Al-Rastan الرستن | |
|---|---|
 Ar-Rastan (on hill in background) andwaterwheel (forefront) separated by Orontes River, 1930s | |
  Al-Rastan Location in Syria | |
| Coordinates:34°55′N36°44′E / 34.917°N 36.733°E /34.917; 36.733 | |
| Country |  Syria |
| Governorate | Homs |
| District | Al-Rastan |
| Subdistrict | Al-Rastan |
| Control | Syrian transitional government |
| Elevation | 430 m (1,410 ft) |
| Population (2004)[1] | |
• Total | 39,834 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | +3 |
Al-Rastan (Arabic:الرستن) is the third largest city in theHoms Governorate,[2] located 25 kilometers (16 mi) north of its administrative capitalHoms and 22 kilometers (14 mi) fromHama. Nearby localities includeTalbiseh andal-Ghantu to the south,al-Zaafaraniyah andal-Mashrafah to the southeast,Murayj al-Durr to the northeast,Tumin to the north,Deir al-Fardis to the northwest andKafr Nan and theHoula 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 ofArethusa (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 theal-Rastan Dam, a majordam on theOrontes 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 principalmarlstone quarries.[8]
From the start of theSyrian Civil War until 2018, Ar-Rastan served as a major opposition stronghold and had been the site of much fighting betweenSyrian 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.
Ar-Rastan was built on the site of ancient Arethusa. According to Roman historianAppian,[9] Arethusa was established bySeleucus I Nicator, founder of theSeleucid dynasty in the 3rd century BC.[10] Most sources agree Seleucus named it after the city ofArethusa inMacedonia, but others claim it was named after a spring inSicily with the same name.[11] Arethusa in nativeSyriac was called Arastan, also mentioned in the ChristianFirst 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 theEmesani kingdom in central Syria,[13] a vassal of theRoman Empire, in the mid-1st-century BC.[14] Roman historianStrabo stated that it was well governed under thephylarchSampsiceramus I from 64 to 63,[15] when the Roman generalPompey captured it.[16][17] Emesani control was restored by 46 BC when it was ruled byIamblichus I.[9] During theRoman civil war that followed the death ofJulius Caesar, the city's inhabitants sided withMark Antony againstOctavian. Nonetheless, Arethusa became an independent city-state following Octavian's victory in theBattle of Actium in 31 BC, but returned to Emesani control eleven years later. Thereafter, its status declined with the rise of nearbyEmesa (modern-day Homs) as a religious and political center.[17] In the 3rd century AD, Roman EmperorAurelian stayed in the city during his campaign againstZenobia.[18]
Arethusa was a Christianbishopric by the beginning of the 4th century. TheFirst Council of Nicaea in 325 counted among its participants a Bishop Eustathius of Arethusa.[19][20]
In the time ofRoman emperorConstantius II (337–361), Bishop Marcus (Mark) of Arethusa was authorized to replace apagan temple in the city with a Christian church. UnderJulian the Apostate (361–363), he was ordered to rebuild the temple. To avoid doing so he fled from the city, but returned to save the Christian people from paying the penalty in his stead, and in 362 underwent very cruel treatment at the hands of the pagan mob, as recounted byTheodoret andSozomen.[21] He is said to have been the author of theCreed of Sirmium (351) and was counted byTillemont as anArian, but research by theBollandists restored his reputation for orthodoxy and he is now counted as a saint by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church.[22][19]
By a subdivision of the Roman province ofCoele-Syria after c. 415, Arethusa became part of the new province ofSyria Secunda or Syria Salutaris, with capital atApamea on the Orontes (modern-dayQalaat al-Madiq).[23] Theepiscopal see of Arethusa thus became a suffragan of themetropolitan see of Apamea rather than of Antioch.
Other bishops of Arethusa whose names are known are: a second Mark, who took part in theCouncil of Chalcedon in 451; Eusebius, one of the signatories of the letter that the bishops of Syria Secunda wrote to EmperorLeo I the Thracian after the killing of PatriarchProterius of Alexandria; Severianus at the start of the 6th century; and Abraamius, who ordained the priest Constantinus of Apamea, accused of Monothelism at theThird Council of Constantinople (680–681).[19][20]
Lebanese sources such asGiuseppe Simone Assemani and Bishop Yusef al-Dibs claim thatMaron, thepatron saint of theMaronite 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 theCrusades period, Arethusa (which was called Artasia) was for a short time aLatin Rite see, of which two bishops are known, mentioned respectively in 1100 and 1135.[26] Since Arethusa is no longer a residential bishopric, it is today listed by theCatholic Church asa titular see for both theLatin Church and theSyriac Catholic Church.[27]
According to early Muslim geographers,[28] ar-Rastan, despite its strong fortifications and large garrison was swiftly captured then destroyed byAbu Ubaida's forces during theMuslim conquest of Syria in 634,[16] whileUmar ibn al-Khattab wascaliph.[29] In early 945 theAleppo-basedHamdanids under the leadership ofSayf al-Dawla decisively defeated theIkhshidid army led byAbu al-Misk Kafur at ar-Rastan from which they proceeded to conquerDamascus.[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 whileArtukid rulerIlghazi was resting at ar-Rastan on his way north toDiyarbakır, Khir Khan ibn Qaraja, theSeljuk ruler of Homs, attacked his camp and briefly had him imprisoned.[32][33] FollowingSaladin's arrival at ar-Rastan in February 1175, the Crusaders underRaymond of Tripoli withdrew from their siege of Homs which was then captured by Saladin, bringing most of Syria underAyyubid rule.[34] In 1226, during Ayyubid rule, Syrian geographerYaqut 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]
TheMamluks gained control over Syria in the 1260s, and organized theregion into kingdoms subordinate to thesultanate in Cairo. Ar-Rastan became the southernmost town of Mamlakat Hama ("Kingdom of Hama") near the border with Mamlakat Hims.[35] In amajor battle at a place between the town and Homs, the Mamluks underQalawun decisively defeated the invadingMongol army of theIlkhanate in 1281.[36] Later, in the early 14th century,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, duringOttoman rule, thecaravanserai Khan ar-Rastan was built just outside the town.[37]Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, the 17th-centurySufi sheikh, visited the false tomb of Persian Sufi mysticAbu Yazid al-Bistami at ar-Rastan (the actual one is inBistam) in 1678, writing "over his grave there is splendor and awe, asserting his presence there."[38] Khan al-Rastan was visited in 1745 byEdward Pococke who described it as a "huge fortified caravanserai" that was decaying rapidly.[16]
At the beginning of the 19th-century, ar-Rastan was an impoverished village whose population engaged primarily inhusbandry.[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 theablaq architectural style.[40]
During theFranco-Syrian War, ar-Rastan served as one of the bases forSaleh al-Ali and his local allies and was shelled by French forces in early 1920.[41] TwoSunni Muslim agricultural clans, the Firzat and the Hamdan, dominated ar-Rastan in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The former claimed descent from theBanu 'Abs tribe that arrived in Syria as part ofKhalid ibn al-Walid's army in the mid-7th century. A member, Sheikh Abd al-Qader, served as ar-Rastan'smukhtar in the lateOttoman andFrench Mandate periods.[42]
Abd al-Qader was the father ofMustafa Tlass who would become Defense Minister underHafez al-Assad in 1972. The Hamdan had greater influence in the city and politically identified itself with theNasserist trend which gained mass appeal in theArab world in the 1950s–60s.[42]
On 23 March 1961, the Bulgarian Techno-Impex company completed the Rastan Dam while Syria was part of theUnited Arab Republic withEgypt. The dam is currently the third largest in the country.[43]
Ar-Rastan was one of the first cities to participate in the Syrian uprising against the government ofBashar al-Assad that would lead to the ongoingSyrian Civil War. In mid-April 2011 large anti-government demonstrations began taking place in ar-Rastan as well as nearbyTalbiseh.[44] On 28 April about 50 localBa'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 anassault, led byHafez 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 oppositionFree Syrian Army (FSA) which was made up of defectors from theSyrian Army and civilian volunteers.[48] According toAl 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-governmentShabiha 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 infour days of fighting. The Syrian Army succeeded and the FSA withdrew.[48]
Opposition militants regained control of the city by January 2012 reigniting continuousclashes 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, theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed thatISIS killed 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]
During theoffensive of December 2024, it was reported that a bridge in Rastan was bombed by Russian forces to impede the rebel advance.[57]
In 1970 ar-Rastan's population was 7,509.[58] It had a population of 39,834 in 2004 according to the census by theCentral Bureau of Statistics of Syria (CBS). There were a total of 6,066 households.[1]Reuters news agency put the city's population in 2011–2012 as roughly 60,000.[46] The inhabitants are mostlySunni Muslims.[59]
Telbisse Rastan.
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