Qurfays (Arabic: قرفيص, also spelled Qurfeis or Korfeis) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Jableh District in the Latakia Governorate, located south of Latakia. Nearby localities include Arab al-Mulk to the west, Jableh to the northwest, al-Aqibah and al-Qutailibiyah to the northeast, Sarabion and Dweir Baabda to the southeast. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Qurfays had a population of 5,566 in the 2004 census.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Alawites and is one of the centers of the large Douba family. Ali Douba, the former longtime Chief of Military Intelligence.[2]
The municipality of Qurfays was established in 1979 to administer the local affairs of the village as well as nearby al-Barazin, al-Zahra, Bishnana and Mahwarta. There are about 7,000 people living in the municipality whose mayor in 2008 was Abdullah Ehsan.[3]
History
Qurfays served as minor fortress village under the authority of the Knights Hospitallers fortress of Margat in the 13th-century and was referred to as Corveis.[4] In 1271 the Mamluk sultan Baibars defeated the Crusaders in the coastal mountain range of Syria and forced the Hospitallers to evacuate Qurfays, among other fortresses.[5] However, before they withdrew, they destroyed Qurfays and nearby Balda.[5][6] In the 1281 treaty between Mamluk sultan Qalawun and the Crusader king Bohemond IV of Antioch, Qurfays was among the many fortresses officially handed to the Mamluks.[7]
References
- ^ a b General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Latakia Governorate. (in Arabic)
- ^ Batatu, 1992, p. 240.
- ^ Khatib, Sharaf.Municipality Qrfais and Wide Range of Services and Suffering from Lack of Central Lines for Sanitation. Unity Foundation for Press, Printing and Publishing. 2008-09-14.
- ^ Riley-Smith, 2012, p. 91.
- ^ a b Riley-Smith, 2012, p. 211.
- ^ Bronstein, 2005, p. 44.
- ^ Holt, 1995, p. 63.
Bibliography
- Batatu, Hanna (1999). Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691002541.
- Bronstein, Judith (2005). The Hospitallers And The Holy Land: Financing The Latin East, 1187-1274. Boydell Press. ISBN 1843831317.
- Holt, Peter Malcolm (1995). Early Mamluk Diplomacy, 1260-1290: Treaties of Baybars and Qalāwūn with Christian Rulers. BRILL. pp. 149–150. ISBN 9004102469.
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan (2012). The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant, C.1070-1309. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230290839.
