Al-Atrash
| Ethnicity | Arab |
|---|---|
| Current region | Jabal Hauran, Akkar |
| Place of origin |
Jabal al-A'la, northern Syria (claimed) Hauran (early 19th century) |
| Members |
Ismail al-Atrash Sultan al-Atrash Farid al-Atrash Asmahan |
| Connected families | Bani Isma'il Bani Najm Bani Hammud |
| Name origin and meaning | "the Deaf" |
The al-Atrash (Arabic: الأطرش al-Aṭrash), also known as Bani al-Atrash, is a Druze clan based in Jabal Hauran in southwestern Syria. The family's name al-atrash is Arabic for "the deaf" and derives from one the family's deaf patriarchs. The al-Atrash clan migrated to Jabal Hauran in the early 19th century, and under the leadership of their sheikh (chieftain) Ismail al-Atrash, became the paramount ruling Druze family of Jabal Hauran in the mid-19th century, taking over from the Al Hamdan. Through his battlefield reputation and his political intrigues with other Druze clans, Bedouin tribes, the Ottoman authorities and European consuls, Ismail consolidated al-Atrash power. By the early 1880s, the family controlled eighteen villages, chief among which were as-Suwayda, Salkhad, al-Qurayya, 'Ira and Urman.
Ismail was succeeded by his eldest son Ibrahim and following the latter's death, by Ismail's other son Shibli. Al-Atrash sheikhs led the Druze in numerous revolts against the Ottomans, including the 1910 Hauran revolt. One of its sheikhs, Sultan Pasha al-Atrash was the chief leader of the Great Syrian Revolt against French rule in Syria in 1925–1927.
The origins of the Bani al-Atrash family are obscure, according to Druze historian Kais Firro, who asserts that like other prominent Middle Eastern families, "genealogical tress were only reconstructed after the consolidation of a family's power". The Bani al-Atrash claim descent from Ali al-Aks, a ruler of the Jabal al-A'la mountain in the western countryside of Aleppo. This claim is affirmed by several historians of the family, but is viewed skeptically by Firro. Some members of the family claim descent from the Ma'an clan, the Druze power in Mount Lebanon during Mamluk and early Ottoman rule (14th–17th centuries).
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