al-Jajiyah الجاجية | |
|---|---|
Village | |
  al-Jajiyah Location in Syria | |
| Coordinates:35°07′00″N36°47′55″E / 35.116797°N 36.798556°E /35.116797; 36.798556 | |
| Country |  Syria |
| Governorate | Hama |
| District | Hama |
| Subdistrict | Hama |
| Population (2004) | |
• Total | 6,419 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| City Qrya Pcode | C2965 |
al-Jajiyah (Arabic:الجاجية,romanized: al-Jājīyah, also known asal-Dajajiya) is a village in centralSyria, administratively part of theHama Governorate, located on the eastern outskirts ofHama city. According to theSyria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Jajiyah had a population of 6,419 in the 2004 census.[1] Its inhabitants areSunni Muslims.
Jajiyah was one of three villages in theHama Sanjak, all situated on the banks of theOrontes River, that was classified asqutuniyat, or 'cotton-growing', in 1818Ottoman tax records. It consisted of 22feddans and paid 4,950qirsh in taxes.[2] In 1836, Muhammad Khurfan Bey, theemir of theMawali, a large Arab tribe in central Syria, leased an extensive tract ofwaqf (endowment) land in Jajiyah.[3]
In the late 19th century, Jajiyah's agrarian inhabitants ceded one third of their lands to a notable from Hama, Taksun Bey, for his defense of the residents against legal attempts by theAzm family to take ownership of the village. The effort did not succeed and the residents lost ownership of their lands. Around 1900, most of these formerly small landholders emigrated from Jajiyah, leaving about forty impoverished sharecroppers.[4]
In the early 1930s, duringFrench Mandatory rule, the owners of the village belonged to a number of large landowning families from Hama, including the al-Azm. The inhabitants wereSunni Muslim Arabs, ofBedouin[5] and/orTurkmen origin.[6]
