Huwwarah

Coordinates: 32°32′01″N 35°54′42″E / 32.533608°N 35.911560°E / 32.533608; 35.911560 Huwwarah (Arabic: حوّاره‎‎), also spelled Huwwara and Huwarrah, is a village in northern Jordan. It is situated in the Governorate of Irbid, and is one of many agricultural villages in the fertile mud plains of Hauran. The mud plains of Hauran bridge the gap between the Golan Heights in the west and the Sham desert to the east. The southern part of Hauran is in North Jordan. Huwwarah if flanked by the ancient sites of Ramoth-Gilead (Ramtha, Jordan) in Gilead to the east and Arabella (Irbid) to the west. North, it is bordered by Sal and Bishra, and south and southeast it is bordered by Sareeh.

It has a population estimated around 15,000. The two major families (tribes or clans) in Huwarra are: the Gharaibeh Family and Al Shatnawi Family. Other tribes/clans include: el Ghuzlan, el Haddad, el Karasneh (thought to be the original settlers of the village), el Lawabneh, el Shar' (or Shroo'), and el Tanash. Huwara is situated about 5 km to the East of Irbid. It is famous for its rich soil (rust colored mud soil) and wheat crops.

Geography

Huwwarah in June 1991
Houran

Huwwarah is in North Jordan. It is part of the Mud Plains of Houran. The Houran lies west of Jabal ed Druze and stretches from the outskirts of Southern Damascus to the Zarqa River in Jordan. It is part of Bilad esh Sham.

Photo taken in July 2007, from east to west

History

The history of Huwwarah is part of the history of Houran. See Johann Ludwig Burckhardt's Travels in Syria and the Holy Land for an account of a relatively recent history of the area (the winter of 1810).[1]

It is unknown when Huwwarah was permanently settled. Some of the older stone buildings in the village suggest the mid-19th century. However, mud houses must have existed long before that, based on the number of generations the elderly reported through oral tradition. It is expected that there lived at least 12 generations so far in Huwwarah, making the estimated date of settlement between 1700 and 1750 CE (AD).

The village also contains numerous sites were some coins from Hellenistic or Roman periods were found. Furthermore, there is an agricultural section of east of Huwwarah called Dhahr El Muqhur (roofs of the caves) which is apparently a necropolis to a nearby settlement that may have been the village itself. This makes perfect sense in view of the fact that Huwwarah is in the heart of the area that contained the Decapolis union of ten famous trade towns, the most famous of which are Jerash and Gadara (Um Qais).

The Jordanian dialect of Hourani or Hawarné

The Hawarné dialect is quite different from mainstream Jordanian Levantine, with several nouns changing. The biggest difference would be the pronunciation of the Q and K; Q is pronounced as a hard G, and the K is always pronounced as a Ç (CH as in Charlie).

Notes

  1. ↑ Burckhardt, John Lewis (1822). "Chapter 2: Journal of an Excursion into the Haouran in the Autumn and Winter of 1810". Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. London: The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa; John Murray. pp. 50–120. OCLC 3673177.

References

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