Maarrat Misrin

A town just north of Idlib, 338 metres above sea level, and the first stop on the road from Idlib towards Harim and Sarmada. Aleppo is 50 kilometres away, Maarat al-Numan 40 and Sarmin 12. Its history runs from a peaceful conquest in 637 to the frontier wars of the Crusader and Ayyubid periods, and more than twenty old sites are counted in the town. The largest is the Great Mosque.

Where the name comes from

According to al-Muqaddasi and Abu al-Fida, the original name was Maarrat Qinnasrin, as the town belonged to the military district of Qinnasrin. The name was shortened to Maarrat Nasrin and then worn down to Maarrat Masrin. 8th-century Syriac manuscripts call it Ma’arrat Mesren; the Crusaders called it Megaret Basrin.

Who passed through

Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah took the town peacefully in 637, after the battle of Hazir. In 968 the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas conquered it and deported 1200 of its inhabitants to Anatolia. In 1098, when the Crusaders took Antioch, its fleeing Seljuk ruler Yaghi-Siyan was killed at Armanaz, then an estate belonging to the town.

In 1099 the Crusaders smashed the mosque’s minbar, the pulpit; in 1104 the people rose against them. In 1114 Ismailis set out from here to attack Shaizar and were driven back by the Banu Munqidh. The town passed to the Crusaders again in 1119. In 1175 Saladin expelled the Ismailis and appointed his uncle Shihab al-Din al-Harimi governor. In 1240 the Khwarazmians plundered it.

Under the Ottomans

In the 17th century it was the centre of a kaza, or district, in the province of Aleppo. By the end of the 19th century it was surrounded by sesame fields and olive groves. In the early 20th century the American archaeologist Robert Garrett noted that the soil was unusually fertile and that fig trees were plentiful.

What to see

More than twenty old sites are counted in the town. First comes the Great Mosque, said to be the largest in the province: it has many domes, and its prayer hall rests on four columns. Tradition says Abu Ubayda laid its foundations and Ubada ibn al-Samit completed it. The list also includes the Awlad al-Khalil Mosque and Tell al-Khalil, the shrine of al-Khidr to the north-west, and to the north the shrine of al-Malik al-Salih Ahmad, a grandson of Saladin. We found no verified record of these buildings as they stand today.

Getting there

It is the first town north of Idlib on the road to Harim. Roads and checkpoints change; check the current situation before you set out.

How long it takes

An hour for the Great Mosque and its surroundings.

Don’t miss

The prayer hall of the Great Mosque. Only from inside can you see that the many-domed roof rests on just four columns.