Al-Mushrifah

Al-Mushrifah is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located northeast of Homs, with a population of 14,868 in 2004. Nearby localities include Ayn al-Niser, Umm al-Amad and al-Mukharram to the east, and Talbiseh, al-Ghantu and Teir Maalah to the west. Outside the modern town is Tell el-Mishrife, the site of the ancient city-state of Qatna. It has a religiously mixed population of Sunni Muslims, Alawites and Christians. The village contains several mosques and two churches.

History

In the mid-19th century, the village of al-Mushrifah was built within the ancient site of Qatna. Houses were built on top of the royal palace floors, which caused some damage to them while also providing a protective cover for the underlying ruins. In 1940, its population was 1,500. In the 1950s, under the influence of the Syrian Communist Party, some of the peasants of al-Mushrifah rose against their landlord by seizing his harvest. In 1982, the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums resettled the inhabitants in a new village next to the ancient tell, making the site available for modern archaeological research.