Hauran

Satellite view of Syria with position of Hauran highlighted.

Hauran, also Hawran or Houran, (Arabic: حوران, Ḥaurān) is a volcanic plateau, a geographic area and a people located in southwestern Syria and extending into the northwestern corner of modern-day Jordan. It gets its name from the Aramaic Hawran, meaning "cave land." In geographic and geomorphic terms, its boundaries generally extends from near Damascus and Mt. Hermon in the north to the Ajloun mountains of Jordan in the south. The area includes the occupied Golan Heights on the west and is bounded there by the Jordan Rift Valley; it also includes Jabal ad-Duruz in the east and is bounded there by more arid steppe and desert terrains. The Yarmouk River drains much of the Hauran to the west and is the largest tributary of the Jordan River.

The Hauran is mentioned in the Bible (Ezekiel 47:16-18) describing the boundary area of the Israelite Kingdom at the time. Centuries later, the Romans referred to the area as Auranitis, and it marked the traditional eastern border of Roman Syria; this is evidenced by the well-preserved Roman ruins in the cities of Bosra and Shahba. At the time, the Hauran also included the northern cities of the Decapolis. Today, the Hauran is not a distinct political entity, but encompasses the Syrian governorates of Quneitra, As Suwayda, and Daraa, and the Jordanian governorate of Irbid. However, the name is used colloquially by both the inhabitants of the region (Hauranis) and outsiders, to refer to the area and its people.

The volcanic soils of Hauran make it one of the most fertile regions in Syria; it produces considerable wheat and is particularly famous for its vineyards. The region receives above-average annual precipitation, but the region includes few developable rivers. Historically, the region has relied on annual snow and rain during winter and spring and many of the ancient sites contain cisterns and water storage facilities to better utilize the seasonal rainfall. This area is unlike other historical fertile areas of Syria, (the Orontes and the Euphrates river valleys), which rely on developed irrigation systems for their farming productivity. Since the mid 1980s, Syria has developed a considerable number of seasonal storage dams within the headwaters of the Yarmouk River drainage basin.

Haurani dialect

This link captures the sound of the Hourani (Haurani) dialect [lahjat al Hawarneh] http://www.neurosurgery.tv/10march2008.html

History

The plains of Houran appear to have been inhabited by small bands of hunters and gatherers. By circa 12,000 BCE, microliths and bone tools were becoming part of daily lifestyle. It is thought that the development of farming around 10,000 BCE triggered an agricultural revolution that changed human history and paved the way for the appearance of ancient civilizations after millennia of hunting and gathering in small groups. By this time Natufians settled in Taiyiba in southern Houran, and southwest of Houran in Tabqat Fahl and in the Golan Heights to the west in Nhal ‘En Gev-II as well as all over Palestine. To their east, circa 8300 BC wheat was domesticated and their neighbors to the west in Palestine and to the East in Mesopotamia started living in oval houses. Between 8000 and 7000 BC, people of Houran were eating mostly hunted gazelles and foxes. Between 7000 and 6000 BC their daily food was mostly domesticated animals (sheep, goat, pig, and cattle) and domesticated cereals. By the 4th millennium BC (4000 BC to 3000BC) there were many Chalcolithic settlements in the valley of the Yarmouk river.

Houran c. 2000 BC to 1000 BC

While pastoral nomads roamed the steppe of west Asia, agriculture was spreading in sub-Saharan Africa and Mesoamerica and the Minoan civilization was budding on the Island of Crete.

1900 BC Bronze casting developed in China.

1792 to 1750 BCE: Babylonia was a dominant power in southwest Asia. Hammurabi’s laws were inscribed in 1792 BC.

1665 BCE: Hyksos take control of Egypt

1600 BC Chariots were introduced into China. 1570 BCE: During the Hittite reign in Turkey, the reign of Amosis begins in Egypt. And in 1565 BCE: Amosis expels Hyksos. From 1550 BCE to 1069 BCE the New Kingdom of Egypt was expanding into Nubia and the Levant.

In 1490 BCE Queen Hatshepsut sends an expedition to Punt (present day Somalia) to obtain incense trees. Eight years later, in 1482 BCE, the Battle of Megiddo took place.

1400 BC Alphabet writing at Ugarit and writing also went into use in China. 1352-1336 BC: Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten instigates monotheistic worship of the sun-God, Aten. 1320 BC Ramesses. In 1300 BC the army of Pharaoh Ramesess II swept north through Canaan, then an Egyptian province, along the Mediterranean coast and reached all the way to Arvad This was while the first Assyrian Empire was being established, By this time the Lapita culture reaches Fiji and Samoa. Bronze is being used for many everyday purposes. 1270 BCE the Great Temple at Abu Simbel was constructed by Rameses II.

In 1250 BCE: The battle of Qadesh 1200 BC The fall of Troy, the Hittite Empire seem to have disappeared in 1200 BCE while the “Sea Peoples” start a two hundred year menace of the southern Mediterranean coast and the Olmecs started in Central America. The Phoenician alphabet of 22 letters was invented. 1100 BCE Around 1100 BCE, the Phoenician city-states emerge on the eastern Mediterranean coast while the Mycenaean civilization comes to an end, starting the Greek dark ages.

4 BCE: The birth of Jesus of Nazareth

HOURAN IN THE COMMON ERA (CE or AD)

14 CE: Tiberius 41 Claudius 70 Destruction of Jerusalem 74 fall of Masada 106 AD Nabatean Kingdom, 115 CE: Revolt of Jews in Egypt, 130 Galen born , 161 Marcus Aurelius, 201 Galen died. In 354 St Augustine born, 430 St. Augustine died 452 Tao Hung Ching born (Chinese physician) 536 Tao Hung Ching dies 550 Ch’ao Yuan Fang born (Chinese physician) circa 570 AD Muhammad was born in Mecca (located in current Saudi Arabia). 610 AD Muhammad, at age 40, declares himself prophet of a new religion, Islam.

622 CE: The Hijra: Muhammad and his followers leave Mecca to Yathrib In 636 CE (AD) the Battle of Yarmouk (named after River Yarmouk) took place between Byzantium and the advancing Muslim armies. 637 CE: Arabs arrive in Sind 644 Reign of Caliph cUthman Ibn cAffan, ? Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas goes to Chin and stays in Canton for a number of years. 645 End of the reign of Yuan Chi Wang 656 `Ali Ibn Abi Talib 661 Mu`awwiyeh Ibn Abi Suffian. 758 CE: Ibn el-Muqaffa` who translated Kalila and Dinah into Arabic died in Basra 763 CE: The Chinese Emperor Chien Chen died. 772 CE: The Chinese Emperor Wang T’ao died 775 CE: al-Jahiz was born 809 CE: The `Abbasid Caliph Haroun ar-Rasheed dies; 869 CE: al-Jahiz died 892 CE: The historian Ahmed ibn Yahya al-Bila(th)zari 925 CE: al-Razi died –Sung Dynasty 961 AD al-Mustansir rule begins 976 CE: al-Mustansir rule ends 1000 CE: Albucasis az-Zahrawi finishes his book “At Tasreef limun `Ajiza `an at-Ta’leef”. 1013 AD: Albucasis az-Zahrawi died 1020 CE Al-Firdawsi dies 1051 CE: Abu er-Rayhan al-Biruni died, 1070 CE: Qadi Sa`ed al Taleetly al Andalusi (The Andalusian from Toledo) 1101 CE: The reign of the Fatimid caliph, al-Amir Billah al Fatimi, begins, 1130 CE: The reign of the Fatimid caliph, al-Amir Billah al Fatimi, ends 1165 Ibn `Arabi of Andalusia was born 1191 CE: The execution of al-Suhrawardi by the Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo. 1225 Thomas Aquinas born during the reign of the Sung Dynasty in China. 1233 CE: Pope Gregory IX (the 9th) founded the Inquisition to deal with dissent within the Catholic faith. Ibn el Quff al-Karaki was born in Karak, Jordan. 1240 Ibn `Arabi die 1250 C: King of China Li Tung Yun died towards the end of the Ayyubid reign. 1263 Ibn Taymiyya was born in northern Syria 1270 CE: The end of Sung Dynasty 1274: Thomas Aquinas dies. 1281 Cho Tan-Chi born 1286 C: Ibn el Quff died in Damascus. 1332 CE Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun was born. 1358 Cho Tan-Chi died 1368 The beginning of the Ming Dynasty 1406 CE Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun died during the reign of the Ming Dynasty in China circa 1428 al-Jili died 1453 C: The Fall of Constantinople. 1469 Machiavelli born 1483 Martin Luther was born at Eisleben in Central Germany 1492 Christopher Columbus reached America 1497 The Portuguese sailed around the Cape of Good Hope 1507 Copernicus made a great scientific discovery, the earth was not the center of the Universe, it went around the Sun not the other way around. 1513 Niccolo Machiavelli finished his book “The Prince.” 1514 The Ottomans under Saleem I defeated the Safavids in Galdeeran near tabriz. In 1516 CE (AD) the Ottoman armies swept through Bilad al-Sham. On August 24, 1516 CE (AD) the Mamluk armies were defeated in Marj Dabeg, near Aleppo and the Ottoman Sultan Selim I entered the city on August 28. Damascus fell on September 27 of the same year and then Houran followed. It remained under Ottoman control until their defeat in World War I (1914-1918).

File:Houran 02.jpg

Hauranis in modern and traditional dress.

Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt noted his observation of people from the region:

My companions intending to leave Damascus very early the next morning, I quitted my lodgings in the evening, and went with them to sleep in a small Khan in the suburb of Damascus, at which the Haouaerne, or people of Haouran, generally alight.

Main cities

• Ar Ramtha
• Busra
• Der'a
• Irbid
• Quneitra
• Suwaida

Villages

• Aidoon
• Akaider
• Al-Sanamein
• Baseer
• Bushra
• Buwaidha
• Hawsha
• Huwwarah
• Izraa'
• Khabab
• Da'el
• Nu'aymeh
• Sal
• Sareeh
• Shajara
• Tubna
• Tubneh
• Qrayya
• Dir albukhat

Roman bridges

• Bridge at Nimreh
• Kharaba Bridge
• Gemarrin Bridge

Important personalities

• Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya
• Farid al-Atrash
• Asmahan
• Fahd Ballan
• Mahmoud Zuabi
• Mustafa Wahbi

Gallery

• 
  Dar (House of) Saleem Muhammad -el Hamad- el Gharaibeh
• 
  Dar Abu Habis (Dhaifallah el Mahmoud el Gharaibeh)
• 
  Dar Abu Ghaleb
• 
  Dar Qasim Tanash Courtesy of Ahmed Abdallah Jameel Gharaibeh

External links

• Brief history of Southern Syria
• Amrah - Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Google Knol