Hauran - History

History

The plains of Houran appear to have been initially inhabited by small bands of hunters and gatherers. By circa 12,000 BCE, microliths and bone tools were becoming part of daily lifestyle. It is thought that the development of farming around 10,000 BCE triggered an agricultural revolution that changed human history and paved the way for the appearance of ancient civilizations after millennia of hunting and gathering in small groups. By this time Natufians settled in Taiyiba in southern Houran, and southwest of Houran in Tabqat Fahl and in the Golan Heights to the west in Nhal ‘En Gev-II as well as all over Canaan.

To their east, circa 8300 BCE wheat was domesticated and their neighbors to the west in Canaan and to the East in Mesopotamia started living in oval houses. Between 8000 and 7000 BC, people of Hauran were eating mostly hunted gazelles and foxes. Between 7000 and 6000 BC their daily food was mostly domesticated animals (sheep, goat, pig, and cattle) and domesticated cereals. By the 4th millennium BC (4000 BCE to 3000 BCE) there were many Chalcolithic settlements in the valley of the Yarmouk river.

The Hauran is mentioned in the Bible (Ezekiel 47:16-18) describing the boundary area of the Israelite Kingdom at the time. Centuries later, the Ancient Greeks and Romans referred to the area as Auranitis, and it marked the traditional eastern border of Roman Syria; this is evidenced by the well-preserved Roman ruins in the cities of Bosra and Shahba. At the time, the Hauran also included the northern cities of the Decapolis.

19th-century Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt noted his observation of people from the region:

My companions intending to leave Damascus very early the next morning, I quitted my lodgings in the evening, and went with them to sleep in a small Khan in the suburb of Damascus, at which the Haouaerne, or people of Hauran, generally alight.

Today, the Hauran is not a distinct political entity, but encompasses the Syrian governorates of Quneitra, As Suwayda, and Daraa, and the Jordanian governorates of Irbid, Ajloun and Jerash, as well as the western part of Mafraq Governorate. However, the name is used colloquially by both the inhabitants of the region (Hauranis) and outsiders, to refer to the area and its people.