Homs, known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa, is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is 501 m (1,644 ft) above sea level and is located 162 km (101 mi) north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast.
Before the Syrian civil war, Homs was a major industrial hub with a population of at least 652,609 people in 2004, it was the third-largest city in Syria after Aleppo to the north and the capital Damascus to the south. Its population reflected Syria's general religious diversity, composed of Sunni and Alawite Muslims, and Christians. There are a number of historic mosques and churches in the city, and it is close to the Krak des Chevaliers castle, a World Heritage Site.
Homs did not emerge into the historical record until the 1st century BC in the Seleucid Empire, becoming the capital of a kingdom ruled by the Emesene dynasty who gave the city its name. Originally a center of worship for El-Gabal, a pagan idol linked to the sun, it later gained importance in Christianity under the Byzantines. Homs was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th century and made capital of a district that bore its current name. Throughout the Islamic era, Muslim dynasties contending for control of Syria sought after Homs due to the city's strategic position in the area. Homs began to decline under the Ottomans and only in the 19th century did the city regain its economic importance when its cotton industry boomed. During French Mandate rule, the city became a center of insurrection and, after independence in 1946, a center of Baathist resistance to the first Syrian governments.
During the civil war, much of the city was devastated due to the Siege of Homs; reconstruction to affected parts of the city is underway. In December 2024, Syrian rebels began an offensive, entering Homs and taking control of the city on December 8.
Etymology
The city's modern name is an Arabic form of the city's Latin name Emesus, derived from the Greek Émesa or Émesos, or Hémesa.
Most sources claim that the name Emesa in turn derived from the name of the Arab tribe known in Greek as Emesenoi, who inhabited the region prior to Roman influence in the area. Émesa was shortened to Homs or Hims by its Arab inhabitants, many of whom settled there prior to the Muslim conquest of Syria.
Other sources claim that the name Émesa or Hémesa was derived from that of the Aramean city of Hamath-zobah, a combination of Hamath (Hebrew: חֲמָת, romanized: Ḥamāth; Syriac: ܚܡܬ, romanized: Ḥmṭ; "fortress") and Sawbah (Hebrew: צובָא; Syriac: ܨܘܒܐ Ṣwba; "nearness"). Thus, the name collectively means "The fortress surrounding" which refers to the Citadel of Homs and the encircling plains.
The city was subsequently referred to as Χέμψ (Khémps) in Medieval Greek, and as "la Chamelle" (literally meaning "the female camel" in French but likely a corruption of the Arabic name according to René Dussaud) by the Crusaders (e.g. William of Tyre, Historia, 7.12, 21.6), although they never ruled the city.
History
For approximately 2,000 years, Homs has served as a key agricultural market, production site and trade centre for the villages of northern Syria. It has also provided security services to the hinterland of Syria, protecting it from invading forces. Excavations at the Citadel of Homs indicate that the earliest settlement at the site dates back to around 2300 BCE. Biblical scholars have identified the city with Hamath-zobah of Zobah mentioned in the Bible. In 1274 BCE, a battle took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River near Homs. It was possibly the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000–6,000 chariots.
Emesene dynasty and Roman rule
Strabo only mentioned Arethusa in his Geography, as a "very strong place" of the Arab Sampsigeramos and of his son Iamblikhos, "phylarchs" of the Emesene, who had allied themselves to Q. Caecilius Bassus against Caesar in 47 BC; the translators above cited have thought strange Strabo's not saying a word about Emesa. Claims have been made that Emesa was founded by Seleucus I Nicator who established the Seleucid Empire upon the death of Alexander the Great. However, according to Henri Seyrig, Emesa does not seem to have received any Greek colony and the authors' complete silence makes one think that it did not increase its visibility under the Seleucid kings. According to Henri Seyrig, it even seems that Posidonius, to whom Strabo probably referred concerning the Emesenes' phylarchs' alliance with Q. Caecilius Bassus, regarded the Emesenes as a simple tribe, governed by its sheikhs, and still devoid of a real urban existence; according to Maamoun Abdulkarim, occupation of the citadel's tell does not confirm the existence of a real urban centre in the plain before the Roman period and recent excavations have refuted the existence of vestiges preceding the Roman period under the actual town's outline, and the existence of an Arab Emesene dynasty in the region, probably located in Arethusa, attests to the secondary nature of this area during the Hellenistic period. Upon Pompey's submission of the Seleucid state of Syria to the Roman Republic in 64 BCE, the Emesene dynasty were confirmed in their rule as client kings of the Romans for aiding their troops in various wars. At its greatest extent, the Arab kingdom's boundaries extended from the Bekaa Valley in the west to the border with Palmyra in the east, and from Yabrud in the south to al-Rastan (Arethusa) in the north. A marker at the Palmyrene's southwestern border was found in 1936 by Daniel Schlumberger at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, dating from the reign of Hadrian or one of his successors, which marked the boundary between Palmyrene and Emesene (Pliny the Elder asserted that both territories were contiguous); this boundary probably ran northwards to Khirbet al-Bilaas on Jabal al-Bilas where another marker, laid by Roman governor Silanus, has been found, 75 kilometres (47 mi) northwest of Palmyra, probably marking a boundary with the territory of Epiphania. The kingdom of Sampsiceramus I, was the first of Rome's Arab clients on the desert fringes.
The city of Emesa grew to prominence after the new-found wealth of the Emesene dynasty, governed first by one of the sons of Sampsiceramus I, Iamblichus I who made it the kingdom's capital. The Emesene proved their loyalty to Rome once more when they aided Gaius Julius Caesar in his siege of Alexandria in 48 BC, by sending him army detachments. Subsequently, they became embroiled in the Roman Civil War between the rebelling Mark Antony and the pro-Caesar Octavian. Iamblichus I took the side of Octavian, and so upon encouragement from Antony, Iamblichus's brother Alexander usurped the throne and put Iamblichus I to death in 31 BCE. Octavian's forces prevailed in the war, however, and as a result the kingdom's throne was reverted to Iamblichus II (the son of Iamblichus I) after Alexander was executed for treason. It was in 32 that Heliopolis and the Beqaa Valley came under the kingdom's control. Relations with the Roman government grew closer when King Sohaemus inherited the kingship. Under him, Emesa sent the Roman military a regular levy of archers and assisted them in their siege of Jerusalem in 70. Sohaemus had died in 73. According to Maurice Sartre, the dynasty was very likely deprived of its kingdom, which was annexed to the Roman province of Syria, between 72 and the date of the construction of the Tomb of Sampsigeramus (78–79).
Under the Romans, Emesa began to show attributes of a Greek city-state and traces of Roman town planning still remain. Its transformation into a major city was completed under the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) when Emesa began to mint coins. By the 3rd century, it grew prosperous and well integrated into the Roman Orient. This was partly due to the marriage of Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus to a woman from a family of notables based in Emesa. According to a text of Ulpian (Digest 50.15.1.4) and another one of Paul (Digest 50.15.8.6), Caracalla and Elagabalus each promoted Emesa to the rank of a colonia and granted ius Italicum to it; Eugène Albertini has hypothesized about a revocation by Macrinus of the privileges given by Caracalla and a reestablishment of those by Elagabalus. Elagabalus served as the high priest at the Temple of El-Gebal, the local Arab sun god. He brought the image of this god, a conical black stone (Baetyl), to the Elagabalium in Rome.
Emesa also grew wealthy because it formed a link in the eastern trade funnelled through Palmyra; however, this dependence also caused the city's downfall when Palmyra sank to insignificance in the 4th century. Nonetheless, Emesa at this time had grown to rank with the important cities of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Damascus. It also continued to retain local significance, because it was the market centre for the surrounding villages. The city remained a strong centre of paganism, because of the Temple of El-Gabal. After one of his victories over Zenobia, Emperor Aurelian visited the city to pay thanks to the deity.
Due to the strength of the pagan sun cult in Emesa, Christians initially did not settle in the city. Eusebius writes that Silvanus, the city's first bishop, had no jurisdiction over the city, but the surrounding villages. He was executed by Emperor Julian and succeeded by Bishop Antonius—the first bishop to settle Emesa. By the 5th century, Christianity was well established under the Byzantine Empire; however, few ancient Christian inscriptions exist in Homs today. Under the Byzantines, the city became an important centre for Eastern Christianity. Initially a diocese, Homs was given the status of ecclesiastical metropolis after the discovery of John the Baptist's head in a nearby cave in 452. Nemesius, who lived in the fourth or early fifth century AD, was the bishop of Emesa.
During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Emesa fell in 613 to Shahrbaraz and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war.
Arab caliphates and dynasties
Prior to the Muslim conquest of the Levant, tribes of Arabia, particularly the Banu Kalb, settled around Emesa, ensuring its position as an important centre for the Qays and Yaman tribes. The Byzantine emperor Heraclius abandoned the city, which served as his headquarters, after his army's defeat by the Rashidun Caliphate under Umar during the Battle of the Yarmuk (now the Jordan–Syria border).
In 637 CE, the Rashidun army, led by Khalid ibn al-Walid, captured Emesa peacefully because its inhabitants agreed to pay a substantial ransom of 71,000 to 170,000 dinars. Caliph Umar established Homs as the capital of Jund Hims, a district of the province of Bilad al-Sham, encompassing the towns of Latakia, Jableh, and Tartus along the coast, Palmyra in the Syrian Desert and the territory in between, including the town of Hama. Homs was likely the first city in Syria to have a substantial Muslim population.
In 638, Heraclius sought help from the Christian Arab tribes in Upper Mesopotamia, mainly from Circesium and Hīt, and they mustered a large army and besieged Emesa. However, the siege was a failure, as the coalition forces lost heart and abandoned the city as at the time Iyad ibn Ghanm invaded their homeland in an effort to counter their act.
The Muslims transformed half of St. John's Church into the city's Friday mosque (Great Mosque of al-Nuri) and Homs soon became a centre of Islamic piety since some 500 companions of Muhammad (Arabic: اَلصَّحَابَةُ, romanized: al-ṣaḥāba) settled there after its conquest. The tombs of Khalid ibn al-Walid, his son Abd al-Rahman, and the son of Umar Ubayd Allah, are located in the city.
During the First Fitna, the conflict between the Umayyad dynasty and their partisans and Ali and his partisans, the inhabitants of Homs allied themselves with Ali. When he was defeated, the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya hived the northern half of Jund Hims to form a separate district, Jund Qinnasrin, apparently as punishment. Ali's oratory (mashhad 'Ali) was located in the city, and Islamic tradition claims his fingerprints are engraved on it.
Despite repression by the Umayyads, Homs remained a centre of Shia Islam for a while longer. As a stronghold of the Banu Kalb, a Yamani tribe, the city became heavily involved in the Qays–Yaman rivalry. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, enjoyed the support of the Qays and subsequently razed the city walls in response to a rebellion by the Banu Kalb.
In 750, the Abbasid Caliphate wrested control of Syria, including Homs, from the Umayyads, and the Arab tribes revolted. Despite the prosperity Homs experienced during this era, Abbasid rule was generally not welcomed nevertheless. During and after the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (796–809), the Abbasid authorities sent numerous punitive expeditions against Homs. Under the reign of Caliph al-Mutawakkil, in October 855, the Christian population revolted in response to additional taxation. The caliph put down the revolt by expelling Christians from the city, burning down their churches and executing members of their leadership.
With Abbasid rule over the Caliphate weakening in the mid-9th century, Homs became sought after by rebel dynasties contending for control of Syria due to the city's strategic position. Initially, the Egypt-based Tulunids came into control of it, but they were forced out by the Aleppo-based Hamdanids, who were briefly succeeded by the Qarmatians, after the latter's Turkish rebel ally Alptakin invaded northern Syria and established Homs as his base.