Al-Rastan

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Al-Rastan
الرستن
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Al-Rastan (

Tumin to the north, Deir al-Fardis to the northwest and Kafr Nan and the Houla village cluster to the west.[3] Ar-Rastan had a population of nearly 40,000 in 2004.[1]

It occupies the site of the Hellenistic-era city of Arethusa (

Ancient Greek: Ἀρέθουσα)[4] and still contains some of its ancient ruins. It continued to exist as a relatively small, but strategic town throughout the early Islamic and Ottoman eras. Ar-Rastan is situated adjacently south of the large bridge linking Homs and Hama.[5] The total land area of the town is 350 hectares.[6] It is the site of the al-Rastan Dam, a major dam on the Orontes River that has a retaining capacity of 225 million m3. The dam is principally used for irrigation.[7] The city also contains one of Syria's principal marlstone quarries.[8]

From the start of the

Syrian Civil War until 2018, Ar-Rastan served as a major opposition stronghold and had been the site of much fighting between Syrian Armed Forces
and rebels of various factions. The Syrian government retook control of the city on 15 May 2018 as part of an agreement which allowed rebels and their families safe passage to rebel-held parts of northern Syria in exchange for surrendering the territory along with their heavy weapons.

History

Classical era

Roman sarcophagus of Arethuse, 3rd century BC, found in the Rastan area, preserved in the National Museum of Damascus

Ar-Rastan was built on the site of ancient Arethusa. According to Roman historian

Syriac was called Arastan, also mentioned in the Christian First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. To a lesser extent, the name "Arastan" continued to be used by the indigenous inhabitants, alongside "Arethusa".[12]

It served as the first capital of the

Emesa (modern-day Homs) as a religious and political center.[17] In the 3rd century AD, Roman Emperor Aurelian stayed in the city during his campaign against Zenobia.[18]

Byzantine era

Arethusa was a Christian

bishopric by the beginning of the 4th century. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 counted among its participants a Bishop Eustathius of Arethusa.[19][20]

In the time of

Bollandists restored his reputation for orthodoxy. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on 29 March, with the description: "Saint Mark, Bishop of Arethusa in Syria, who in the time of the Arian controversy held firm to the orthodox faith and was severely maltreated under Julian the Apostate. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus lauds him as an outstanding and saintly old man."[22] The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates him on 20 March.[19]

By a subdivision of the Roman province of

metropolitan see
of Apamea rather than of Antioch.

Other bishops of Arethusa whose names are known are: a second Mark, who took part in the

Leo I the Thracian after the killing of Patriarch Proterius of Alexandria; Severianus at the start of the 6th century; and Abraamius, who ordained the priest Constantinus of Apamea, accused of Monothelism at the Third Council of Constantinople (680–681).[19][20]

Lebanese sources such as Giuseppe Simone Assemani and Bishop Yusef al-Dibs claim that Maron, the patron saint of the Maronite Church, who died in 410, was buried in Arethusa.[24] Most Maronite sources also believe the Monastery of Maron was located in the city as well.[25]

In the

a titular see for both the Latin Church and the Syriac Catholic Church.[27]

Islamic era

According to early Muslim geographers,

Hamdanids under the leadership of Sayf al-Dawla decisively defeated the Ikhshidid army led by Abu al-Misk Kafur at ar-Rastan from which they proceeded to conquer Damascus.[30] According to one account, about 4,000 Ikshidid soldiers were taken captive in addition to hundreds killed in action or drowned in the Orontes River.[31]

In 1115 while

Artukid ruler Ilghazi was resting at ar-Rastan on his way north to Diyarbakır, Khir Khan ibn Qaraja, the Seljuk ruler of Homs, attacked his camp and briefly had him imprisoned.[32][33] Following Saladin's arrival at ar-Rastan in February 1175, the Crusaders under Raymond of Tripoli withdrew from their siege of Homs which was then captured by Saladin, bringing most of Syria under Ayyubid rule.[34] In 1226, during Ayyubid rule, Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited ar-Rastan and wrote that it was "a small and ancient town ... It is now a ruin, but the remains still show what was its former splendor."[29]

The

Abu'l-Fida noted that in ar-Rastan, "Each of the houses is so large as to be almost like a village, with ruins everywhere round of buildings and walls." He further noted that a few arches, gates, parts of the city wall and its water channel were still present.[29]

In the late 16th-century or early 17th-century, during

Sufi sheikh, visited the false tomb of Persian Sufi mystic Abu Yazid al-Bistami at ar-Rastan (the actual one is in Bistam) in 1678, writing "over his grave there is splendor and awe, asserting his presence there."[38] Khan al-Rastan was visited in 1745 by Edward Pococke who described it as a "huge fortified caravanserai" that was decaying rapidly.[16]

Modern era

At the beginning of the 19th-century, ar-Rastan was an impoverished village whose population engaged primarily in

husbandry.[39] It occupied the northernmost part of Arethusa's ruins.[40] Like Homs during this period, its houses were built of black trapp.[39] They were described as small, ramshackle dwellings with mud roofs supported by wooden beams. A few buildings dating from the Mamluk era contained arches with the ablaq architectural style.[40]

During the

French Mandate periods.[42]

Abd al-Qader was the father of Mustafa Tlass who would become Defense Minister under Hafez al-Assad in 1972. The Hamdan had greater influence in the city and politically identified itself with the Nasserist trend which gained mass appeal in the Arab world in the 1950s–60s.[42]

On 23 March 1961, the Bulgarian Techno-Impex company completed the Rastan Dam while Syria was part of the United Arab Republic with Egypt. The dam is currently the third largest in the country.[43]

Syrian Civil War

Main articles:
May 2012 battle of Rastan

Ar-Rastan was one of the first cities to participate in the Syrian uprising against the government of

Ba'ath Party officials resigned from the organization in protest of the government and opposition activists claimed 17 demonstrators were killed by security forces.[45] On 29 May, the Syrian Army launched an assault, led by Hafez Makhlouf, on the city which lasted through most of the first week of June. By 2 June local activists claimed at least 52 civilians were killed, while the government stated four of its soldiers were killed in the offensive.[46][47]

By August 2011, ar-Rastan was mostly in the hands of the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) which was made up of defectors from the Syrian Army and civilian volunteers.[48] According to Al Jazeera, "Many defectors from the army come from Rastan."[49] The unit based in the city called themselves the Khalid ibn al-Walid Battalion. That month saw the FSA target local government figures and sympathizers, and pro-government Shabiha militiamen attack opposition-held neighborhoods. In late September the Syrian Army, reportedly backed by tanks and helicopters, launched an operation to retake the city resulting in four days of fighting. The Syrian Army succeeded and the FSA withdrew.[48]

Opposition militants regained control of the city by January 2012 reigniting continuous

clashes between them and the security forces which started late that month.[49] On 31 January ten activists and their relatives were killed in ar-Rastan after their building collapsed from Syrian Army fire.[50] On 6 February a local FSA unit commander Ala'a al-Sheikh reported that at least 42 people were killed by the Syrian Army in the preceding three days.[51] By 4 March the FSA had managed to repel the Syrian Army, although many of their fighters retreated "for tactical reasons" according to their local commander. Army shelling reportedly killed three people that day.[52] On 14 May, opposition sources claimed that nine people were killed as a result of Syrian Army shelling, while 23 soldiers were killed after the FSA attacked Syrian Army armored carriers approaching the city. An FSA member stated that ar-Rastan "has been destroyed."[49] In September 2015, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that ISIS jihadists murdered seven men in the town, accusing them of "being homosexual".[53] In the northside of the city, the al-Bassel National Hospital is a major army base for government troops and is often the target of rebel shelling.[54]

On 16 May 2018, the Syrian government established control over city after the last rebels were transported to the Idlib Governorate.[55][56]

Demographics

In 1970 ar-Rastan's population was 7,509.

Sunni Muslims.[58]

References

  1. ^ a b c General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Homs Governorate. (in Arabic)
  2. ^ The first two largest cities in the Homs Governorate according to the Central Bureau of Statistics' 2004 census are Homs (652,609 Archived 2012-07-31 at archive.today) and Tadmur (51,323). (in Arabic)
  3. ^ Map depicting surrounding localities of ar-Rastan. Rastan Map. Mapcarta.
  4. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §A116.5
  5. ^ Bar'el, Zvi. Report: Assad's air force pounds population centers in Syria's Rastan. Haaretz. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  6. ^ الرستن جمال الطبيعة وأصالة التاريخ. E-Syria. 21 October 2009.
  7. ^ Water for the Fields. Talis. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  8. ^ Britannica, p. 19.
  9. ^ a b Cohen, 2006, p. 101.
  10. ^ Levick, p. 7.
  11. ^ Byzantine historian Stephanos and French historian agree that Arethusa was named after the Arethusa of Greek Macedonia while Michael Avi-Yonah claims it was named after the Fountain of Arethusa in Sicily. Cohen, 2006, p. 102.
  12. ^ Cohen, 2006, p. 202.
  13. ^ Butcher, p. 91.
  14. ^ Levick, p. 12.
  15. ^ Levick, p. 8.
  16. ^ a b c Burton, p. 64.
  17. ^ a b Butcher, p. 92.
  18. S2CID 153920517. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2020-02-18.
  19. ^ a b c Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 915-916
  20. ^ a b [Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 436]
  21. ^ Their accounts are given in both the original texts and in English translation in John Brown, The Law of Christ Respecting Civil Obedience (London, 1839), pp. 351–356
  22. ISBN 978-88-209-7210-3
    ), p. 198
  23. ^ Moosa, 2005, p. 7.
  24. ^ Moosa, 2005, p. 23.
  25. ^ Moosa, 2005, p. 27.
  26. ^ Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 3 Archived 2019-03-21 at the Wayback Machine, p. 116; vol. 5, p. 97; vol. 6, p. 98
  27. ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1
    ), p. 838
  28. Abu'l Fida, quoted by le Strange, 1890, pp. 519
    –520.
  29. ^ a b c le Strange, 1890, p. 520.
  30. ^ Houtsma, p. 676.
  31. ^ Breasted, p. 84.
  32. ^ Richards, p. 167.
  33. ^ Houtsma, p. 466.
  34. ^ Ibn al-Athir, p. 34.
  35. ^ Ziadeh, 1953, p. 14.
  36. ^ Amitai-Preiss, 2005, p. 195.
  37. ^ Grube, 1978, p. 103.
  38. ^ Sirriyeh, p. 128.
  39. ^ a b Bey, p. 290.
  40. ^ a b Walpole, p. 180.
  41. ^ Moosa, 1987, p. 282.
  42. ^ a b Batatu, p. 152.
  43. ^ Oron, p. 511.
  44. ^ Syria protests: Homs city sit-in 'dispersed by gunfire'. BBC News. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  45. ^ Oweis, Khalid Yacoub. Syrian tanks deploy in town; hundreds detained. Reuters. 4 May 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  46. ^ a b Oweis, Khalid Yacoub. Syria forces kill 11 civilians in Rastan: activists. Reuters. 2 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  47. OCLC 1041615345.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  48. ^ a b Ajami, 2012, ch. Sarajevo on the Orontes.
  49. ^ a b c Syrian troops 'killed' in Rastan clashes. Al Jazeera English. Quote by Al Jazeera correspondent Rula Amin. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  50. ^ Oweis, Khalid Yacoub. Syrian forces kill 10 in rebel town. Reuters. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  51. ^ Weiss, Michael."Russia, Iran and Hezbollah are already intervening in Syria. Why aren't we?". The Daily Telegraph. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  52. ^ Abedine, Saad. More blood shed as rockets fall on Rastan, fears grow in Homs Archived 2012-05-12 at the Wayback Machine. CNN. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  53. ^ IS executes 10 people accused of being gay in Syria: monitor AFP September 2015
  54. ^ الجيش الحر يستهدف قوات النظام في المشفى الوطني بالرستن, SMART News Agency, 23 déc. 2015
  55. ^ "National flag hoisted over al-Rastan and Talbeisa". Syrian Arab News Agency. 16 May 2018.
  56. Al Masdar News. 15 May 2018. Archived from the original
    on 15 May 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  57. ^ United States. Office of International Health. Division of Planning and Evaluation, 1977, p. 131.
  58. ^ Assad Forces Renew Homs Assault. Reuters. 10 June 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012.

Bibliography

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