For approximately 2,000 years, Homs has served as a key agricultural market, production site and trade centre for the villages of northern Syria. It has also provided security services to the
hinterland of Syria, protecting it from invading forces. a
battle took place between the forces of the
Egyptian Empire under
Ramesses II and the
Hittite Empire under
Muwatalli II at the city of
Kadesh on the
Orontes River near Homs. It was possibly the largest
chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000–6,000 chariots.
Emesene dynasty and Roman rule Strabo only mentioned
Arethusa in his
Geography, as a "very strong place" of the Arab Sampsigeramos and of his son Iamblikhos, "phylarchs" of the Emesene, who had allied themselves to Q. Caecilius Bassus against Caesar in 47 BC; the translators above cited have thought strange Strabo's not saying a word about Emesa. Claims have been made that Emesa was founded by
Seleucus I Nicator who established the
Seleucid Empire upon the death of
Alexander the Great. However, according to
Henri Seyrig, Emesa does not seem to have received any Greek colony and the authors' complete silence makes one think that it did not increase its visibility under the Seleucid kings. According to Henri Seyrig, it even seems that
Posidonius, to whom Strabo probably referred concerning the Emesenes' phylarchs' alliance with Q. Caecilius Bassus, regarded the Emesenes as a simple tribe, governed by its sheikhs, and still devoid of a real urban existence; according to Maamoun Abdulkarim, occupation of the citadel's tell does not confirm the existence of a real urban centre in the plain before the Roman period and recent excavations have refuted the existence of vestiges preceding the Roman period under the actual town's outline, and the existence of an Arab Emesene dynasty in the region, probably located in Arethusa, attests to the secondary nature of this area during the Hellenistic period. Upon
Pompey's submission of the Seleucid state of Syria to the
Roman Republic in 64 BCE, the
Emesene dynasty were confirmed in their rule as
client kings of the Romans for aiding their troops in various wars. At its greatest extent, the Arab kingdom's boundaries extended from the
Bekaa Valley in the west to the border with
Palmyra in the east, and from
Yabrud in the south to
al-Rastan (Arethusa) in the north. A marker at the Palmyrene's southwestern border was found in 1936 by
Daniel Schlumberger at
Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, dating from the reign of
Hadrian or one of his successors, which marked the boundary between Palmyrene and Emesene (
Pliny the Elder asserted that both territories were contiguous); this boundary probably ran northwards to Khirbet al-Bilaas on
Jabal al-Bilas where another marker, laid by Roman governor
Silanus, has been found, northwest of Palmyra, probably marking a boundary with the territory of
Epiphania. The kingdom of
Sampsiceramus I, was the first of Rome's Arab clients on the desert fringes. found in the necropolis of
Tell Abu Sabun. Its owner was likely buried in the first half of the 1st century AD , photographed 1907; it may have been built in 78–79 by a relative of the
Emesene dynasty The city of Emesa grew to prominence after the new-found wealth of the Emesene dynasty, governed first by one of the sons of Sampsiceramus I,
Iamblichus I who made it the kingdom's capital.
Uranius Antoninus Under the Romans, Emesa began to show attributes of a Greek
city-state and traces of Roman town planning still remain. Its transformation into a major city was completed under the reign of Emperor
Antoninus Pius (138–161) when Emesa began to
mint coins. Elagabalus served as the high priest at the Temple of
El-Gebal, the local Arab sun god. He brought the image of this god, a conical black stone (
Baetyl), to the
Elagabalium in Rome. Emesa also grew wealthy because it formed a link in the eastern trade funnelled through
Palmyra; however, this dependence also caused the city's downfall when Palmyra sank to insignificance in the 4th century. Nonetheless, Emesa at this time had grown to rank with the important cities of
Tyre,
Sidon,
Beirut, and
Damascus. It also continued to retain local significance, because it was the market centre for the surrounding villages. The city remained a strong centre of paganism, because of the Temple of El-Gabal. After one of his victories over
Zenobia, Emperor
Aurelian visited the city to pay thanks to the deity. By the 5th century,
Christianity was well established under the
Byzantine Empire; however, few ancient Christian inscriptions exist in Homs today. During the
Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Emesa fell in 613 to
Shahrbaraz and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war.
Arab caliphates and dynasties Prior to the
Muslim conquest of the Levant,
tribes of Arabia, particularly the
Banu Kalb, settled around Emesa, ensuring its position as an important centre for the
Qays and Yaman tribes. The
Byzantine emperor
Heraclius abandoned the city, which served as his headquarters, after his army's defeat by the
Rashidun Caliphate under
Umar during the
Battle of the Yarmuk (now the
Jordan–Syria border). In 637 CE, the
Rashidun army, led by
Khalid ibn al-Walid,
captured Emesa peacefully because its inhabitants agreed to pay a substantial ransom of 71,000 to 170,000
dinars. Homs was likely the first city in Syria to have a substantial Muslim population. In 638, Heraclius sought help from the Christian Arab tribes in
Upper Mesopotamia, mainly from
Circesium and
Hīt, and they mustered a large army and
besieged Emesa. However, the siege was a failure, as the coalition forces lost heart and abandoned the city as at the time
Iyad ibn Ghanm invaded their homeland in an effort to counter their act. The Muslims transformed half of St. John's Church into the city's
Friday mosque (
Great Mosque of al-Nuri) and Homs soon became a centre of Islamic piety since some 500
companions of Muhammad () settled there after its conquest. During the
First Fitna, the conflict between the
Umayyad dynasty and their partisans and
Ali and his partisans, the inhabitants of Homs allied themselves with Ali. When he was defeated, the Umayyad caliph
Mu'awiya hived the northern half of Jund Hims to form a separate district,
Jund Qinnasrin, apparently as punishment. Despite repression by the Umayyads, Homs remained a centre of
Shia Islam for a while longer. As a stronghold of the Banu Kalb, a Yamani tribe, the city became heavily involved in the
Qays–Yaman rivalry. The last Umayyad caliph,
Marwan II, enjoyed the support of the Qays and subsequently razed the city walls in response to a rebellion by the Banu Kalb. With Abbasid rule over the Caliphate weakening in the mid-9th century, Homs became sought after by rebel dynasties contending for control of Syria due to the city's strategic position. Initially, the
Egypt-based
Tulunids came into control of it, but they were forced out by the
Aleppo-based
Hamdanids, who were briefly succeeded by the
Qarmatians, In 891, Muslim geographer
al-Yaqubi noted that Homs was situated along a broad river which served as a source of drinking water for the inhabitants. In 985,
al-Maqdisi noted that Homs was the largest city in all of Syria, but it had suffered "great misfortunes" and was "threatened with ruin." He stated that when the city was conquered by the Muslims they turned half of its church into a mosque. For around thirty years during the 10th century, Homs was raided by the Byzantines led by
Nikephoros II Phokas in October 968, and its inhabitants were subject to slaughter and plunder while the Great Mosque of al-Nuri was briefly restored as a church. In 974–975,
John I Tzimiskes managed to control the city during
his Syrian campaigns. Throughout most of the 11th century, the Byzantine raids receded greatly and the
Mirdasids of the
Banu Kilab tribe ruled over Homs, replacing the Hamdanids. Inclined towards Shia Islam, they did not oppose the
Isma'ili Shi'i Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt, which was aiming to extend its rule into northern Syria and
Iraq at the time. This precipitated a
Sunni Muslim reaction led by the
Saljuqid Turks, who occupied Homs under the leadership of
Aq Sunqur al-Hajib in 1090. Muslim geographer
al-Idrisi noted in 1154 that Homs was populous, had paved streets, possessed one of the largest mosques in Syria, contained open markets, and was frequented by travellers attracted to its "products and rarities of all kinds." He also reported that its residents were "pleasant; living with them is easy, and their manners are agreeable. The women are beautiful and are celebrated for their fine skin." A series of earthquakes in 1157 inflicted heavy damage upon Homs and its fortress, then in 1170, a minor quake finished off the latter. However, because of its strategic importance, being opposite of the Crusader
County of Tripoli, the city and its fortifications were soon restored. In 1164, Nur al-Din awarded Homs to
Asad ad-Din Shirkuh as a
iqtâ', but reclaimed it five years later following Shirkuh's death. The latter's nephew,
Saladin, occupied Homs in early December 1174, but the garrison at the citadel resisted. He later departed for Aleppo, and left a small army in Homs' lower town. The defenders of the citadel offered to set their Christian prisoners free, if
Raymond III, Count of Tripoli provided military assistance for them.
William of Tyre later emphasized that the commanders of the crusader army doubted if the defenders of the Homs citadel actually wanted to release their prisoners. Saladin returned to Homs soon after he was informed about the negotiations between the crusaders and the garrison. Instead of attacking him, the crusader army retreated to Krak des Chevaliers; this enabled Saladin to capture the citadel on 17 March 1175. In 1179, after reorganising his territories in northern Syria, Saladin restored Homs to his
Ayyubid dynasty. Shirkuh's descendants retained Homs for nearly a century until 1262 with the death of
al-Ashraf Musa. In 1225, Arab geographer
Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned that Homs was large, celebrated and walled, having a strongly fortified castle on its southern hill.
Timur seized the city in 1400. Nevertheless, he did not sack it as he did in Aleppo, Hama and later Damascus, due to a man called "'Amr bin al-Rawas" who conciled with him offering precious gifts to save the city. Later in the 15th century as Mamluk weakness had brought insecurity to the countryside, Homs was ravaged by
Bedouin raids; In 1510 a powerful tribe led by al-Fadl bin Nu'ayr was sent on an expedition by the governor of Damascus to loot the city markets as Homs had failed to pay compensation for his "services". By the end of the 16th century, the population had increased to roughly 24,000 people, nearly double what it had been at the time of the Ottoman conquest. About 75% of its residents were Muslims, while 24% residents were Christians and the remaining 1% Jews. Homs was particularly well known for
silk and
wool weaving, especially the
alaja, which was mottled
muslin run through with gold threads and used in feminine apparel. This silk was exported as far as the Ottoman capital
Istanbul. In addition to weaving industries, there were
olive oil presses and water mills for
wheat and
sesame, while
grapes and
rice, grown in the surrounding marshlands from the 16th century, were found in abundance in the city's markets. Moreover, the markets of Homs were the centre of a trade in livestock, where flocks of
sheep and
goats coming from Aleppo met
camels and cattle moving north from Damascus. In the late 16th century the district was ruled by emir 'Ali Harfush of the famous Shiite
Harfush dynasty of the nearby
Beqaa valley. Later, a
French visitor noted that the city walls and citadel were in good repair, but all within was in decay and only its covered markets "retained their beauty." In 1785 French traveller,
Volney wrote of the city's once great importance and its current "miserable" condition. He described it as a large, but ruined village administratively dependent on Damascus. The Ottomans did little to revitalise Homs or ensure its security against Bedouin raids. Tribal unrest throughout the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in the sacking of its markets on several occasions. Security was even more hampered, when in the 18th century, the Ottomans tore down the gates of the city's walls. The countryside of Homs saw an increase in Bedouin raids in the first half of the 19th century, interrupted by its occupation by
Muhammad Ali's Egypt led by
Ibrahim Pasha between 1832 and 1840. The city rebelled against Egyptian rule and consequently, the citadel was destroyed when the Egyptians suppressed the revolt. Ottoman rule was soon restored and up to the 1860s, Homs was large enough to form a discrete economic unit of trade and processing of agricultural products from its satellite villages and the neighbouring Bedouin tribes. In Autumn 1925, the city joined Damascus and the southern
Druze chieftains in a full-blown
revolt against French rule. In 1932, the French moved their
military academy from Damascus to Homs to be established in 1933, later known as
Homs Military Academy, and it remained the only military academy in Syria until 1967. The French authorities had created a locally recruited military force designated as the
Special Troops of the Levant, in which the
Alawites were given privileged positions. The military academy in Homs trained the indigenous officers for these
Troupes Speciales du Levant. The Homs Military Academy played a major role in the years following Syria's independence, as many of its graduates went on to become high-ranking officers in the
Syrian Army, many of them taking part in the series of
coup d'états that were to follow. An important example was
Hafez al-Assad who became the president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.
21st century From May 2011 – May 2014, the city was under
siege by the Syrian Army and security forces. The Syrian government claimed it was targeting "armed gangs" and "terrorists" in the area. According to the Syrian opposition, Homs has since become a "blighted city", where authorities regularly block deliveries of medicine, food and fuel to the inhabitants of certain districts. By June, there were near-daily confrontations between protesting residents and Syrian forces. As a result of these circumstances, there have been more deaths in Homs and its vicinity than in other areas of Syria. Homs was the first Syrian city where images of al-Assad and his family were routinely torn down or defaced and the first place where Syrian forces used artillery during the uprising. The Center for Documenting Violations in Syria claims that at least 1,770 people have been killed in Homs since the uprising began. On 9 December 2015, under a UN-negotiated deal, the remnants of anti-government forces and their families, that had been under siege the
al-Waer district for three years, began to evacuate from the city. Homs was the site of heavy fighting between government forces and the Syrian opposition during the
2024 Homs offensive. On 7 December 2024, Syrian rebels claimed that they had captured Homs. ==Geography==