Hout, Suwayda
Village in Suwayda, Syria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hout (Arabic: حوط, also spelled Hut) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Suwayda Governorate, located south of Suwayda. Nearby localities include Umm ar-Rumman to the south, Samad to the southwest, Bosra to the west, Nimrah and al-Qurayya to the north and Salkhad to the east. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Hout had a population of 873 in the 2004 census.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Druze.[2]
History
In 1596, Hout appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Huta, and was part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Malik as-Sadir in the Qada Hauran. It had an all Muslim population consisting of 5 households and 2 bachelors. The residents paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, as well as on "occasional revenues" and for a press for olive oil or grape syrup; a total of 3,180 akçe.[3]
A survey conducted by Edward Robinson and Eli Smith in 1838 described Hout as situated in the Nukrah, east of Busrah, and being in a state of ruin. The Nukrah refers to the southern part of the Hauran plain.[4]