The name 'Deir al-Bukht' is
Arabic for 'Convent of the
Bactrian Camel'. According to early 13th-century Syrian geographer
Yaqut al-Hamawi, Deir al-Bukht had previously been known as 'Deir Mikhail', a monastery dedicated to
Saint Michael. It received its current name as a result of early 8th-century
Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik's habit of having a Bactrian camel saddled at the monastery. In 1596 Dayr al-Bukht appeared in the
Ottoman tax registers as part of the
nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Kilab in
Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely
Muslim population consisting of 15 households and 6 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 20% on
wheat,
barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives; a total of 5,770
akçe. Half of the revenue went to a
waqf. In the 19th-century Biblical scholar
Eli Smith noted that Deir al-Bukht was a Muslim village. During the
French Mandate period, Deir al-Bukht was the center of the
Al al-Zu'bi clan which controlled a total of 16 villages in the
Hauran, including
Khirbet Ghazaleh and
al-Musayfirah, and provided the local religious leadership of the
Qadiriyya, a
Sufi Muslim order dating back to the 12th century. The head of the clan was Muflih al-Zu'bi who served as a deputy of the French Mandate authorities. == References ==