Shin, Syria

Shin (Arabic: شين Shîn) is a town in western Syria administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located west of Homs. Nearby localities include Rabah to the north, al-Mahfurah to the northeast, Tarin to the east, Suwayri to the southeast, Hadidah to the south, Mizyeneh and al-Huwash to the southwest and Muqlus to the northwest.

According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Shin had a population of 13,020 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the Shin nahiyah ("subdistrict") which consists of 22 localities with a collective population of 27,951 in 2004. The inhabitants of the town are predominantly Sunnis and Alawites. Although many had converted to the heterodox Alawite sect of Sulayman al-Murshid (known as Murshidians) during the French Mandate period (1920–46), the population readopted the orthodox Alawite faith since then.