Homs
Homs, known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa, is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is above sea level and is located 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 nomadic 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 and Sawbah. 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 in Medieval Greek, and as "la Chamelle" by the Crusaders, although they never ruled the city.
History
For approximately 2,000 years, Homs has served as a key agricultural market, production site and trade center 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
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 center 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 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 ; this boundary probably ran northwards to Khirbet al-Bilaas on Jabal al-Bilas where another marker, laid by Roman governor Silanus, has been found, 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.File:Emesa helmet.jpg|thumb|The Emesa helmet found in the necropolis of Tell Abu Sabun. Its owner was likely buried in the first half of the 1st century AD
File:Tomb of Sampsigeramus 1907 2.jpg|thumb|right|The Tomb of Sampsigeramus, photographed 1907; it may have been built in 78–79 by a relative of the Emesene dynasty
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 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.
File:Bronze-Uranius Antoninus-Elagabal stone-SGI 4414.jpg|thumb|The Emesa temple to the sun god El-Gabal, with the holy stone, on the reverse of this bronze coin by Roman usurper Uranius Antoninus
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 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 and another one of Paul, 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, 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 center for the surrounding villages. The city remained a strong center 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 center 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.