Homs

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Homs (disambiguation) .

حمص Homs
Homs
Coordinates	34 ° 44 '  N , 36 ° 43'  E Coordinates: 34 ° 44 '  N , 36 ° 43'  E
Basic data
Country	Syria
Governorate	Homs
Residents	800,000

Homs
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     95   11 3     77   13 3     56   17th 6th     33   22nd 9     13   27 13     2.6   31 17th     0.2   32 20th     0   33 20th     2.4   31 18th     21st   27 13     48   19th 7th     81   13 4th Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: WMO

Chalid-ibn-al-Walid Mosque in Homs (2006)

City Center Building (2009)

Schukri-al-Quwatli Street with clock tower widened to the central square (2004)

Homs ( Syriac Arabic حمص, DMG Ḥimṣ [ħɔmsˁ] ; in ancient times Emesa or Emisa , Turkish humus ) is an important city in Syria and the capital of Homs Governorate . It is located in western Syria in the fertile valley of the Nahr al-Asi (Orontes in ancient times) and is the third largest city in the country with around one million inhabitants; only Damascus and Aleppo are more populous. The climate is mild and humid by Syrian standards. Homs has been badly affected by the civil war in Syria. The following information mainly relates to the pre-war status.

Attractions

In Homs there is the Chālid-ibn-al-Walīd Mosque , in which the general Chālid ibn al-Walīd is buried, the Great an-Nuri Mosque and the Marian Belt Church, which is famous for its old age . Only a few remains of the citadel have survived. The sights also include other mosques and churches as well as the historic city gates and traditional souks . The Krak des Chevaliers Castle is nearby . Homs has a university and an oil refinery . In addition, Homs is a transport hub and provides access to the Mediterranean via the Homs Gap .

The Church of St. Elian of the Greek Orthodox Church , which dates back to 432, and the Church of St. Mary of the Holy Belt of the Syrian Orthodox Church , which dates back to the year 50, are still in use today. The Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Church is the Homs Forty Martyrs Cathedral , which was badly damaged in the Syrian Civil War.

population

The current number of inhabitants is not exactly known. Estimates range from 650,000 to 1,200,000. For the 1920s 55,000 are given, of which 20,000 Christians, for the 1960s 170,000, with suburbs 300,000.

history

Antiquity

The settlement of the citadel hill goes back to the 3rd millennium BC. BC back. In the Bronze Age the hill was continuously inhabited. However, very little is known about the prehistoric population due to insufficient archaeological research. So far it has not been possible to identify Emesa with one of the cities mentioned in ancient oriental texts. After the end of the Bronze Age, there is no archaeological evidence of the continuation of the settlement for more than a millennium. It was mentioned in narrative sources only in the time of Roman rule.

The name Emesa is of Semitic origin. The geographer Strabo mentions an "ethnos" (people or tribe) of the Emesen. In the 1st century BC The area of ​​Emesa was under the control of Arab princes ("kings"). It can be assumed that the Arab upper class was recruited from immigrant nomadic tribes who had settled there during the Seleucid Empire . The first clearly identifiable of these princes is Sampsigeramos I, who 64 BC. The Seleucid king Antiochus XIII. captured and killed and maintained a good relationship with Pompey . His small empire, to which the city of Arethusa (today Restan or Rastan) belonged, was obviously a regional power to be taken seriously. The princes of the Sampsigeramiden family were vassals of the Roman Empire and took part in the Roman civil wars. The son and successor of Sampsigeramos I, Iamblichus I, had Mark Antony 31 BC. Execute. Then a brother of Iamblichus came to power, who was friends with Mark Antony and after his defeat was executed on the orders of the victorious Octavian, who later became Emperor Augustus . Augustus made Iamblichus II, a son of Iamblichos I, ruler. It is possible that the city of Emesa was only founded around this time.

Like Palmyra , 155 km to the east, Emesa experienced an economic and cultural boom in the early Roman Empire thanks to its location on the caravan route to the Persian Gulf. At the time of the emperors Nero and Vespasian , the prince of Emesa participated with a strong force in the war against the Jews and the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Apparently, Emperor Domitian abolished the independence of Emesa and divided the city into the Roman province of Syria a.

A special feature of Emesa was the cult of the god Elagabal , which was rooted there and was first attested to in the 1st century AD; in all likelihood it was very old and descended from the pre-Arab population. Originally it was a local mountain god; later his followers elevated him to the position of the sun god and thus the highest of all gods. In the period 138/143 AD, Emesen began to mint coins with the symbols of Elagabal. In the center of the Elagabal cult was a huge, roughly beehive-shaped, bumpy black stone ( meteorite ?), Which was kept in a magnificent, famous temple (see stone cult ).

The dignity of the high priest was hereditary in a family that probably descended from the old princely family of Emesa. This family included the Roman Empress Julia Domna , the wife of Septimius Severus (193–211); her sons were Emperor Caracalla (211-217) and his co-regent Geta . The younger sister of this empress, Julia Maesa , was the politically very influential grandmother of the emperors Elagabal (218–222) and Severus Alexander (222–235). In the period 211–235, the Roman Empire was thus ruled by descendants of the Elagabal priests of Emesa (apart from an interruption in 217–218).

Emperor Elagabal transferred the holy stone to Rome in 219 and elevated the Elagabal cult to the state religion of Rome. As a result, the Elagabal veneration briefly acquired world historical significance. After the murder of this emperor (222) the stone was brought back to Emesa. The cult continued to flourish there.

During the imperial crisis of the 3rd century , Emesa was the target of Persian attacks (see Uranius Antoninus ). In 261 the city was the residence of the Roman counter-emperor Quietus . Emperor Aurelian defeated the army of the Palmyrenian ruler Zenobia near Emesa in 272 and then went to the Elagabal temple to redeem a vow. In late antiquity , in 284 , Emperor Diocletian had the Orontes dammed near the city with a 2 km long dam to the lake of Homs , the largest Roman water reservoir in the Middle East.

Christian time

Emesa had been a bishopric for a long time; the first bishop known by name died in the Diocletian persecution . Around the middle of the 4th century, Bishop Eusebios of Emesa emerged as a theological writer. Another prominent bishop was Nemesios von Emesa , who wrote the work on human nature, which is important for the history of anthropology , around 400 . In 452 the head of John the Baptist was found in a monastery near Emesa , a relic of very high rank. Probably under the impression of this event, the diocese achieved the rank of metropolitan seat. Nothing is known about orthodox metropolitans of the subsequent period, because after the Council of Chalcedon (451) the church was split and the Chalcedonian opponents ( Monophysites ), who were very strong in the region , established a rival metropolitan seat. They were persecuted by the state. When, under the emperors Phocas and Herakleios, the Persians achieved great success in their long war against Byzantium, they were able to conquer Emesa in 609 and hold it until 628.

Arab Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

When the Byzantines had to evacuate Syria after their defeat against the Arabs in the decisive battle on Yarmuk , 637 Emesa fell into the hands of the victors without resistance. Numerous companions of the prophets settled there. Due to the strong immigration of Yemenis, the demographic conditions changed permanently. In the civil war between Muawiya I and Ali ibn Abi Talib , the residents sided with Ali.

In 944 the city was taken by Saif ad-Daula and came under the rule of the Hamdanids of Aleppo . In 969, the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II captured Phocas Homs, but when the Byzantines withdrew in 973, the Hamdanids returned. In 995, the Byzantines under Emperor Basil II were able to regain control of Homs temporarily. Terrible havoc was wrought in these battles.

The crusaders who called the city La Chamelle never succeeded in taking Homs, rather the city became an important base for their opponents. It was excellently fortified and had excellent irrigation systems, but was devastated by earthquakes in 1157 and 1170. Saladin conquered the city in 1175 , but then left it under the control of a local dynasty, the Asadis.

In the course of the Mongol storm , Homs was captured by Huegui's troops in 1260 . After the Mongols were driven out, the Mamluks took power. In 1400, Timur Lenk took Homs .

In 1516 Syria and with it Homs came under the rule of the Ottomans . The city has been known for its weaving and silk production since the Middle Ages and has remained a center of the textile industry even in modern times . But it experienced a decline in the Ottoman period; in the late 18th century it is said to have been a village of around 2,000 inhabitants.

Homs during the Civil War

→ Main article : Syria civil war

Buildings destroyed by the civil war in Homs

Artillery fire in Homs, February 25, 2012

In 2011 and 2012 the protest stronghold was the target of massive attacks by the Syrian army and the Syrian secret services, which tried to suppress the opposition protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad . A tank attack on February 3, 2012 claimed the lives of over 200 people in Homs, according to information from the opposition. On February 22nd, 2012 a bombing u. a. the journalists Rémi Ochlik and Marie Colvin killed.

In April 2012, the Faruq Brigades were accused of collecting the jizya in the Christian quarters of Homs, an extra tax for non-Muslims living under Muslim rule. The group denied this. According to the Institute for the Study of War , this allegation likely came from the government. According to reports from the evangelical community , on February 26, 2012, known as "Black Sunday", rebels attacked several churches in Homs, including the National Evangelical Church in Homs , whose roof was destroyed by a direct hit with a rocket. About 50,000 Christians left the rebel-occupied quarters of the city. According to Fides , around 1,000 of the original 140,000 Christians remained in the city at the end of March 2012. According to reports from the city's Greek Orthodox Christians , the Islamist conquerors from the Faruq Brigades, after taking the Christian quarters al-Hamidiya and Bustan al-Diwan, expelled all Christians indiscriminately from their houses there and confiscated them for their own purposes. Jesuits denied that this was the cause of the exodus from Homs. Christians in particular were not attacked, they had fled because of the ongoing conflict. Employees of ACN on the other hand (ACN) confirmed reports of the expulsion of Christians. The Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt , who criticized both sides, i.e. both the rebels and the Syrian government, for their attacks on the rebel stronghold of Homs, was shot in the head on April 7, 2014 - presumably by members of the al-Nusra Front .

At the end of June 2013, government troops and pro-government militias launched an offensive to wrest control of several parts of the city from the rebels. They used the air force and artillery to destroy key positions of rebel troops.

The situation of the civilian population trapped in parts of Homs was the subject of the Syria Conference held in Geneva at the end of January 2014, at which representatives of the Syrian government and the Syrian national coalition held direct talks for the first time . The government promised to allow relief measures for the population in the besieged districts. On February 6, 2014, the civil war parties finally agreed on a three-day “humanitarian ceasefire ”. During the ceasefire, women, children and the elderly were to be evacuated from Homs and relief supplies were to be delivered to the city under the auspices of the UNHCR . The first civilians left Homs on February 7, 2014, and despite the broken ceasefire, the first aid convoy of the United Nations reached the beleaguered districts one day later. In early May 2014, Homs was captured by government troops. At the beginning of December 2015, the last quarter held was evacuated by the rebels following an agreement with the government to allow safe conduct into rebel areas and cessation of attacks. The final abandonment of the city, long considered the rebel capital , has been dubbed in the media as a devastating blow to the rebels. In February 2016, the first hundred residents returned to their destroyed homes. On February 21, 2016, an Alawite- majority district of Homs was the target of a series of attacks. Several explosions occurred in the capital Damascus on the same day. At least 140 people were killed in both attacks. The terrorist organization ISIS took responsibility.

On September 22, 2016, the last rebel fighters surrendered in Homs. Government troops assured them and their families from the Al-Waer district safe passage to rebel areas in the north. The withdrawal of fighters and their families began on March 18, 2017 and stretched over several weeks.

sons and daughters of the town

• Anicetus (around 95 – around 163), Bishop of Rome, saint
• Iulius Alexander († around 190), rebel against the Roman emperor Commodus
• Julia Domna († 217), second wife of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus and the mother of the emperors Caracalla and Geta
• Romanos Melodos (around 485–555 / 562), Byzantine poet
• Firas Al Khatib (born 1983), football player

literature

General

• Ross Burns: Monuments of Syria. To Historical Guide . Tauris, London 1994, ISBN 1-85043-468-9 , pp. 128-130.
• René Dussaud: Topographie historique de la Syrie antique et médiévale . Geuthner, Paris 1927, pp. 103-115.
• Nikita Elisséeff: Ḥimṣ . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam . 2nd edition, Volume 3, Brill, Leiden 1971, pp. 397-402.

Antiquity

• Eberhard Merkel: First determinations in the fertile crescent . In: Franz Altheim , Ruth Stiehl (Ed.): The Arabs in the Old World , Volume 1: Until the beginning of the imperial era . De Gruyter, Berlin 1964, pp. 139-163, 355-372.
• Andreas Kropp: Earrings, nefesh and opus reticulatum: self-representation of the royal house of Emesa in the first century AD . In: Ted Kaizer, Margherita Facella (Ed.): Kingdoms and Principalities in the Roman Near East . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-515-09715-4 , pp. 199-216.
• Richard D. Sullivan: The Dynasty of Emesa. In: Hildegard Temporini , Wolfgang Haase (Hrsg.): Rise and decline of the Roman world . Volume II 8, de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1978, ISBN 3-11-007337-4 , pp. 198-219.
• Gary K. Young: Emesa in Roman Syria: Resistance, Rebellion and Regionalism in the Third Century AD. In: Prudentia. Volume 36, 2004, pp. 31-48 ( PDF; 3.3 MB ).

Web links

Commons : Homs  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In research, however, opinions differ widely about when to integrate; Summary by Barbara Levick: Julia Domna, Syrian Empress , London 2007, pp. 13 and 170.
2. ↑ See Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades . CH Beck, Munich 2001. p. 368
3. ↑ Welt.de: This battle almost destroyed the Ottoman Empire
4. ↑ Syrian army probably kills more than 200 people in Homs. Reuters , February 4, 2012
5. ↑ Respected American journalist Marie Colvin was killed in bombardment in Syria. The Washington Post , February 22, 2012 (English).
6. ^ Joseph Holliday: Middle East Security Report 5: Syria's Maturing Insurgency. Institute for the Study of War, June 2012, pp. 7–35, here p. 27
7. ^ National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon. Global Ministries, 2016, accessed June 29, 2020.
8. ↑ John L. Allen: War Against Christians. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Munich 2014, chapter Syria . Based on the English original The Global War on Christians. Image, New York 2013.
9. ↑ Observers complain about human rights abuses by the opposition and "ethnic cleansing" in Homs, while Jesuits provide humanitarian aid. In: Agenzia Fides. March 31, 2012, accessed April 2, 2012 . 
10. ^ ASIA / SYRIA - The Jesuits: "Christians have fled from Homs, not thrown out by Islamists" ( Memento of January 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Fides Service, March 26, 2012.
11. ↑ Are Islamists targeting Christians in Homs? Catholic groups dispute cause of exodus. catholicCulture.org, March 27, 2012, accessed April 7, 2012 . 
12. ↑ Syria - the battlefield of the world. ORF Ö1 lunch journal, September 18, 2019.
13. ↑ Enno Haaks: “We cannot afford hopelessness”. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Homs is a place of hope - not just for Christians. Gustav-Adolf-Werk , Evangelical Worldwide 1/2018.
14. ^ Dominic Evans: Syrian army, backed by jets, launch Homs assault. Reuters, June 29th 2013 (viewed June 29th 2013)
15. ↑ Die Zeit : Women and Children Allowed to Leave Besieged Homs , January 26, 2014.
16. ^ Deutsche Welle : Civilians are allowed to leave the besieged Syrian city of Homs , February 7, 2014.
17. ↑ Die Zeit : Relief supplies reach Homs despite the broken ceasefire , February 9, 2014.
18. ^ Assad advance in the war in Syria: The fall of Homs. In: Spiegel Online . May 3, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 . 
19. ^ The New York Times : Displaced Residents Return to Homs , February 19, 2016, accessed February 22, 2016.
20. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine : Syria: Deaths in attacks in Damascus and Homs , February 22, 2016.
21. ↑ Erin Cunningham and Brian Murphy: "Syrian airstrikes hammer Aleppo amid expanding offensive against rebels" Washington Post of 23 September 2016
22. ↑ Albert Aji and Bassem Mroue: "Syrian rebels begin evacuation from besieged Homs" Washington Times, 18 March 2017