Ma'ariya معرية Umm Sharq
Village
Ma'ariya
Coordinates: 32°45′51″N 35°47′54″E / 32.76417°N 35.79833°E / 32.76417; 35.79833
Grid position	224/241 PAL
Country	Syria
Governorate	Daraa
District	Daraa
Subdistrict	Shajara
Population  (2004 census)[1]
• Total	1,083
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Ma'ariya (Arabic: معرية, romanized: Ma'ariya, also transliterated Ma'ari), also known as Umm Sharq, is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located west of Daraa. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Ma'ariya had a population of 1,083 in the 2004 census.^[1]

In 1596 Ma'ariya appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jawlan Sharqi in the Qada of Hauran. It had an all Muslim population consisting of 5 households. A fixed tax−rate of 25% was paid on wheat (450 akçe), barley (180 a.), summer crops (70 a.), goats and/or beehives (50 a.), in addition to taxes occasional revenues (50 a.); a total of 900 akçe.^[2]

In 1884, American archaeologist Gottlieb Schumacher described Ma'ariya (which he spelled 'M'arri') as an "uninhabited spot, where there are scattered ruins of considerable extent, but no remains of archaeological interest".^[3] He noted it laid just east of Arqub al-Rahwa, which called the presumed Biblical Argob, and that both sites were built on the same hill shoulder. The name 'M'arri' was that of a Muslim saintly figure buried in a close-by cavernous area underneath a terebinth tree. Bedouins from the local Manadhira tribe grew tobacco, grain and vegetables on the slopes by the site.^[3]

In December 2024 Israel invaded further into Syria. On 19 December, it was reported that the Israeli military has prevented Syrian farmers in Ma'ariya from accessing their fields.^[4]

• Hütteroth, W.-D.; Abdulfattah, K. (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
• Schumacher, G. (1886). Across the Jordan: Being an Exploration and Survey of part of Hauran and Jaulan. London: Richard Bentley and Son.

• Kafer el Ma-map; 21K