Masyaf
|
Masyaf مصياف |
|
|---|---|
A view of Masyaf, 2008
|
|
 Masyaf
|
|
| Coordinates: 35°03′55″N 36°20′32″E / 35.06528°N 36.34222°ECoordinates: 35°03′55″N 36°20′32″E / 35.06528°N 36.34222°E | |
| Country |
 Syria
|
| Governorate | Hama |
| District | Masyaf |
| Subdistrict | Masyaf |
| Elevation | 447 m (1,467 ft) |
| Population (2004) | |
| • Total | 22,508 |
Masyaf (Arabic: مصياف Miṣyāf) is a city in northwestern Syria, in the Hama Governorate. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Masyaf had a population of 150.000 in the 2012 census. It is the administrative center of the Masyaf District and the Masyaf Subdistrict. The latter had a population of 68,184 in 2004. In the mid-1940s, its inhabitants were predominantly Ismailis. Today, it is a religiously mixed city of Ismailis and Alawites, with a Christian minority.
The city is notable for its large medieval castle. It was used by the Nizari Ismailis and their elite Assassins (Hashashin) unit as the headquarters of their territory in the Jabal Ansariyah range.
Throughout the Islamic era and until the modern day, the Arabic name of the city was pronounced in a number of different ways by the inhabitants of the region as Maṣyaf, Maṣyat or Maṣyad. The Arabic name is a local pronunciation that evolved from the Assyrian name Manṣuate. The "nṣw" in Manṣuate correlates with the Arabic "nṣṣ", which means "to set up", according to orientalist scholar Edward Lipinsky. Moreover, Lipinsky suggests that the Assyrian name was likely a configuration of the Assyrian word manṣuwatu which correlates with the Arabic word minaṣṣatu(n), both of which translate as "raised platform". This translation is indicative of the promontory that the Masyaf fortress occupies which overlooks the rest of the city and the surrounding area.
...
Wikipedia