Al Hamidiyah is a town on the coastal Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

n line about 3km from the Lebanese

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 border. The town was founded in a very short time on direct orders from the Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 Sultan

Sultan

Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...

 ‘Abdu’l-Hamid II circa 1897, to serve as refuge for the Muslim

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 Cretans, be they Muslim Greeks

Muslim Greeks

*For the Muslims of Greek ethnic origin, see Greek Muslims*For the multiethnic Muslim minority in Thrace in Greece, see Muslim minority...

 or Cretan Turks

Cretan Turks

The Cretan Turks, Turco-Cretans , or Cretan Muslims were the Muslim inhabitants of Crete and now their descendants, who settled principally in Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt as well as in the larger Turkish diaspora.After the Ottoman conquest of Crete...

, who were forced to leave Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 when the island stop being a part of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

. The town is home to about 8.000 people, with the majority still speaking Cretan Greek

Cretan Greek

Cretan Greek is a dialect of the Greek language, spoken by more than half a million people in Crete and many thousands in the diaspora....

 in their daily lives.

See also

• Cretan Turks
  Cretan Turks
  The Cretan Turks, Turco-Cretans , or Cretan Muslims were the Muslim inhabitants of Crete and now their descendants, who settled principally in Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt as well as in the larger Turkish diaspora.After the Ottoman conquest of Crete...
  
  
• Greek Muslims
  Greek Muslims
  Greek Muslims, also known as Greek-speaking Muslims, are Muslims of Greek ethnic origin, nowadays found mainly in Turkey, although migrations to Lebanon and Syria have been reported. Historically, Greek Orthodoxy has been associated with being Romios, i.e...
  
  
• Greeks in Syria
  Greeks in Syria
  The Greek presence in Syria is dated to the 7th century BCE and became more prominent during the Hellenistic era and when the Seleucid Empire was centered there...
  
  
• Crete
  Crete
  Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
  
  
• History of Crete
  History of Crete
  The History of Crete goes back to the 7th Millennium B.C., preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe and the first, in Europe, to build a palace...