Aqrab

Aqrab (, also spelled Akrab; ) is a town in central Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, under the Hama District, in the Hirbnafsah sub district, located southwest of Hama at the governorate border with Homs. Nearby localities include Nisaf and Baarin to the west, Awj to the southwest, Qarmas to the south, Taldou and Houla to the southeast, Talaf and the subdistrict (nahiyah) center Hirbnafsah to the east, Bisin and Jidrin to the northeast and al-Bayyadiyah to the northwest.

==History== According to the Ottoman Defter records, the population of the village increased from 10 households in 1526 to 39 households by 1594. In an Ottoman government record from 1818, Aqrab was listed as one of two Turkmen villages belonging to the Qirra ('Villages') Khaliliyya; the other village was neighboring Ik'una and the two villages together consisted of 49 feddans and paid 10,350 qirsh in taxes, as well as 7,380 qirsh in illegal exactions to the mutasallim of Hama, Faraj Agha. At the time, the multazims (tax farmers) of Aqrab were locals from the village. In 1838, it was recorded as a Sunni Muslim village.