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History of Qanawat


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Roman history

The town is mentioned for the first time in the reign of Herod the Great (1st century BC), when Nabatean Arab forces defeated a Jewish army. It remained an issue of contention between the two powers. From the Pompey's time until Trajan's it was a city of the Decapolis, a loose federation of cities allowed by the Romans to enjoy a degree of autonomy. In the 1st century AD it was annexed to the Roman province of Syria, and in the 2nd century it was rechristened Septimia Canatha by Septimius Severus, and transferred to the province of Arabia.

Islamic history

 A center of Christianism propagation in the area, Canatha was captured by the Muslim Arabs in 637, declining in importance until, in the 9th century, it was reduced to a poor village.

 In 1596 Qanawat appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the nahiya of Badi Nasiyya in the Qada of Hauran. It had a Christian population consisting of 5 households and a Muslim population of 12 households; the inhabitants included a settled group of beduins. Taxes were paid on wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives
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