Hama is the capital of the Hama Governorate in Syria. The city is located on the Orontes River in the center of the central Syrian agricultural plain on the highway between Aleppo and Damascus. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Syria. The inhabitants of Hamas have a reputation for being Islamic-conservative.
Hama is famous above all for its huge water wheels, the norias on the
Orontes. After Damascus and Aleppo, Hama has the largest number of
buildings from the Ottoman period. The Qasr al-Azm city palace was built
in the 18th century. It is the oldest surviving governor's palace in
Syria from the Ottoman period.
The DAI Damascus has started the
Topographical Survey of the Old Town of Hama project, with researchers
focusing primarily on building documentation.
The population is estimated at 527,429 for 2012. The figure for the 1920s was 35,000, for the 1960s 130,000, and including the suburbs 200,000. In the first half of the 20th century, almost a fifth of the population were Christians.
The area around Hama has been continuously inhabited since 10,000 BC,
with individual traces dating back to the Paleolithic period.
During excavations from 1931 to 1938, Danish archaeologists discovered
traces of settlement from the 5th millennium BC and a total of twelve
layers up to the Islamic period on the main hill on the northern
outskirts of modern Hama. The tell was 336 m long, 215 m wide and 46 m
high.
Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions and some graffiti in
Aramaic were found in Hama. There are also around twenty cuneiform
tablets. After the collapse of the Hittite Empire, from around the
beginning of the last millennium BC to around 720 BC, Hama was the
capital and seat of the Syro-Hittite kingdom of Hamath, which extended
as far as the area of Aleppo.
The westward expansion of the Assyrian Empire also brought Hama into
distress in the 9th century. In the Battle of Qarqar on the Orontes in
853 BC, King Irhuleni (Urhilina) confronted the Assyrians under
Salmānu-ašarēd III (858 BC to around 824 BC) together with his allies,
including Damascus, Israel and the Phoenician coastal cities, at Qarqar
on the Orontes. The Assyrian Great King was able to conquer several
cities. However, as subsequent battles in the years up to 845 show, he
does not seem to have had a resounding success.
It is unclear
when Hama came under Assyrian rule, but it is documented for the
beginning of the 8th century. The events reported by King Zakkur of Hama
in his stele date from this time: He was threatened by a coalition of
Qu'e, Unqi, Meliddu, Ja'udi and Bir-Hadad III, but was saved by divine
help and, not least, a campaign by Adad-nirari III.
After an
uprising, Hama was reconquered by the Assyrians in 738 BC and its
territory was reduced but not annexed. Rather, a vassal king named
Eni-ilu appears in the tribute lists of the years 738 and 732. A final
uprising occurred a short time later under King Jau-bi'di. According to
an inscription of Sargon II, Jau-bi'di, "one of the baggage train," "an
evil Hittite," had seized power in Hama and then allied himself with
Arpad, Simirra, Aram, and Samaria. The Assyrian king assembled his
troops in Qarqar, the favorite city of Jau-bi'di, which he besieged and
burned. Jau-bi'di was flayed alive, "dyed red like wool," and Sargon, he
boasted, restored order and harmony to the region. The flaying of
Jau-bi'di is depicted in Hall VIII (Plate 25) at Nimrud. Sargon then
marched against Hanunu of Gaza, who was defeated and captured at Rapihu,
while his ally Re'e, the "Tartan" of the Egyptian pharaoh, fled back to
Egypt. According to 2 Kings 17 in the Bible, Sargon resettled residents
of conquered Hamath in Samaria, which had been newly conquered in 722
BC. In 719 BC, Itti of Allabria and his followers were deported to
Hamath by Sargon II. It is unclear whether Hama subsequently became the
seat of an Assyrian provincial governor.
The city was renamed Epiphania (Epiphaneia) by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The city fell to Rome after the liquidation of the Seleucid Empire. In late antiquity, three historians came from Epiphania: Eustathios of Epiphaneia, Euagrios Scholastikos and John of Epiphaneia. An inscription from 595 proves that the cathedral, later a mosque, was renovated in that year.
In 639, the Muslim Arabs conquered the Eastern Roman city. In 1108,
Tancred of Tiberias conquered the city for the Crusaders, but it only
remained under their rule until 1115. In 1157, the city was shaken by an
earthquake and subsequently came under the control of the Zengids.
Hama was conquered by Saladin in 1178 and remained in the hands of
his descendants, the Ayyubids, until 1341, when Hama was lost to the
Mamluks. During this time, Hama had become an important trading center.
In 1401, the city was destroyed by the Timurids.
In 1516 the city fell to the Ottomans and remained so until the end
of the First World War. It was only in the hands of the Egyptians under
Muhammad Ali Pasha from 1831 to 1839.
Travelers of the 19th
century described the extremely conservative spirit of the people of
Hama.
During the French League of Nations mandate in 1925, the
city revolted against French rule. The revolt in the city collapsed
after an air raid by the mandate power, which, according to residents,
left several hundred dead. Syria gained independence in 1946.
In
1964 there were clashes between Islamist radicals and the security
forces of the Baath regime. The Syrian armed forces had to use tanks and
artillery to restore control of the city.
The uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, whose stronghold was Hama, began in 1976. In February 1982, a little-known massacre took place in Hama, in which the Syrian army under Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas bombed the city because members of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood had developed Hama into a center of resistance against the government. This caused great devastation, particularly in the historic old town, and an estimated 30,000 people were killed. Talking about the events was taboo in Syria for a long time, until demonstrators drew attention to them during their protest marches during the Arab Spring in 2012.
As a center of protests in Syria in 2011, Hama became the focus of the world's attention. On July 31, 2011, Syrian forces violently entered the city, killing more than 100 people, according to opposition sources. Hama is also the place where the famous revolutionary song "Jalla, irhal ja Baschar" (Come on Baschar, it's time to disappear) was sung for the first time by demonstrators at the end of June 2011. The later denied news that its alleged author and performer Ibrahim Qaschusch had been tortured and murdered by government forces in revenge spread worldwide at the time.
Toi (Tou) (Old Testament) in the early 10th century BC
Parita
(Luwian) in the 1st half of the 9th century BC
Urahilina
(Luwian)/Irhuleni (Assyrian) 853 to 845 BC
Uratami (Luwian)/Rudamu
(Assyrian) ca. 840–820 BC
Zakkur around 805/800 BC
Azrijau(?)
until 738 BC
Eni-ilu from 738 BC as Assyrian vassal king
Jahu-Bi'di (Jeho-bidi/Jau-bidi/Ilu-bidi) until 720 BC
from 720 BC
Chr. Assyrian province
Najib ar-Rayyis (1898–1952), journalist, editor and anti-colonial
activist
Adib al-Shishakli (1909–1964), military leader and president
Muhammad al-Hamid (1910–1969), theologian and leading member of the
Muslim Brotherhood
Akram al-Hawrānī (1915–1996), politician and
co-founder of the Arab Socialist Baath Party (ASBP)
Abd al-Hamid
as-Sarraj (1925–2013), army officer and politician
Sa’id Hawwa
(1935–1989), theologian and leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood
Anas Shakfeh (* 1943), former president of the Islamic Religious
Community in Austria (IGGiÖ)
ʿAlī Farzāt (* 1951), cartoonist
Ibrahim Qaschusch (1977–2011), regime-critical activist and folk singer
Mahmoud al-Mawas (* 1993), football player
Hend Zaza (* 2009), table
tennis player