Bosra was the first
Nabatean city in the 2nd century BC. The Nabatean Kingdom was conquered by
Cornelius Palma, a general of
Trajan, in 106 AD. According to
John Malalas it was called Bostra () after Bostras, a Roman general who was dispatched to the country.
Roman period , dating from the 2nd century AD Under the
Roman Empire Bosra was renamed
Nova Trajana Bostra and was the residence of the
legio III Cyrenaica. It was made capital of the
Roman province of
Arabia Petraea. The city flourished and became a major
metropolis at the juncture of several
trade routes, in particular the
Via Traiana Nova, a
Roman road that connected
Damascus to the
Red Sea. It became an important centre for food production and during the reign of Emperor
Philip the Arab Bosra began to mint its own coins. The two
Councils of Arabia were held at Bosra in 246 and 247 AD. The
Babylonian Talmud and
Jerusalem Talmud mention Bosra as a town on the border outside Israel, but with a sizeable Jewish population. In the Jerusalem Talmud, it states that
Resh Lakish was in Bosra when he saw them sprinkling water to the goddess
Aphrodite. In the Babylonian Talmud, tractate
Avoda Zara (58b) it likewise mentions how
Resh Lakish interacted with the population in Bosra. There are also rabbis who were identified as the sage from Bosra, such as Rabbi Jonah of Bosra. The Talmud (Shabbat 29b) also notes that there was a synagogue in Bosra.
Byzantine period By the
Byzantine period, which began in the 5th century, Christianity had become the dominant religion in Bosra (
Βόσρα in
Greek-Byzantine). The city became a Metropolitan
archbishop's seat (see below) and a large cathedral was built in the 6th century. Bosra was conquered by the
Sasanian Persians in the early 7th century but was recaptured during the Byzantine reconquest.
Islamic era Bosra played an important part in the early life of
Muhammad, as described in the entry for the Christian monk
Bahira. The
forces of the
Rashidun Caliphate under general
Khalid ibn al-Walid captured the city from the
Byzantines in the
Battle of Bosra in 634. Throughout Islamic rule Bosra would serve as the southernmost outpost of
Bilad al-Sham, its prosperity being mostly contingent on the political importance of that city. Bosra held additional significance as a centre of the pilgrim caravan between Damascus and the Muslim holy cities of
Mecca and
Medina, the destinations of the annual
hajj pilgrimage. Early Islamic rule did not alter the general architecture of Bosra, with only two structures dating to the
Umayyad era (721 and 746) when Damascus was the capital of the Caliphate. As Bosra's inhabitants gradually converted to Islam the Roman-era holy sites were utilized for Muslim practices. In the 9th century,
Ya'qubi wrote that Bosra was the capital of the Hauran province. After the end of the Umayyad era in 750, major activity in Bosra ceased for around 300 years until the late 11th century. In the last years of
Fatimid rule, in 1068, a number of building projects were commissioned. With the advent of
Seljuk rule in 1076 increasing focus was paid to Bosra's defences. In particular the Roman theatre was transformed into a fortress, with a new floor added to the interior staircase tower. In 1147 King
Baldwin III of Jerusalem led a Crusader force to
capture the city but his attempt was thwarted since the Damascene army led by
Mu'in ad-Din Unur managed to garrison Bosra's citadel. A golden age of political and architectural activity in Bosra began during the reign of
Ayyubid sultan
al-Adil I (1196–1218). One of the first architectural developments in the city was the construction of eight large external towers in the Roman theatre-turned-fortress. The project began in 1202 and was completed in 1253, towards the end of the Ayyubid period. The two northern corner towers alone occupied more space than the remaining six. After al-Adil's death in 1218 his son
as-Salih Ismail inherited the fief of Bosra and lived in its newly fortified citadel. During Ismail's rule Bosra gained political prominence. Ismail used the city as his base when he claimed the sultanate in Damascus on two separate occasions, reigning between 1237–38 and 1239–45.
Ottoman era In 1596 Bosra appeared in the
Ottoman tax registers as
Nafs Busra, being part of the
nahiyah of Bani Nasiyya in the
Qada of Hauran. It had a Muslim population consisting of 75 households and 27 bachelors, and a Christian population of 15 households and 8 bachelors. Taxes were paid on
wheat,
barley, summer crops, fruit- or other trees, goats and/or beehives and water mill. When
James Silk Buckingham visited Bosra in 1816, he described "a large ruined edifice, which was originally an oblong square, with one semicircular end," containing "a miserable work of the Greek Christians, by whom it was no doubt used as a place of worship up to the period of its destruction." He also noted "an old building, with a high square tower attached to it… with many Arabic inscriptions in different parts of it," as well as another plain building "with crosses sculptured in the doors and walls, and the whole appearance that of an early place of Christian worship." Among the structures of Bosra he was shown was the
Serait-el-Bint-el-Yahoodi or "Palace of the Jew's Daughter", though he could not "learn the origin of this name, or obtain an account of any tradition connected with it." He remarked further on the
El-Hamam bath, with pointed arches in alternating black and white stone, and on "a large building entirely constructed out of the ruins of more ancient edifices," containing "Cufic, Arabic, and Greek" inscriptions and "a mixture of antiquity and freshness, of wealth and poverty, of skill and ignorance." He described ascending a great square tower of sixty-four steps, with stone doors on its stages and an open space at the top, from which "we enjoyed a commanding view of the ruins of Bosra." Buckingham also saw "a Roman arched gateway, not unlike that of Jerash," Corinthian colonnades standing in the town's streets, and the castle of Bosra, which he thought showed "a mixture of styles which rendered it exceedingly difficult to say in what age or by what people they were constructed," containing Roman sculpture and Arabic inscriptions dated to 722 AH. According to the
1914 Ottoman population statistics, the district of Busra had a total population of 26.355, consisting of 22.485 Muslims, 3.096
Orthodox Greeks, 594
Catholic Greeks, and 180
Protestants.
Modern era Today Bosra is a major archaeological site, containing ruins from
Roman,
Byzantine and Muslim times, its main feature being the well-preserved Roman theatre. Every year a national music festival is held in the
main theatre. Significant social and economic changes have affected Bosra since the end of the French Mandate in 1946. Whereas until the 1950s the shopkeepers of Bosra were from
Damascus, since then most have lived in the town. In the late Ottoman era and the French Mandate period the agricultural relationship was between the small landowner and the sharecroppers, but since the agrarian reforms in the late 1950s and 1960s the relevant relationship has been between the landowners and the wage laborers. Many of its residents have found work in the
Gulf Cooperation Council states, sending the proceeds to their relatives in Bosra. Social changes and increased access to education have largely diminished traditional clan life according to historian
Hanna Batatu. On 15 January 2013, it was reported that the citadel was used by the army to shell the town on a daily basis. After the beginning of February 2014 the city was under the control of the Syrian Army. However on 31 January 2015, the Army's 5th Division confronted a contingent from the rebels near the famous Roman theatre – fierce firefights broke out between the groups. On 1 February 2015, the Army forces shelled areas in the east of the town. On 25 March 2015, Syrian rebels seized the town, ousting Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen after
four days of intense battle. Bosra was recaptured by the Syrian Arab Army on 2 July 2018 following the surrender of the rebel forces. The recapture was a part of the
Daraa Offensive, which involved the surrender and/or reconciliation of many rebel groups in the area. == Landmarks==