Aqir_Zayti
Aqir Zayti
Village in Tartus, Syria
Aqir Zayti (Arabic: عقر زيتي, also spelled Aqir Zayt or Aqir Zeit) is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located in the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range, east of Tartus. The village of Khirbet al-Faras is located immediately south. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Aqir Zayti had a population of 783 in the 2004 census.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Ismailis, who moved there after being forced out from the nearby fortress village of Khawabi in the early 20th century.[2]
Aqir Zayti contains the al-Hajj Khidr Tomb, an important Ismaili shrine. According to local Ismaili legend, which is partly rooted in historical facts, al-Hajj Khidr was an Ismaili religious sheikh from al-Qadmus who became popular in that area and was consequently forced out by that town's Ismaili emirs. Al-Hajj Khidr later represented the Ismaili community of Khawabi, where he and his supporters took refuge, on a delegation to meet the chief imam of the Ismailis in India. The imam in India assigned al-Hajj Khidr to become the chief missionary of Syria, replacing the aging Muhammad al-Suwaydani. Upon returning to Syria, al-Hajj Khidr's authority was rejected by the Ismaili emirs of al-Qadmus, Masyaf and Wadi al-Uyun. The two sides later clashed and al-Hajj Khidr and many of his partisans were killed.[3] Due to reforms by Aga Khan III which forbade shrine worship, al-Hajj Khidr's shrine was dismantled in the early 20th century.[4]