayn. Ghabaghib later became a station on the Damascus–Daraa line of the Hejaz Railway. During the Syria–Lebanon Campaign in World War II, Ghabaghib served as the headquarters for the Free French Forces in southern Syria. The town was nicknamed "Rhubarb" by British soldiers who found the name too difficult to pronounce.

In 1906, the traveler William Ewing noted that "At Ghabaghib ... great cisterns and scattered ruins tell of an important place in times past."

References

Bibliography

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References

1. [https://archive.today/20121209012831/http://www.cbssyr.org/new%20web%20site/General_census/census_2004/NH/TAB12-11-2004.htm General Census of Population and Housing 2004]. [[Central Bureau of Statistics (Syria). Syria Central Bureau of Statistics]] (CBS). Daraa Governorate. {{in lang. ar
2. Ibn al-Athir, 2007, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QQafhE-PPYkC&pg=PA395 395]
3. Le Strange, 1890, p. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/441/mode/1up 441].
4. Newbold, 1846, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=c0MMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA337 337]
5. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 210
6. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/151/mode/1up 151]
7. Beke, 1862, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=M0o9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA87 87]
8. Masterman, 1897, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme29pale#page/n237/mode/1up 200].
9. Smith, 2009, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=SOM-AQAAIAAJ&q=Ghabagheb 228].
10. Ewing, 1907, p. [https://archive.org/stream/arabanddruzeath00ewingoog#page/n31/mode/1up 5].