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Samad (Arabic: صماد; transliteration: Ṣamād, also spelled Smad) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located east of Daraa and immediately southeast of Bosra. Other nearby localities include al-Qurayya to the northeast, Hout to the east and Dhibin to the southeast. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Samad had a population of 3,098 in the 2004 census.[1]

Samad صماد
Village
Samad
Coordinates: 32°28′34″N 36°31′16″E
Country	Syria
Governorate	Daraa
District	Daraa
Subdistrict	Bosra al-Sham
Population  (2004 census)[1]
• Total	3,098
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

History

An inscription dating back was found in Samad dating back to the Roman era testifying that a "public speaker's rostrum" was built by the local Arab tribe of Daban (Dabanenoi) in the village of Samad.[2]

During the late Mamluk era in the 15th century, Samad was the home of the Samadiyya branch of the Qadiriyya Sufi order founded by a certain Shaykh Salim, a student of Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani (died 1166).[3][4] Leadership of the Samadiyya order was hereditary and led by Shaykh Salim's descendants from their zawiya (Sufi lodge) in Samad.[3][4] In 1520 the Samadiyya order's sheikh (religious leader) Muhammad ibn Khalil ibn Ali ibn Isa ibn Ahmad al-Samadi (1505–1541) gained an audience with the Ottoman sultan Selim I and secured imperial support for his order.[3] He also relocated its principal zawiya to the as-Salihiyya suburb of Damascus in 1520 and then erected a new principal zawiya in the Shaghur neighborhood in 1525.[3] The order was named after Samad and maintained its name after the move of its main headquarters to Damascus during the early Ottoman era.[3]

Samad is possibly the place named Garita al-Janahiyya in the 1596 tax registers, being part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Malik as-Sadir in the Qada Hauran. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 32 households and 13 bachelors. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 11,000 akçe.[5]

In 1838, it was noted as a ruin, Sumad, situated in "the Nukra [Hauran plain], south of Bosra".[6]

Modern era

As of 1980, Samad was a village with an estimated population 1,500, consisting of eight clans.[7] Between 1925 and at least 1980, the office of shaykh al-balad (village headman) has been filled by members of the al-Shuyukh clan.[7]

References

Bibliography

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