Bakka, Suwayda


Bakka is a village situated in the Salkhad District of Suwayda Governorate, in southern Syria. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Bakka had a population of 2,563 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants are predominantly Druze.

History

In 1596, it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Bakka, as part of the nahiya of Bani Malik as-Sadir, in the Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 21 households and 10 bachelors. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; the taxes totalled 9,500 akçe.
In 1838, Eli Smith noted it as Beka, a ruin located "in the Nukrah, east of Busrah", the Nukrah being the southern Hauran plain.

Religious buildings