Maharda

{{Short description|City in northern Syria}} {{Infobox settlement   | official_name = Maharda | native_name = محردة | other_name = Maharda, Mahardah, Muharda, Mharada, Mahardeh, Muhardeh, Mhardeh, Mharda | settlement_type = City  | image_skyline = Ancient Roman bridge in Maharda.jpg | image_caption = Ancient Roman bridge in Maharda | image_flag = | image_seal = | image_shield = | nickname = | motto = | image_map = | map_caption = | pushpin_map = Syria  | pushpin_label_position = bottom | pushpin_mapsize = 250 | pushpin_map_caption = Location in Syria  | coordinates = {{coord|35|15|N|36|35|E|region:SY|display=inline,title}} | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Syrian revolution.svg}} Syria | subdivision_type1 = Governorate | subdivision_name1 = Hama | subdivision_type2 = District | subdivision_name2 = Mahardah | subdivision_type3 = Subdistrict | subdivision_name3 = Mahardah | subdivision_type4 = Control | subdivision_name4 = |parts_type = Control |parts_style = para | p1 = | established_title =  | established_date = | government_type =  | government_footnotes = | leader_title = | leader_name =  | unit_pref = Metric  | area_footnotes = | area_total_km2 =  | area_total_sq_mi = | area_land_km2 =  | area_land_sq_mi = | area_water_km2 = | area_water_sq_mi = | area_water_percent = | elevation_footnotes =  | elevation_m = 280 | elevation_ft =  | population_footnotes = | population_total = 17578<ref name="CBS"></ref> | population_as_of = 2004 | population_density_km2 = auto | population_note = | population_blank1_title = | population_blank1 =  | timezone = AST | utc_offset = +3 | timezone_DST = | utc_offset_DST =  | postal_code_type =  | postal_code = | area_code = | footnotes = }}

'''Maharda''' ({{langx|ar|محردة|Mḥarda}}, {{IPA|ar|maˈħarda|IPA}}; also transliterated ''Mhardeh'', ''Muhardah'', ''Mahardah'' or ''Mharda'') is a Christian city in western Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located about 23 kilometers northwest of Hama. It is situated along the Orontes River, near the Ghab plain. Nearby localities include Halfaya and Taybat al-Imam to the east, Khitab to the southeast, Maarzaf to the south, Asilah and Jubb Ramlah to the southwest, Shaizar, Safsafiyah, Tremseh and Kafr Hud to the west and Kafr Zita and al-Lataminah to the north.

According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Maharda had a population of 17,578 in the 2004 census. It is the center of Mahardah District, one of the Hama Governorate's five districts, and the ''nahiyah'' ("subdistrict") of Maharda, which contained 21 localities with a combined population of 80,165 in 2004.<ref name="CBS">[https://archive.today/20130112210007/http://www.cbssyr.org/new%20web%20site/General_census/census_2004/NH/TAB05-20-2004.htm General Census of Population and Housing 2004]. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Hama Governorate. {{in lang|ar}}</ref> Maharda's population was estimated to be 22,442 in 2010.<ref>[http://www.gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=1147111047&men=gcis&lng=fr&des=gamelan&dat=200&geo=-202&srt=pnan&col=aohdqcfbeimg&geo=-3389 H̨amāh: Les villes les plus grandes avec des statistiques de la population] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160901195632/http://www.gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=1147111047&men=gcis&lng=fr&des=gamelan&dat=200&geo=-202&srt=pnan&col=aohdqcfbeimg&geo=-3389 |date=2016-09-01 }}, Gazetteer.de</ref> Its inhabitants are predominantly Christians of the Greek Orthodox Church.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20825820 Syria acting to safeguard chemical weapons, says Russia]. ''BBC News''. 2012-12-22.</ref><ref name="Bulletin">{{cite journal|title=Notes sur la propriété foncière dans le Syrie centrale (Notes on Landownership in Central Syria) |journal=Bulletin du Comité de l'Asie française|author=Comité de l'Asie française|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4019479m/f1.item.r=Sorane |publisher=Comité de l'Asie française |date=April 1933 |volume=33 |issue=309 |pages=130–137 |language=fr}}</ref>

The Orontes River was dammed 3 kilometers north, and the Mahardah Dam on the Ghab plain is used to generate hydroelectric power.

==History== The numerous Christian ruins in the village attest to an ancient Christian presence in Maharda. Maharda's inhabitants claim descent from the Ghassanids, a prominent Arab Christian tribe from the Byzantine era. Along with al-Suqaylabiyah and Kafr Buhum, it is one of the few Greek Orthodox, Arab Christian localities in the Hama region.<ref name="Bulletin"/>

===Ottoman period=== In the 16th century, during Ottoman rule (1516–1918), Maharda was the metropolitan seat of a diocese called 'Euchaita', spanning the Christian villages of the countryside between Hama and Homs. The affiliated Christian villages were Kafr Buhum, Bsirin, Albiyya, Hanak, Ma'alta and Afiyun. In the early 16th century, Maharda had a population of 4,000, according to an anecdotal account by Patriarch Macarius III Ibn al-Za'im ({{reign|1647|1672}}), a native of the Hama region. The second-to-last metropolitan of Euchaita, Gregorius al-Hamawi, a native of Maharda, ordained 35 priests and 14 deacons. After the death of his successor, Malachi, in 1596 or 1597, Euchaita was dissolved and its diocese was split between those of Hama and Homs, with Maharda assigned to the former.{{sfn|Panchenko|2016}} In 1728, the Christians of Maharda, represented by their chief, were indebted over 5,000 piasters to a moneylender in Hama, Husayn Effendi al-Kaylani. Part of the sum was to help cover jizya (poll tax on Christians) payments to the government.{{sfn|Reilly|2002|p=102}} In an 1828 or 1829 tax record, the village consisted of 46 feddans and paid 4,730 akce (450 of which was jizya) to the government treasury, as well as the relatively high sum of 13,250 akce to the ''mutasallim'' (local governor) of Hama, Faraj Agha, which the government later determined was an illicit collection by the ''mutasallim''.{{sfn|Douwes|2000|pp=144, note 51, 181, 224}} The village was recorded as a Greek Orthodox Christian village in 1838.{{sfn|Robinson|Smith|1841|p=180}}

In the Monastery of St. George in Maharda, whose date of construction is not known, the oldest manuscript there dates to the late 19th century.{{sfn|Panchenko|2016}} In 1882 the American Presbyterian church opened a school in Maharda, which the Ottoman governor of Syria closed in 1906 citing the lack of a permit.{{sfn|United States - Department of State|1909|pp=1385–1387}} Numerous emigrants from Maharda left the village in the aftermath of World War I, when the Ottomans were driven from Syria by British-backed forces.{{sfn|Al-Dbiyat|1995|p=226}}

===Post-Syrian independence=== In the early 1960s, Maharda was described as "a large Christian village where the houses lie in terraces amid the vines".{{sfn|Boulanger|1966|p=369}} Maharda historically benefited from its location in a rich agricultural region, its close proximity ({{convert|2|km|mi|sp=us}}) to the strategic medieval citadel of Shaizar, and the large landed estates of its residents. The lands expropriated from Maharda alone by the state constituted a proportionally considerable 0.8% of all lands expropriated in the Hama Governorate in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Employment and businesses in the town benefited from the construction of the Maharda Dam in 1957–1963 and a few years later by the construction of the associated hydroelectric station. Many emigrants returned to Maharda during this period, investing their capital there, opening new services and artisinal businesses, and introducing technology like motor pumps, which stimulated agricultural production.{{sfn|Al-Dbiyat|1995|p=226}}

Many of the villages around Maharda were large, effectively small towns, such as Kafr Zita, Karnaz, Halfaya and al-Lataminah, and maintained close commercial ties with Maharda as the chief town and ''nahiya'' (subdistrict) center of the area. In 1975, Maharda's status was further solidified when it was formally recognized as a city and made the capital of the new Mahardah District.{{sfn|Al-Dbiyat|1995|p=226}} The distinctive urban character, wide variety of businesses and the 'elegance' of its young women had earned Maharda the nickname of 'little Paris' among the city dwellers of Hama by the 1980s, according to historians Jean and Françoise Métral.{{sfn|Al-Dbiyat|1995|p=228}} Outside of the governorate capitals of Hama and Homs and the major district capital of Salamiyah, Maharda was the only city in central Syria to command its own zone of influence, at least as of the mid-1990s.{{sfn|Al-Dbiyat|1995|p=229}}

====Syrian civil war==== During the Syrian Civil War, Maharda has been targeted by rebels, yet remained under government control.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dw.com/en/those-who-dont-want-to-kill-leave-syria/a-36821759 |title=′Those who don′t want to kill leave Syria′ | Middle East |work=Deutsche Welle |date=19 December 2016 |access-date=2022-04-03}}</ref> Between 2011 and 2018, 97 civilians were killed in rebel attacks on the town.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Westcott |first=Tom |date=26 September 2018 |title=Syria's Christian city: Seven years under fire at the Idlib frontline |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrias-christian-city-seven-years-under-fire-idlib-frontline |access-date=2024-12-31 |website=Middle East Eye |language=en}}</ref> According to pro-government media, the rate of attacks on Maharda increased during the course of the 2017 Hama offensive.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russia-dispatches-forces-defend-key-christian-city-syria/ |title=Russia dispatches forces to defend key Christian city in Syria |website=Al-Masdar News|access-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402215715/https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russia-dispatches-forces-defend-key-christian-city-syria/ |archive-date=2 April 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Notable people== *Ignatius IV of Antioch (1920–2012), Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All The East from 1979 to 2012. *Ghada Shouaa, (born 1972) heptathlete and Syria's only Olympic gold medal winner.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== *{{cite book |last1=Al-Dbiyat |first1=Mohammed |title=Homs et Hama en Syrie centrale: Concurrence urbaine et développement régional |date=1995 |publisher=Presses de l’Ifpo |isbn=2-901315-26-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aF9IAAAAMAAJ |language=French}} *{{cite book |last1=Boulanger |first1=Robert |title=The Middle East: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran |date=1966 |publisher=Libraire Hachette |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2a8LAQAAIAAJ}} *{{cite book |last=Douwes |first=Dick |title=The Ottomans in Syria: A History of Justice and Oppression |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYptAAAAMAAJ |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2000 |isbn=1860640311}} *{{cite book |last1=Panchenko |first1=Constantin Alexandrovich |title=Arab Orthodox Christians Under the Ottomans 1516–1831 |date=2016 |publisher=Holy Trinity Publications |isbn=978-1-942699-10-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qsoOEAAAQBAJ}} *{{cite book |last1=Reilly |first1=James A. |title=A Small Town in Syria: Ottoman Hama in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries |date=2002 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=3-906766-90-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JYNtAAAAMAAJ}} *{{cite book|last1=Robinson|first1=E.|author-link1=Edward Robinson (scholar)|last2=Smith|first2=E.|author-link2=Eli Smith|year=1841|url=https://archive.org/details/biblicalresearch03robiuoft |title=Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838| location=Boston|publisher=Crocker & Brewster|volume=3}} *{{cite book |author1=United States - Department of State |title=Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Part 2 |date=1909 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVIzAQAAMAAJ}}

Category:Cities in Syria Category:Populated places in Maharda District Category:Eastern Orthodox Christian communities in Syria