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Sahwat al-Khudr

سهوة الخضر
Sahwat al-Khudr سهوة الخضر
Village
	Sahwat al-Khudr
	Coordinates: 32°36′8″N 36°42′27″E / 32.60222°N 36.70750°E
Grid position	310/224
Country	Syria
Governorate	as-Suwayda
District	as-Suwayda
Subdistrict	as-Suwayda
Population (2004 census)
• Total	3,625
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Sahwat al-Khudr (Arabic: سهوة الخضر; also spelled Sahwat al-Khidr or Sahwet el-Khodar) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the al-Suwayda District of the al-Suwayda Governorate, located south of al-Suwayda. In 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 Muslims as "al-Khudr"). It was resettled by Druze in the mid-19th century after a period of abandonment.

History

This village is probably the center of Biblical "Kedar," a regional nation of nomadic shepherd-people who inhabited the general area.^[2] 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.^[3]

Sahwat 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.^[4]

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.^[5]

In 1838 Eli Smith noted that the place was located South of Juneineh and that it was in ruins.^[6] Sahwat 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Modern era

In the late 1960s, French geographer Robert Boulanger described Sahwat al-Khudr as "a very picturesque place" with an old mosque that was formerly a pagan temple in Antiquity.^[9] The mosque's prayer room contained a column with Nabataean inscriptions.^[9] The people of the village slaughtered sheep outside of the mosque annually.^[9]

Geography

Nearby localities include Salah to the northeast, Miyamas to the north, Hubran to the northwest, Salkhad to the southwest and Orman to the south.

References

^ "General Census of Population 2004". Retrieved 2014-07-10.
^ "Kedar". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
^ Emmerich, Bl. Anne Catherine (1914). The Life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Vol. 3, §4, Chapter 4, "Jesus in Cedar". Retrieved 3 January 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Porter, 1868, pp. 488-9
^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 210
^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 160
^ Firro, 1992, p. 189
^ Socin, 1876, p. 412
^ ^a ^b ^c Boulanger, 1966, p. 515