Al-Suqaylabiyah

Government

As- Suqailabiyya (Arabic السقيلبية, DMG as- Suqailabiyya ), partly also Suqailabiyya and in the local dialect Sqailbiyya, is a Syrian city in the province of Hama. The city had in 2010 according to calculations based on earlier data estimated 18,825 inhabitants.

History

Antiquity

Suqailabiyya was founded in antiquity Seleucia (Greek Σελεύκεια ). The name refers to Seleucus I Nicator, a commander in the wake of Alexander the Great and later founder of the Seleucid Empire, back. The city was due to the proximity to the Belus Massif nicknamed "ad Belum " and became known as Seleucobelos or Seleucopolis (Arabic سلوقوبيلوس ). Only a few kilometers away from the Seleucid city Apamea, the settlement belonged to their extended, densely populated surrounding areas.

Seleucobelos benefited economically primarily by its location on the river Orontes, the (modern Latakia ) and the interior was used as a trade route between the coastal cities such as Laodicea.

Recolonization in the Modern

The modern Suqailabiyya goes according to data from a manuscript of a sheikh named Abdallah Said about the 1800 back, but Arab researchers tend to go out of the middle of the 19th century, the year 1840 is mentioned as the most likely. The settlers were mainly from a mountain village called Ayn al - Kurum and were in time by more newcomers from the villages Mardasch, Aanab, Dibasch, Arnaba and Qal al - Mudiq (the former Apamea ) supplemented.

In contrast to the ancient Seleucobelos that lay on the west side of the Orontes River in the northwest of Apamea, the present settlement is a few miles to the southeast on the east side of the river.