Hama

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This article is about the city in Syria. For other uses of the same word, see Hama (disambiguation)

The Orontes River and norias in Hama

Location of the governorate of Hama

Hama (Arabic: حماه, meaning fortress) is a city on the banks of the Orontes river in central Syria. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate.

1 Description
2 Ancient history
3 Muslim and crusader feudal era
4 Modern history
5 Ecclesiastical history
6 See also
7 External links
8 Sources
9 Further reading

[edit] Description

Its population numbers 410,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth-largest city in Syria, after Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and Latakia.

Hama is an important agricultural and industrial center in Syria, with 3,680 square kilometres (over a third of the governorate's area) under cultivation. The governorate produces over half of the national crop of potatoes and pistachio nuts, as well as growing a variety of other vegetables and supporting a healthy livestock ranching industry besides.

The city proper is renowned for its 16 norias used for watering the gardens, which—it is claimed—date back to 1100 BC. Though historically used for purpose of irrigation, nowadays the norias are almost entirely aesthetic and traditional.

[edit] Ancient history

The ancient settlement of Hama was occupied from the early Neolithic to the Iron Age. It was excavated between 1931-1933 by a Danish team under the direction of H. Ingholt. The stratigraphy is very generalised, which makes detailed comparison to other sites difficult. Level M (6 m thick) contained both white ware, vessels made from lime-plaster and true pottery. It may be contemporary with Ras Shamra VA and B (6000-5000 BC). The overlying level L dates to the Chalcolithic Halaf-period.

The Hittite levels are overlain by Aramaic remains which date to the end of the 11th century. At this time, Aramaic tribes seem to have taken over the whole Orontes and Litani-valley.

Iron age Hama (Hamath) seems to have been a centre of ivory-working. It shows strong Egyptian influence. Together with Aram (Damascus) Hama formed an important Aramaic state in the Syrian interior. As the Aramaic script was written on paper, very few records have been recovered in Hama itself.

Biblical reports are scarce, but state that Hamath was the capital of a Canaanite kingdom (2 Kings 23:33; 24:21) whose king, Thou, congratulated king David on his victory over the king of Soba (2 Samuel 8:9-11; 1 Chronicles 13:9-11). Solomon, it would seem, took possession of Hamath and its territory (1 Kings 4:21-24; 2 Chronicles 8:4). The prophet Amos (vi, 2) calls the town "Hamath the Great". The Assyrians took possession of it in the seventh century B.C.

When the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) conquered the North of Syria he reached Hama in 835 BC; this marks the beginning of Assyrian sources on the kingdom. Irhuleni of Hama and Im-idri of Aram (biblical Bar-Hadad) led a coalition of Syrian cities against the encroaching Assyrian armies. According to Assyrian sources, they were confronted by 4,000 chariots, 2,000 horsemen, 62,000 foot-soldiers and 1,000 Arab camel-riders at the fortress of Qarqar. The Assyrian victory seems to have been more of a draw, although Shalmaneser III continued to the ocean and even took a ship to open sea. In the following years, Shalmaneser III failed to conquer Hamath and Aram as well. After the death of Shalmaneser III the former allies Hamath and Aram fell out, and Aram seems to have taken over some of Hama's territory.

An Aramaic inscription by Zakir, king of Hamath and La'ash, tells of an attack by a coalition under Bar-Hadad, son of Hasael, king of Aram, including Sam'al. Zakir was besieged in his fortress of Hazrak, but saved by intervention of the God Be'elschamen. Later on, Ja'udi-Sam'al came to rule both Hamath and Aram.

In 743 BC Tiglath-Pileser III took a number of towns in the territory of Hama, but not the town itself. In 738 Hama is listed among the towns conquered by Assyrian troops. Over 30,000 Syrians from the environs of Hama were deported to the Zagros-mountains.

In 605 BC, the remains of the Egyptian garrison of Carchemish was annihilated at Hama by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.In 554/553 Hama was the target of a campaign by Nabonidus of Babylon.

At the time of the Macedonian conquest it was given the name Epiphania, no doubt in honour of and probably by king Antiochus Epiphanes. The inhabitants took no notice and continued to use the old name. Aquila and Theodoretus call it Emath-Epiphania.

The city later came under the control of Rome and of the Byzantine Empire, as part of the province of Syria Secunda.

[edit] Muslim and crusader feudal era

Conquered by the Arabs in A.D. 638 or 639, the town regained its ancient name, and has since retained it, under the form Hama(h), meaning a fortress.

Tancred took it in 1108, but in 1115 the Franks lost it definitively. The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179-1229), was born there. Christian Crusaders held Hama briefly (1108), but in 1188 it was re-taken by Saladin, under whose Ayyubid family it remained until it passed to Egyptian Mamluk control in 1299. An early Mamluk governor of Hama was Abu al-Fida (reigned 1310–30), the historian and geographer.

In the early 16th century the city came under the control of the Ottoman Empire, during which period a variety of Khans, and a beautiful Palace (the Al-Azem Palace - still existent), were built. Hamah (in Turkish) was a town of 45,000 inhabitants, prettily situated on the Orontes, and the residence of a Mutessarif (governor), depending on Damascus. The main portion of the population was Muslim, besides about 10,000 Christians of various rites.

[edit] Modern history

After World War I Hama was made part of the French Levant States League of Nations mandate, and in 1941 it became part of independent Syria.

Main article: Hama Massacre

Political insurgency by Islamic groups, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood beginning in the early 1980s culminated in an uprising in February, 1982. Government forces led by the president's brother, Rifaat al-Assad, quelled the revolt, but destroyed much of the old part of the city in the process. The town was shelled by the Syrian military, and the estimated deaths numbered more than 20,000 and may have been as high as 30,000 or 40,000. The story is suppressed in Syria.

[edit] Ecclesiastical history

Hamatha or Amatha is still a Roman Catholic titular see, suffragan of Apamea. It is as Epiphania that it is best known in ecclesiastical documents. Lequien (Oriens Christianus, II, 915-918) mentions nine Greek bishops of Epiphania. The first of them, whom he calls Mauritius, is the Manikeios whose signature appears in the Council of Nicaea (Gelzer, "Patrum Nicaenorum Nomina", p. lxi).

It has two Catholic archbishops, a Greek Melchite and a Syrian, the one residing at Labroud, the other at Homs, reuniting the titles of Homs (Emesus) and Hamah (Missiones Catholicae, 781-804). The Orthodox Greeks have a bishop of their own for either see.