It had a population of 59,170 in 2007, making it the 28th largest city per geographical entity in Syria. During classical antiquity, it was known as Neve or Naveh, and was part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea.
■ History
□■ Roman and Byzantine periods
During the Roman and Byzantine periods, Nawa had a large Jewish population. The city is mentioned in ancient Jewish sources, such as the 3rd century Mosaic of Rehob and the Midrash Rabba； it is also referred to by George of Cyprus (”Descriptio orbis romani”, ed. Heinrich Gelzer, 54) in the 7th century.Numerous basalt architectural elements from the Byzantine period, bearing Jewish symbols—most prominently the menorah—were discovered ire used as spolia within Nawa (A. Reifenberg, ’Ancient Hebrew Arts’, 1952).
□■ Early Islamic period
Under the Islamic Caliphate of the Rashidun, Umayyads, and Abbasids, it was a part of Jund Dimashq and the principal city of Hauran. Al-Mas’udi wrote in 943 that a mosque dedicated to Job was located 5 kilometres (3 mi) from Nawa.
□■ Ayyubid period
By the 13th century, its status declined； Yaqut al-Hamawi recorded in 1225 that Nawa was ”a small town of the Hauran,” formerly the capital of the region. He describe it as the city where Job dwelled in and the burial place of Shem, the son of Noah. In 1233, Imam Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi, a prominent Muslim scholar, was born in the city.
□■ Ottoman period
In 1596 Nawa appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Nawi and was part of the nahiya of Jaydur in the Hauran Sanjak. It had an entirely Muslim population consisting of 102 households and 43 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 40％ on wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives； a total of 26,000 akçe.
□■ Syrian civil war
In July 2018, the citizens of Nawa were subject to heavy Syrian government and Russian military bombardment, in an effort to rid the city from its anti-government forces.
■ Ecclesiastical history
The bishopric of Neve (Nawa) was a suffragan of Bostra, the metropolitan see of Arabia Petraea. Two of its bishops are known: Petronius, who attended the Council of Ephesus in 431； Jobius, who was present at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.Isaac, mentioned by Le Quien as a third bishop, of about 540 (Oriens christiana, II, 864), was a bishop not of Neve but of Nineve, and lived at the end of the seventh century (”Échos d’Orient”, IV, 11).The Diocese of Neve is noticed in the Notitia episcopatuum of the patriarchate of Antioch in the 6th century (”Échos d’Orient”, X, 145).
■ Bibliography

NW 5.4Km	Jabiyah
SW 5.9Km	Al-Shaykh Saad
SW 9.7Km	Tell Ashtara
NW 18.4Km	Mount Peres
NW 19.8Km	Tell al-Hara
SW 20.0Km	Tal Saki
NW 22.7Km	Rujm el-Hiri
SW 22.7Km	Tell Shihab
SW 29.7Km	Decapolis

vTourMap 🝙 Nawa, Syria 奈瓦 نوى

vTourMap 🝙 　 Nawa, Syria　奈瓦　 نوى