Jubb-'Adin

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جبعدين / Ǧubb-'Adīn
Dschubb-'Adin
Jubb-ʿAdin (Syria)
Jubb-ʿAdin
Jubb-ʿAdin
Coordinates 33 ° 50 ′  N , 36 ° 31 ′  E Coordinates: 33 ° 50 ′  N , 36 ° 31 ′  E
Basic data
Country Syria

Governorate

Rif Dimashq
ISO 3166-2 SY-RD
height 1500 m
Residents 3778

Jubb-ʿAdin or Ġuppaҁōҁ ( Arabic جبعدين Jubbʿadin , Syriac ܓܦܥܘܕ, Aramaic גפעוד) is a place in Syria . It is located about 58 km (or 60 km) northeast of Damascus at 1500 m above sea level in the central part of the Qalamun Mountains, which are part of the Anti-Lebanon . The residents of Jubb-ʿAdin speak a dialect of the New West Aramaic language , which was spoken in two other villages before the civil war in Syria and otherwise became extinct. According to the census, 3778 people lived in Jubb-ʿAdin in 2004, almost all of them Sunni Muslims .

Geographical location

Dschubb-ʿAdin lies within a high mountain range in Juba, which is also known as the Maalula Wall, between the Jabal al-Numan above the Majal al-Assal in the north and the Tell al-Silsilah in the southwest of the village. Jubb-ʿAdin is only accessible from the southwest via al-Faj, a several meters wide, about 200 meters long and 50 to 60 meters deep crevice in the rock face of Tell al-Silsilah. Over the centuries, this has been expanded into a road, so that since the 1980s large cars have also been able to drive to Dschubb-ʿAdin. The village is connected to al-Qutaifeh and Damascus by the road, which has now been paved .

Sights and culture

In the vicinity of Jubb-ʿAdin there are the remains of several old monasteries and a wine press from Byzantine times, in the north the Deir al-Assi monastery.

The main attraction of the place is the main mosque, which the villagers call Jemҁa rāb (Great Mosque) in Aramaic .

A traditional holiday is Akitu Brikha, the Syriac New Year on April 1st.

language

Jubb-'Adin, which has been largely isolated for centuries, has retained a dialect of New West Aramaic as its mother tongue . Most of the younger people are bilingual and speak both Aramaic and Arabic fluently. The use of an Aramaic dialect by Muslims as their mother tongue , as is the case only in Jubb-'Adin - up to the civil war also in as-Sarcha and among the Muslim minority in Maalula - is considered unique in the world.

The children learn Aramaic as the first language in their families and as a second language in school, Arabic, which is used as the language of instruction.

Place name

The Aramaic place name Dschubb-ʿAdin consists of two parts of the name. The first part Ġuppa ( Syrian ܓܽܦܐ) means “well” in Aramaic, while the second part ҁōḏ (ܥܘܕ) can be translated in various ways. ҁōḏ (ܥܘܕ) can mean "celebration, festival", which means that the name can be translated as "fountain of the festival". However, ҁōḏ can also refer to Audianism (an early Christian belief in Syria, named after its founder Audius or Audaeus), which existed in the area before Islamization . According to this, the name could be translated as “Fountain of Audius ”. The translation of the second part of the name with the name of the ethnic group ʿĀd , which is mentioned in the Koran , is considered less likely .

economy

The inhabitants live from agriculture , with grapes, figs, cereals, legumes and sumac getting their water from rain, while the apple and cherry trees and the vegetable fields are irrigated. The water supply of the place and the irrigation canals are fed from wells and a spring just before Chabur and Ain Gabriel (Gabriel source). Today, many residents have left the place to work, especially in the Arab oil countries.

In the Syrian civil war

In the Syrian civil war , the people of Jubb-'Adin sided with the Syrian government from the start. There were several attacks by Islamist rebels in 2013 and 2014, but the local militia repelled them. Opposition fighters were able to penetrate the village only once, but were thrown back by the residents with the support of the army. 75 residents of the place died in the fight against the Islamists. Around 2% of the building structure was destroyed, which was significantly less than in other places in the region, but the majority of the trees in the area were felled by the rebels. Jubb'adin is the only one of the three western Aramaic villages from which the Aramaeans were not expelled, but it did accept many Arabic-speaking refugees from other places.

Born in Jubb-'Adin

literature

  • Werner Arnold : The New West Aramaic. 5 volumes. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden ( Semitica Viva 4),

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph Amar: The Loss of Syria. Commonweal Magazine, October 12, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b Jubb'adin in Qalamoun. Interview by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi with a resident of Jubb'adin. May 13, 2019.