As-Suwayda

Town square

The city was founded by the Nabataeans as Suada. It became known as Dionysias Soada (Ancient Greek: Διονῡσιάς) in the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire, for the god Dionysus, patron of wine - the city is situated in a famous ancient wine-producing region.

The name Dionysias replaced the former Nabataean name in 149 AD after Nabataean influence decreased and then concentrated towards the south, as a result of the then accelerating Hellenization of Coele-Syria.

The agora of Dionysias

The arch of the lesser church

Orthodox Easter celebrations in As-Suwayda

Dionysias was a part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, and received the rights of civitas during the reign of Commodus between 180 and 185.

Dionysus was worshipped in the same Nabatean temple dedicated to Dushara. This practice of associating the worship of local and Hellenic gods was common in Hellenistic Syria.

This name remained in use during the Byzantine Empire, when the town was under the influence of the Ghassanids. Dionysias then was a diocese with a suffragan bishop from Bosra. It was mentioned in the Synecdemus of Hierocles. After the early Muslim conquests, the city was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate of the Arabs in 629 and became a titular see.[7]

Yaqut al-Hamawi noted in the 1220s that As Suwaida was "a village of the Hauran Province".[8]

In 1516, the city and the adjoining region was conquered from the Mamluk Sultanate by the Ottoman Empire. In 1596 As-Suwayda appeared under the name of Majdal Sawda in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Nasiyya of the Hauran Sanjak. It had a population of 5 households and 5 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 6,125 akçe. 3/4 of the revenue went to a waqf.[9]

In recent times Dionysias was firstly identified as as-Suwayda by William Waddington.

The city has been held by the government for the duration of the Syrian Civil War and has seen relatively little fighting. On 28 October 2012, security forces launched a campaign of mass arrests in the city.[10]

On July 25, 2018, the city, which had been by that time far away from the front lines, was rocked by a string of terrorist attacks. A group of at least 56 ISIS-affiliated attackers entered the city and initiated a series of gunfights and suicide bombings on its streets killing at least 246 people, the vast majority of them civilians. Many of the terrorists were reported killed during the attack, bringing the total death toll to at least 302 people.[11] Forty-two Druze between the ages of 7 and 60 were kidnapped by ISIS and are being held captive. One has been executed bringing the total in captivity to 41.[12]

On 7 June 2020, anti-government protests erupted in the city due to the deteriorating economic situation. Protesters demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad for the first time since 2015 in the city which had remained neutral during the Syrian civil war.[13][14] As a result of the protests, Prime Minister Imad Khamis was sacked on 11 June and replaced by Hussein Arnous.[15]

In February, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Sweida to decry corruption and worsening living standards.[16]

In August, thousands of protestors took to the streets to decry worsening economic conditions and demanding the departure of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.[17]