This article is about the city in Syria. For the river in Morocco, seeDraa River. For the traditional Quranic schools in Senegal, seeDaara. For other uses, seeDara (disambiguation).
According to theSyrian Central Bureau of Statistics, Daraa had a population of 97,969 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of anahiya (subdistrict) which contained eight localities with a collective population of 146,481 in 2004.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantlySunni Muslims.[2]
Daraa became known as the "cradle of the revolution"[3] after the arrest of 15 boys from prominent families for painting graffiti with anti-government slogans[4] which sparked the beginning of the2011 Syrian revolution.[5]
According toibn Hisham andal-Waqidi, 9th-century biographers of the Islamic prophetMuhammad, the Jewishtribes of Arabia of theBanu Nadir andBanu Qaynuqa migrated to Adhri'at, as it was known during theearly Islamic conquests, following their expulsion fromMedina. However, historianMoshe Sharon says this does not appear in Jewish or earlier Muslim sources.[12] Situated between the major Jewish centres ofSyria Palaestina andLower Mesopotamia, Adhri'at had a large Jewish population in the early7th century and served as a place of Jewish learning. Its residents lit an annual bonfire beforeRosh Hashanah to alert the Jewish communities of Mesopotamia to the start of the New Year.[12]
Early Muslim historianal-Baladhuri lists Adhri'at as one of the towns conquered by the Muslim army following theBattle of Mu'tah in 629 and forced to pay thejizya.[19] However, contemporary sources maintain that Adhri'at was conquered by theRashidun army during thecaliphate ofAbu Bakr in 634.[20] Adhri'at's residents reportedly celebrated the arrival of the second caliph,Umar, when he visited the city, "dancing with swords andsweet basil."[19] ThroughoutRashidun andUmayyad caliphates, the city served as the capital of the al-Bathaniyya subdistrict, part of the largerJund Dimashq ("military district of Damascus").[21]
In 906, the population was massacred in a raid by the rebelliousQarmatians.[19] The late 10th-century geographeral-Muqaddasi noted that during theAbbasid Caliphate, Adhri'at was a major administrative center on the edge of the desert.[22] He claimed the city was part of theJund al-Urdunn district and that its territory was "full of villages" and included the region ofJerash to the south of theYarmouk River.[22][23]
Throughout the early Islamic period, it served as a strategic station on theHajj caravan route betweenDamascus andMedina and as the gate to central Syria. TheCrusaders temporarily conquered Adhri'at, then known asAdratum,[24] during the reign ofBaldwin II of Jerusalem in 1118.[25]
According toYaqut al-Hamawi, in the early 13th century duringAyyubid dynasty, Adhri'at was "celebrated for the many learned men who were natives of the place."[22] Under theMamluk Sultanate and theOttoman Empire, the city maintained its importance.[24] In 1596 Daraa appeared in theOttoman tax registers asmadinat Idra'a and was part of thenahiya of Butayna (Bathaniyya) in theHauran Sanjak ofOttoman Syria. It had a Muslim population of 120 households and 45 bachelors. A 40% tax−rate was levied on wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/orbeehives; a total of 26,500akçe.[26]
In 1838,Eli Smith listed Daraa as a Muslim, Catholic, and Greek Orthodox village in the Nuqrah (southernHauran plain) south ofal-Shaykh Maskin.[27]
Following the construction of theHejaz Railway, Daraa became a chief junction of the railroad. In his bookSeven Pillars and a letter to a military colleague,[28]T. E. Lawrence says he was captured by the Ottoman military in Daraa, where he was beaten and sexually abused by the localBey and his guardsmen. During theBattle of Megiddo, Lawrence led theArab Revolt in cutting the southern rail line atMafraq, the northern atTell Arar, and the western byMezerib.[29][30] On 27 September 1918, theArab Northern Armycaptured Daraa from the retreating Ottoman forces.[31]
Daraa is the southernmost city of Syria near the border withJordan and a major midpoint between Damascus andAmman.[24]
After the SyrianBa'ath Party gained power following the1963 coup, the new interior ministerAmin al-Hafiz appointed Abd al-Rahman al-Khlayfawi as governor of Daraa until 1965.[32]Daraa had recently, before theSyrian Civil War, suffered from reduced water supply in the region and had been straining under the influx of internal refugees who were forced to leave their northeastern lands due to a drought exacerbated by the government's lack of provision.[33]
Daraa played an important role by the start of theSyrian revolution against the government led byPresidentBashar al-Assad as part of theArab Spring protests with hundreds of thousands of people protesting in the city.[34] The uprising was sparked on 6 March 2011, when at least 15 youths were arrested and tortured for scrawling graffiti on their school wall denouncing the Assad government. The family and friends of the detained youths and tens of thousands of locals marched on the streets on 18 March, demanding their release. According to activists, this protest was faced with Syrian security forces opening fire on the protesters, killing four people.[35] Protests continued daily.
During this time the local courthouse, the Ba'ath party headquarters in the city, and theSyriatel building owned byRami Makhlouf, a cousin of President Assad, were set on fire. What followed was a government assault on the city as violence continued and intensified all across Syria. On 25 April 2011, theSyrian Armed Forces launched theSiege of Daraa in a crackdown on protesters.[36] The operation lasted until 5 May 2011, killing and arresting tens of thousands of locals in the process.
On 16 February 2012, the Syrian Army reportedly attacked Daraa, shelling the city heavily. This was apparently because, "Daraa has been regaining its role in the uprising. Demonstrations resumed and theFree Syrian Army provided security for protests in some parts of the city." The attack was part of a security force push "to regain control of areas they lost in recent weeks", indicating that the FSA in Daraa had taken control of parts of the city. Security forces attacked at least three districts, but FSA fighters fought back, firing at Syrian Army roadblocks and buildings housing security police and militiamen.[37] On 14 March 2012, theFree Syrian Army controlled at least one main district in the city of Daraa (al-Balad district) prompting the Syrian army to attack it with anti-aircraft guns.[38]
In early June 2017, much of Daraa was reported to have been destroyed by protracted fighting.[39] On 12 July 2018, the battle for Daraa ended after several days of intense clashes between the Syrian Army and rebel forces, some of which agreed to terms of reconciliation. The Syrian Army retook the city fully.[40]
^Burial Places of the Fathers, published by Yehuda Levi Nahum in book:Ṣohar la-ḥasifat ginzei teiman (Heb.צהר לחשיפת גנזי תימן), Tel-Aviv 1986, p. 253OCLC15417732
^Smith; in Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Second appendix, B, p.152.
^Letter to W.F. Stirling, Deputy Chief Political Officer, Cairo, 28 June 1919, in Brown, 1988.
^Lawrence, T.E. (1935).Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. pp. 580–583, 635.
^Faulkner, Neil (2016).Lawrence of Arabia's War: The Arabs, the British and the Remaking of the Middle East in WWI. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 427-429.ISBN9780300226393.
Runciman, Steven (1989).A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100-1187. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-06162-9.
