Vilayet Syria

Vital Cuinet (1833–1896):
Map of Syria from 1896

The Vilayet of Syria ( Ottoman ولايت سوريه İA Vilâyet-i Sûriye ) or Vilâyet Damascus ( Turkish Şam Vilâyeti ) was an administrative province ( Turkish Vilâyet ) of the Ottoman Empire from 1864 to 1920 with Damascus (Şam) as its capital.

At the beginning of the 20th century it had an area of ​​62,180 km². The first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) estimated the population at approximately 1,000,000. In 1897 the Vilâyet had 701,812 inhabitants. In addition to Aramaic , Kurdish and, since the end of the 19th century, Turkoman and Circassian minorities , predominantly Arabs settled in Vilayet Syria .

In 1888, the Vilayet Beirut was built from the coastal areas of the Vilayet Syria . This took into account the development and increased importance of the coastal region with its new flourishing capital Beirut , which had experienced significant growth in previous years.

In 1918 the area was occupied by French troops and in 1920 the League of Nations handed it over to French trusteeship together with Greater Lebanon .

Administrative division

Sanjaks des Vilayets Syria:

1. Sanjak of Damascus
2. Sanjak from Hama
3. Sanjak of Hauran
4. Sanjak from Kerak

Jerusalem was separated from the rest of the province, and the sanjak Jerusalem was created, which from 1841 was no longer subordinate to Damascus, but directly to Constantinople.

Web links

Commons : Vilâyet Syria  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Salname-yi Vilâyet-i Suriye ("Yearbook of Vilâyets Syria"), vilâyet matbaası, Suriye, 1300 [1882]. Hathi Trust Digital Library website.
2. ↑ AH Keane: Asia . P. 460; Text archive - Internet Archive
3. ↑ Servet Mutlu: Late Ottoman population and its ethnic distribution (PDF; 332 kB) pp. 29-31. Retrieved October 22, 2013. Corrected population for Mortality Level = 8.
4. ^ Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters: Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. P. 87.
5. ↑ M. Th Houtsma: First encyclopaedia of Islam , 1913-1936