Kfeir al-Zayt
village in Syria
Kfeir Alzeit (also spelled Kufayr al-Zayt) (Arabic: كفير الزيت) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, located northwest of Damascus in the Wadi Barada. Nearby localities include Ain al-Fijah, Deir Qanun, al-Dimas, Jdeidat al-Wadi, Deir Muqaran and Basimah. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Kfeir Alzeit had a population of 4,170 in the 2004 census.
History
The first anti-government protest in Wadi Barada was in Kfeir Alzeit and took place on April 1, 2011 when people left the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque after Friday prayers. A group of about 30 men gathered outside and started chanting slogans: “Allahu akbar,” “Freedom!” and “Daraa, we are with you until death!”. The protesters were mainly from outside the village, but some of them were villagers, and some were armed.
After the unrest, villagers with connections appealed to the presidential palace to send someone to negotiate with the protesters. A week later after morning prayer, a group from Kfeir Alzeit met with an official delegation headed by Issam Zahreddine, a brigadier general in the Syrian Republican Guard who went on to lead the assault on the district of Baba Amr in Homs in February 2012. The first thing the villagers demanded was to have the river restored and thereby get permanent access to clean drinking water. They also complained about the lack of public transportation and the land confiscations, and discussed a number of other local issues.
The public source identifies “Kfeir al-Zayt” as village in Syria. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kfeir, al-Zayt and village.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Kfeir al-Zayt”, the useful work is to connect “village in Syria” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6441893. Authority coordinates are 33.612, 36.140. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2011 and 2012.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kfeir al-Zayt”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kfeir al-Zayt primary sources, Kfeir al-Zayt archive and Kfeir research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kfeir al-Zayt”?
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kfeir al-Zayt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.