Jasem

Jasem (Arabic: جاسم) is a small city located in the northwest of Ezraa Municipality in the Syrian Arab Republic, close to the boundary with Sanamain Municipality. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 36,233. Jasem is located 60 kilometres from Damascus. Former Prime Minister of the Arab Union Wael Nader al-Halqi was born and raised in Jasem.

History
During the Byzantine era in Syria, Jasem was a seat of the Monophysite church in 570. It was controlled and populated by the Ghassanid Arabs, a vassal kingdom of the Byzantine Empire. There were five monasteries affiliated with the Monophysites located in the town. The Ghassanid king Nu'man was buried in between Jasem and nearby Tubna.

The 10th-century Arab historian al-Masudi wrote that Jasem belonged to Damascus and was located "between Damascus and the Jordan Province, in a district called al-Khaulan. Jasem is a few miles from al-Jabiya, and from the territory of Nawa, where is the Pasturage of Ayyoub."

Jasem was visited by Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in the early 13th-century during Ayyubid rule. Al-Hamawi wrote that the place was named after "Jasem, son of Iram ibn Sam (Shem) ibn Nuh (Noah) who visited it at the time of the destruction of the Tower of Babel." He further noted that Jasem was a town in Damascus Province, "lying 8 leagues from Damascus, on the right of the high-road to Tabariya," (Tiberias).

Ottoman period
In 1596 Jasem appeared in the Ottoman tax registers being in the nahiya of Jaydur in the Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 28 households and 14 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 40% on wheat, barley and summer crops; a total of 11,300 akçe. Half of the revenue went to a waqf.

Many of the inhabitants of nearby al-Harra originate from Jasem. The city is home to the Arab tribe of al-Halqiyyin. Prominent 20th-century Arab socialist leader Akram al-Hawrani descends from the tribe, members of which settled in Homs. In the 1870s Gottlieb Schumacher noted that Jasem was one of the largest villages in its region with a population of 1,000 living in 215 huts. He reported finding several ancient remains, particularly stone crosses from the Byzantine era.