Besirin
Village in Hama, Syria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Besirin (Arabic: بسيرين; also transliterated Bsirin or Bsarin) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Hama District of the Hama Governorate. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Besirin had a population of 4,697 in the 2004 census.[1]
History
Besirin was mentioned as the hometown of an Orthodox Christian scribe named 'Mattai' on three Syriac manunscripts he produced, which were dated to 1294, 1295 and 1297.[2] In the mid-16th century, Besirin had a Christian community following the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.[3] According to the Ottoman Defter record of the Hama Sanjak taken in 1594, the village was an entirely Christian settlement home to 134 households and 11 bachelors.[4] In 1838, it was recorded as a Sunni Muslim village.[5]
