Al-Mushrifah

Al-Mushrifah (Arabic: المشرفة, also spelled al-Mishirfeh, el-Mishrife or Musharrfeh) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located northeast of Homs, with a population of 14,868 in 2004. Nearby localities include Ayn al-Niser, Umm al-Amad and al-Mukharram to the east, and Talbiseh, al-Ghantu and Teir Maalah to the west. Outside the modern town is Tell el-Mishrife, the site of the ancient city-state of Qatna. It has a religiously mixed population of Sunni Muslims, Alawites and Christians. The village contains several mosques and two churches.^[1]

Al-Mushrifah المشرفة Al-Mishirfeh
Village
1936 aerial view of Al-Mushrifah
Al-Mushrifah Location in Syria
Coordinates: 34.834479°N 36.850971°E / 34.834479; 36.850971
Country	Syria
Governorate	Homs
District	Homs
Subdistrict	Ayn al-Niser
Population  (2004)
• Total	14,868
Time zone	UTC+3 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (EEST)

History

In the mid-19th century, the village of al-Mushrifah was built within the ancient site of Qatna (Tell al-Mishrifeh).^[2] Houses were built on top of the royal palace floors, which caused some damage to them while also providing a protective cover for the underlying ruins.^[3] In 1940, its population was 1,500.^[4] In the 1950s, under the influence of the Syrian Communist Party, some of the peasants of al-Mushrifah rose against their landlord by seizing his harvest.^[5] In 1982, the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums resettled the inhabitants in a new village next to the ancient tell, making the site available for modern archaeological research.^[3]

References

1. Halabi, Alaa (2015-01-04). "Battles continue in Homs countryside". As-Safir. Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 12 January 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
2. Morandi Bonacossi 2005, p. 34.
3. Abdulrahman et al. 2016, p. 556.
4. Toma, Amar (8 September 2012). "Al-Mushrifa: The Village of History and Coexistence". e-Syria (in Arabic). Retrieved 2 January 2025.
5. Batatu 1999, p. 121.

Bibliography

• Abdulrahman, Ammar; Luciani, Marta; Morandi Bonacossi, Daniele; Novák, Mirko; Pfälzner, Peter (2016). "The Syrian-Italian-German Mission at Tall Mishrife/ Qatna: Results of the First Season in 1999". In Thuesen, Ingolf (ed.). Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 22–26 May 2000, Copenhagen. Vol. 1: The Environment. Images of Gods and Humans. The Tell. Excavation Reports and Summaries Varia (Chronology, Technology, Artifacts). Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna / Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-8-861-13007-4.
• Batatu, Hanna (1999). Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691002541.
• Morandi Bonacossi, Daniele (2005). "The Ancient Lake of Mishrifeh". In Morandi Bonacossi, Daniele; al-Maqdissi, Michel (eds.). The Metropolis of the Orontes Art and Archaeology from the Ancient Kingdom of Qatna. Seven Years of Syrian-Italian Collaboration at Mishrifeh/Qatna. Salhani Printing Establishment. OCLC 496581031.