Suwayda (Arabic: ٱلسُّوَيْدَاء, romanized: al-Suwaydāʾ), also spelled Sweida, is a mainly Druze city located in southwestern Syria, close to the border with Jordan.

Dionysias was a part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, and received the rights of civitas during the reign of Commodus between 180 and 185.

In 1596 Suwayda appeared under the name of Majdal Sawda in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Nasiyya of the Hauran Sanjak.

The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 6,125 akçe.

A group of at least 56 ISIS-affiliated attackers entered the city and initiated a series of gunfights and suicide bombings killing 246 people, the vast majority of them civilians.

[13][14] As a result of the protests, Prime Minister Imad Khamis was sacked on 11 June and replaced by Hussein Arnous.

[15] In February 2022, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Sweida to decry corruption and worsening living standards.

[16] In August 2023, thousands of protestors took to the streets to decry worsening economic conditions and demanding the departure of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

[18] On December 18, 2024, a delegation of the Syrian transitional government arrived at the city to meet with the spiritual leader of the Druze.