Adhriat (Der'a)

Adhriat, today Der'a, is the chief town of the Hawran in southern Syria. It lies about 106 km south of Damascus, on the border between the basalt region and the desert, and it is the Edrei of the Bible.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed H. Lammens and L. Veccia Vaglieri, describes Adhriat as a town formerly renowned for wine and oil and an important market for cereals. Before the Assyrian conquest of 732 BC, Damascus and Israel contended for it; some scholars identify it with Aduri of the Amarna tablets. It was the capital of Batanea, was taken by Antiochus, came under Nabatean and then Roman rule, and was included in the province of Arabia from 106. In the Christian period it was the seat of a bishopric of Arabia. ¹

The Persians sacked it in 613 or 614 during their campaign against the Byzantines. On the eve of the hijra it was the centre of an important Jewish colony, where the tribe of Nadir took refuge after Muhammad drove them from Medina. Under Abu Bakr the inhabitants submitted to the Muslims, and they acclaimed Umar when he passed. Mu'awiya II b. Yazid is said to have been born there, and the population was massacred during the Qarmatian rebellion of 293/906. The Crusade chroniclers call it the City of Bernard d'Etampes, especially in 1119 and 1147. Under the Mamluks and Ottomans Adhriat, capital of Bathaniyya, belonged to the province of Damascus and was a stage on the pilgrimage. The railway from Damascus through 'Amman to Medina made it an important station and junction, and the British occupied it on 28 September 1918. Today Der'a is a major railway centre on the southern road from Damascus to Baghdad and a frontier post on the Jordan border. ¹