Salamiyya
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سلمية / Salamīya Salamiyya |
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| Coordinates | 35 ° 1 ' N , 37 ° 3' E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Syria | ||
| Hama | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | SY-HM | ||
| height | 460 m | ||
| Residents | 113,411 (2010) | ||
 Cornfields lying fallow in autumn; View from the northwest
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Salamiyya or Salamieh ( Arabic سلمية, DMG Salamīya , also Salamya ) is a city in the Hama Governorate in Syria . It is the center of the Syrian Ismailis .
location
Salamiyya is 30 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital Hama and 43 kilometers northeast of Homs near the road to Resafa, which continues in this direction through the Syrian desert . At the central intersection in the city center only the traffic coming from Hama flows in, while there is a bypass four kilometers to the east for through traffic on the desert route.
The city is located outside the old central Syrian arable plains. On the young settlements of Salamiyya, rain-irrigated winter wheat is grown alternating with barley in the wide plains and on large plots between flat island mountains . Up until the middle of the 20th century, the cultivation of cotton was promoted with diesel pumps from the groundwater . In 1965, 23 percent of the total cultivation area of cotton was around Salamiyya, the yield reached 90,000 tons, which corresponded to 20 percent of the national production. Due to uncontrolled irrigation, the water table sank in the following years, so that most of the cultivated areas were converted back to the original cultivation of grain.
A few hills were reforested with conifers. Separated from the road to Hama by one of these hills, the ruins of the Ayyubid castle Schmemis (Qalʿat aš-Šamīmīs) from the 13th century can be seen on an old volcanic cone five kilometers northwest of the center . It can be reached from the end of the village on an asphalt side road that branches off to the north from the road to Hama. Salamiyya is at an altitude of 450 meters, while the castle hill protrudes about 150 meters from the plain.
history
Salamiyya might correspond to ancient Salamias or Salaminias , a city that flourished in Byzantine times; however, no precise conclusions can be drawn from the sources from that time. In the year 15 of the Hijra (636 AD) the region was conquered by the Muslim Arabs. In the 8th century, after the Abbasid victory , Salih ibn Ali ibn Abdallah al-Abbas and some of his descendants resided in the city. Salih's son Abdallah, cousin of the first two Abbasid caliphs, is said to have developed the city's irrigation system. Salamiyya developed into an important trading center.
Salamiyya was of great importance in the early history of the Ismailis : until 902 the city was the headquarters of the then fanatical Ismaili movement; From here missionaries with their religious and political message (simply: ad-da'wa , "the mission") were sent to Central Asia and North Africa. The Fatimid caliph al-Qa'im bi-amri 'llah was born in Salamiyya in 893. Around 900 the Ismailis of Salamiyya were attacked by the Qaramites , a split-off religious denomination , and the city was destroyed. After the Mongols conquered Syria in 1260, the Ismailis fled to refuges on the Jebel Ansariye . What remained was a small settlement that was completely abandoned during the Ottoman Empire .
From 1849 Ismaili settlers were allowed to settle again. The first settlers were families belonging to the Hajjawis , one of the two main branches of the Ismailis that split off around the 16th century. At first they moved into the Schmemis castle ruins. They had to protect their fields and flocks of sheep from frequent raids by Bedouin tribes. The land was freely available to the settlers. In 1861 the castle was still inhabited and Salamiyya had become a larger village despite ongoing raids; the fields were within about ten kilometers. Salamiyya was the only permanently inhabited place east of Hama until Kafat (about ten kilometers towards Hama) was founded in 1869. Other new settlements further in the desert were abandoned during this time. According to travelers' reports, in 1871 Salamiyya had 300 muskets and 100 horsemen for its defense . Circassians founded three villages a few kilometers north around 1879 and maintained good relations with the Ismailis. Most of the settlements in the area were founded in the 1880s. In 1883 Salamiyya was incorporated into the Ottoman administrative system as the capital of a qadâ ' .
The Ismailis returned to their ancestral homeland based on the history of their religion. This explains the motivation for the extraction of arable land on the edge of the desert steppe and the dynamic development of the settlement. The last big wave of settlers reached Salamiyya in 1919. In the 20th century the place grew rapidly, from 6,000 inhabitants in 1945 to 30,000 inhabitants in 1965. Around 1970, around 90,000 Ismailis lived in the Salamiyya area.
Population and cityscape
In 1960 Salamiyya had 15,284 inhabitants according to the census , in 1981 there were 35,909 inhabitants. An estimate from 2003 names 87,732 inhabitants. For 2010, a population of 113,411 was calculated.
The majority of Salamiyya's population is Nizari Shiite . Salamiyya is thus the most important Ismailite center in Syria and the Middle East . Around Salamiyya agriculture is practiced with modern machinery. Ismailis are generally considered to be quite wealthy and strive to provide a good education for their children. A large area on the outskirts consists of mechanical workshops. The checkerboard pattern of the city center is just as busy. As a new establishment, the city does not have a traditional souq , but a lively and well-kept business district and main streets elegantly laid out as avenues.
Five kilometers outside, near the road to Resafa, there is a pilgrimage site on a small hill, venerated by Ismailis and Sunnis . The holy place (Maqām aš-Šayḫ Faraǧ Ḥayya) possesses blessing power ( Baraka ) for the believers and is therefore sought out for the healing of illnesses or for the fulfillment of wishes. The rituals also include animal sacrifices . The reason for the sanctity of the site is understood differently by the two religious groups. For Ismailis, a sacred serpent acts as it circles the patient at night. Sunnis venerate the tomb of Sheikh Muḥammad Faraǧ, who is traced back to ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib in a chain ( Silsila ) of around 12 generations , and his daughter Bint Ḥayya.
Prince Aly Khan (1911–1960), the father of Karim Aga Khan IV , is buried in a mausoleum in Salamiyya. Muhammad al-Maghut (1934-2006), a Syrian poet, was born in Salamiyya.
Web links
- Article on Salamiyya in the Encyclopaedia of Islam , on The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Available at www.iis.ac.uk
- Welcome to Salamieh. salamieh.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sateh Mahli: The Diversity of Rural Settlement in Central Western Syria. Diss. LMU Munich 1970, p. 131
- ^ Farhad Daftary : A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community. Markus Wiener Publishing, Princeton 1998, p. 39
- ^ Norman N. Lewis: Nomads and settlers in Syria and Jordan, 1800–1980. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987, pp. 60-65
- ^ Eugen Wirth : Syria, a geographical country study. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1971, pp. 393–396
- ^ The governorates of Syria and all cities of more than 35,000 inhabitants. citypopulation.de, July 20, 2009
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives:
- ↑ Gebhard Fartacek: pilgrim sites in the Syrian periphery. An ethnological study on the cognitive construction of sacred places and their practical relevance. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2003, pp. 117–122