Al-Qurayya (; also spelled al-Qrayya or Kureiyeh) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Suwayda Governorate, located south of Suwayda. Nearby localities include Bosra to the southwest, Hout to the south, Salkhad to the southeast, al-Kafr, Hibran and Sahwet al-Khudr to the northeast, Sahwet Blatah and Rasas to the north and Ira and al-Mujaymer to the northwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Qurayya had a population of 6,789 in the 2004 census.. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Al-Suwayda Governorate. The town is also the administrative center of the al-Qurayya nahiyah which consists of four towns with a combined population of 9,892. In Al-Qurayya, Druze make up the predominant population, while Christians and Sunni Muslim Bedouins represent a minority.
History Western scholar Josias Leslie Porter identified al-Qurayya with biblical "Kerioth" mentioned by Jeremiah as one of the cities in the plain of Moab. The prophet Amos wrote that he would "devour the palaces of Kerioth." The city is later mentioned in the 4th-century CE as "Koreath," a village belonging to Bosra in the Roman province Arabia Petraea. However, this "Koreath" has also been identified with the nearby palace of Ein Qarata to the south of the Lejat plain.Porter, 1858, p. 524 On streets and alleyways throughout the village were the remains of several columns.Porter, 1858, p. 523 A Greek inscription was found on one of the stones and dated back to 296 CE.
Ottoman period In 1596 al-Qurayya appeared in the Ottoman tax registers being part of the nahiya of Bani Nasiyya in the Qada of Hauran. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 65 households and 36 bachelors. Taxes were paid on wheat, barley, summer crops, fruit- or other trees.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 219.
In 1810 al-Qurayya contained a few Druze families and was the chief village in the areas south and southwest of Ira in Jabal al-Arab. Between the 1830s and 1840s, the prominent al-Atrash clan chose the village as their principal residence. It was granted to them by the initial Druze rulers of the village, the al-Hamdan clan.Batatu, 2012, p. 113 It was still subject to raids by Bedouin nomads at that time. In April 1838, while young Druze fighters from al-Qurayya were confronting the Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha, the village was looted and several of its inhabitants were killed in a raid by Sheikh Ibn Sumayr and his 'Anza Bedouin tribe. Further major raids against al-Qurayya occurred in 1842 and 1846.Firro, 1992, p. 152
In 1838 al-Qurayya was reported to be populated with Druze and Christians.Smith, in Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 158
Only in the 1850s did relative stability take root. In 1852 al-Qurayya, then seat of Ismail al-Atrash, became the headquarters of Druze resistance against an Ottoman conscription decree.Firro, 1992, p. 188 According to Porter, who visited al-Qurayya in 1853, the village had shrunk from one of the major towns of the Hauran plain to a small village. Many of its houses were built from ancient materials. Its chief in the 1850s was Sami Faruq Pasha al-Atrash, the most powerful Druze sheikh in the Hauran. In 1856-57 al-Qurayya served as the base for the Druze in their offensive against the Muslim villages of the Hauran.
French Mandate period The French Mandate authorities bombed al-Qurayya and destroyed the home of its sheikh Sultan Pasha al-Atrash in a clash in 1921.Dana, p. 9. During the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925-27, which was spearheaded by Sultan Pasha, al-Qurayya served as the chief meeting place for the sheikhs of local rebel clans.
Demographics In 2011, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church had approximately 1,500 believers.
Religious buildings St. Ayyub (St. Job) Greek Orthodox Church St. Mikhael (St. Michael) Melkite Greek Catholic Church Maqam Balkhi (Druze Shrine)
Notable people Sultan al-Atrash Mansur al-Atrash Farid al-Atrash
See also Druze in Syria Christianity in Syria
References
Bibliography
External links Map of the town, Google Maps