Burd, Suwayda

Burd is a village situated in the Salkhad District of Suwayda Governorate, in southern Syria. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Burd had a population of 207 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants are predominantly Druze, with a Sunni Muslim Bedouin minority.

History

In 1596, it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Burd , as part of the nahiya of Bani Malik as-Sadir, in the Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 8 households and 2 bachelors. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops goats and beehives ; the taxes totalled 2,000 akçe.
In 1838, Eli Smith noted it as Burd, a ruin located "in the Nukrah, east of Busrah", the Nukrah being the southern Hauran plain.