Al-Mubattan

Al-Mubattan is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Mubattan had a population of 400 in the 2004 census.

History

Al-Mubattan was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire along with the rest of Syria in 1516 after they defeated the Mamluks. Unlike many surrounding settlements, Al-Mubattan's population declined during the early Ottoman era, falling from 20 households in 1526, to 11 households in 1551. By 1594, it no longer had any recorded inhabitants. In 1890, al-Mubattan was sold by a sheikh of the Bani Khalid, a Bedouin tribe of central Syria, to the Azm family of Hama. Its inhabitants were Sunni Muslim Arab tenant farmers.
By the time the Syrian Civil War began, al-Mubattan appears to have been a predominantly Alawite settlement. On 9 December 2024, armed men from Raqqa and Khan Sheikhoun reportedly seized the property of the residents and expelled them. By 5 February 2025, there were only 15 people still living in the village and as of 15 May it appears that the residents have remained unable to return to their homes.