Awas, Suwayda
Village in Suwayda, Syria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Awas (Arabic: عÙس) is a village situated in the Salkhad District of Suwayda Governorate, in southern Syria. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Awas had a population of 308 in the 2004 census.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Druze.[2]
History
In 1596, it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Us, as part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Malik as-Sadir, in the Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 7 households and 1 bachelors. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 20% on agricultural products, including wheat (3000 a.), barley (450 a.), summer crops (100 a.) goats and beehives (50 a.), in addition to "occasional revenues" (100 a.); the taxes totalled 3,700 akçe.[3]
In 1838, Eli Smith noted it as 'Auwas, a ruin located east of Salkhad.[4]