Attil (, also spelled Atil, Atīl) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the al-Suwayda District of the al-Suwayda Governorate. In the 2004 census, it had a population of 4,193. Its inhabitants are predominantly Druze, with a Sunni Muslim Bedouin minority.
History In 1596 it appeared as Atil in the Ottoman tax registers, part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Nasiyya of the Hauran Sanjak. It had a population of 25 households, and 5 bachelors; all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on various agricultural products, such as wheat (3750 a.), barley (1350 a.), summer crops (2500 a.), goats and/or beehives (160 a.), in addition to "occasional revenues" (150 a.); a total of 7,910 akçe. A quarter of the revenue went to a waqf.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 218.
In 1838 Eli Smith noted 'Atil as being located in Jebel Hauran, and inhabited by Druze.Smith, in Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 157
Archaeology Atill has been identified with ancient Atheila and contains two nearly identical Roman-period temples that have been surveyed by multiple scholars since the 19th century. The southern temple, preserved with much of its architectural decoration, stands on a podium containing a vaulted crypt and features a Corinthian order façade with elaborate carved details. An inscription found on the temple dates the construction of elements of its superstructure to 151 AD, during the reign of Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, though analysis of the architecture suggests that parts of the structure may belong to an earlier phase.
Another inscription from Atil, dated to 211 AD, mentions the Greco-Syrian deity Theandrios and was reported in the 19th century by William Waddington as having been found in a modern house. A further inscription is dedicated to Zeus O[...], probably referring to Zeus Olympios.
The village is recorded as Athēlēnōn () in the Diocletianic boundary stones corpus, dated to c. 300 CE.
Religious buildings Maqam Al-Sheikh Gharib (Druze Shrine)
See also Druze in Syria
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