Syria
An ancient land, almost more ancient than any other place, Syria is dotted with the Tells (rubble mounds) of vanished peoples. A highway for conquering armies, it has managed to develop a distinctive culture of it's own, despite having been a piece of every Empire to ever have held sway in the Middle East.

Contains: Abilene, Aleppo, Arpad, Arvad, Bashan, Batanaea, Carchemish, Damascus, Ebla, Emesa, Gamgum, Gan Dunias, Hamath, Homs, Jabal as-Duruz, Latakia, Marathus, Mari, the Nizari, the Nusayri, Palmyra, Shaizar, Syria (General Survey), Tel Barsip, Ugarit, Unqi, Urkesh, Yamkhad, Zimru. 

 
ABILENE An ancient kingdom north of Iturea, in modern Syria. The capital was Abila, often called Abila of Lysanias to differentiate between it and another city by the same name on the Yarmuk river just inside northwestern Jordan.
  • To Damascus.........................................to 732
  • To Assyria.........................................732-609
  • To Babylon.........................................609-539
  • To Persia..........................................539-332
  • To Macedon.........................................332-323
  • To the Kingdom of Antigonus........................323-301
  • To Egypt...........................................301-198
  • To the Seleucid Empire.............................198-85
  • Within Iturea.......................................85-35 BCE
  • Tetrarchy of Abilene
  • ?
  • Lysanias...........................................fl. 20's CE
  • Lysanias should not be confused with the ruler of Iturea of the same name, but is believed to be a descendent of that ruler. He is mentioned as reigning during the ministry of John the Baptist.
  • ?
  • To Iturea...........................................37-100's
  • To the Roman Empire....................c. 2nd cent. CE-395
  • To the Byzantine Empire............................395-638
  • To the Caliphate...................................638-868
  • To Egypt...........................................868-896
  • To the Caliphate...................................896-935
  • To Egypt...........................................935-1071
  • To the Seljuqs....................................1071-1124
  • To Jerusalem......................................1124-1244
  • To Tripoli........................................1244-1292
  • To Egypt..........................................1292-1516
  • To the Ottoman Empire.............................1516-1918
  • To Syria..........................................1918-1920
  • To France.........................................1920-1946
  • To Syria..........................................1946-

    • ALEPPO An ancient city in northwestern Syria, about 80 miles (130 km.) east of Antioch.


    ARPAD (Beit Agusi) Not to be confused with the Phoenician city of Arvad, Arpad was a minor Aramaean state north of Aleppo.


    ARVADA Phoenician city located on a tiny island off the Syrian coast, about equidistant between Tripoli, Lebanon, and Latakia, Syria. The nearest mainland port is Tartus, which is built on the ruins of the Arvadite colony of the same name (called Antaradus by the Greeks).


    BASHAN An ancient Kingdom based in the rough country just to the east of the Golan Heights, in southwestern Syria. It's territory and influence at times reached into the heights themselves.


    CARCHEMISH (Jerablus) An exceedingly ancient city on the Euphrates river, northeast of Aleppo. The city had a mixed population of Canaanite, Amorite, Aramaean, Hittite, Akkadian, Egyptian and Hurrian origin but was normally ruled by Hittite kings or governors.


    DAMASCUS An ancient crossroads behind the mountains of Lebanon, now the capital of modern Syria.


    EBLA An ancient city, now merely a rubble mound, located in northern Syria roughly 25 miles (40 km.) south of Aleppo. In it's prime it was an important trade nexus, and an immense archive of cuneiform tablets has been discovered here.


    GAMGUM A north Levantine Kingdom of indeterminate location, probably one of the many anonymous tells (rubble mounds) found in northeastern Syria; it is mentioned in Sargon II's victory stele.


    GAN DUNIAS An Akkadian or Aramaic Kingdom of uncertain location, presumably one of the many tells (rubble mounds) dotting northeastern Syria.


    HAMATH  (Hamah) A city on the Orontes river in western Syria, due north of Damascus. The original population was largely Aramaean, with heavy Hittite cultural influences.


    HOMS (Emesa) An ancient city in west-central Syria, on the Orontes River.


    JABAL ad-DURUZ (or, el-Druze) The hill country in far southern Syria, more-or-less contiguous with the modern Syrian province of as-Suwayda. The chief city in the region, also called as-Suwayda, began as a Nabataean stronghold. From the 11th century, this region has been settled extensively by Druze, a Gnostic offshoot of Islam, a sect which has at times wielded considerable influence in the Levant.


    MARATHUS (Phoen. AMRIT) Town in Latakia Province on the Mediterranean Sea 30 miles north of Tripoli. Founded by colonists from Arvad in the second millennium BCE, it is today the site of the only well preserved Phoenician temple in the world. I have not seen any names of rulers or satraps of this place, but the roll-call of cultures and empires to have occupied the site over the last 3600 years or so is compelling enough to record it here.


    MARI An ancient city located in what is now eastern Syria, on the right bank of the upper Euphrates.


    The NIZARI (Assassins) The following is a list of the chief Da'ii (emissaries) of the Nizari sect in Syria. They were nominally subordinate to the lord of Alamut but for all intents and purposes acted independently.


    The NUSAYRI (ALAWITES) The Nusayri are a Shi'ite sect which developed during the mid 800's. Originally centered in Kufa, Iraq, the sect is now located almost exclusively in northwestern Syria (especially Latakia) and in parts of southern Anatolia and northern Lebanon. The term al-Alevi (Alawites) is a pejorative given them by other Muslims, referring to their veneration of the Caliph 'Ali which verges on worship. Among their beliefs are that human souls (which women do not possess) were cast out of heaven by God, who periodically manifests himself in the physical world to test mankind. Such manifestations have included Noah, Moses, Mohammed, and especially 'Ali. Many Zoroastrian, Christian and pagan beliefs have found their way into Nusayri'ism, including the venaration of angels and saints, and the observance of Christmas and other non-Muslim holidays. The Nusayri follow the Twelver Shi'ite succession until the eleventh Imam, al-Hasan al-'Askari, who was proclaimed to be a manifestation of the Divine by the sect's founder, ibn Nusayr.


    PALMYRA  (Tadmor)  A city in central Syria, known as Tadmor in ancient times. It is located next to an oasis 130 miles northeast of Damascus. According to the Bible King Solomon built the city, but in all likelihood he only fortified it because there is evidence of settlement as early as 1900 BCE. Palmyra was a vital link in trade routes between the Levant and Mesopotamia.


    SHAIZAR (Shayjar) A fortress town in Syria that played an important role in the Crusades, located on the Orontes northwest of Hamath.


    SYRIA The northern Levant, behind the mountains of Lebanon and below Anatolia. A center of civilization for an extremely long time.


    TEL BARSIP (Bit Adini, Beit Eden, Barsib) An Aramean city-state in Syria, with its capital at Tel Barsip near modern Tel Ahmar. Bit Adini was situated on a natural crossing-point of the Euphrates River and was thus a vitally strategic spot along the trade and military routes from the Levant into Mesopotamia.


    UGARIT (mod.Latakia) An ancient city-state near Latakia on the Syrian coast. Its ruins are located in a debris hill (tel) about half a mile from the shore at Ra's Shamrah. Ugarit was a major center of ancient civilization which developed an early cuneiform script. Its inhabitants, people of north Canaanite stock, were major traders who were influenced by and influenced Sumerian, Minoan, Mycenaean, Hurrian, Hittite, Akkadian and Egyptian civilization. Several of the Kings of Ugarit are known  from a single badly damaged tablet called KTU 1.113 by archeologists. The sequence and exact dating of these rulers is uncertain at best. The modern city dates from about 300 BCE.


    UNQI (Patin) A kingdom in what is now northern Syria. Its capital was Calneh, a city whose exact location is unknown.


    URKESH A city situated at the base of the Taurus Mountains in what is now northern Syria near the modern city of Qamishli. It was founded during the fourth millennium BCE (possibly by the Hurrians) on a site which appears to have been inhabited before then on a small scale for centuries: at least since 5000 BCE, the date of the earliest known remains found there.


    ZIMRU A minor Aramean or Akkadian-speaking kingdom in ancient times, probably in northeastern Syria.
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