Hama History

History

Excavations on the city’s central tell have revealed that the locale was settled as long ago as the Neolithic Age. There are historical references to an Aramaean kingdom of Hamah (or Hamath), which traded with Israel during the reigns of biblical David and Solomon (1000–922 BC). Occupied later by the Assyrians, Hama joined Damascus in a revolt against their foreign conquerors in 853 BC, defeating the troops of Shalmenaser. Under Sargon II the Assyrians wreaked their revenge, and in 720 BC the city was razed and its citizens deported. By the time of the Seleucids, the Greek dynasty established by one of Alexander’s generals, the town had been renewed and rechristened Epiphania after the ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r 175–164 BC). It remained an important Roman and Byzantine centre until its capture by the Arabs in AD 637.

The town prospered under the Ayyubids, the dynasty founded by Saladin, but was often fought over by rival dynasties in Damascus and Aleppo, which it lay between.

The most recent chapter in Hama’s history has been one of the country’s saddest. It was here in 1982 that the repressive nature of Hafez al-Assad’s regime was most brutally demonstrated. The details of what happened that bloody February are hazy at best, but it appears that about 8000 government troops were moved in to quash a rebellion by armed members of the then-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Fighting lasted three weeks and the level of destruction was immense. Only those who knew the city before this calamity can fully measure the damage. As recently as 1955, travel writer Robin Fedden wrote in his book, Syria: An Historical Appreciation, that Hama was ‘extraordinarily unspoilt with houses that overhung the water and an extensive old town in which modern buildings barely intrude’; this is no longer the case. The heart of the old town was completely razed.