Armanaz أَرْمَنَاز | |
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Town | |
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  Armanaz | |
| Coordinates:36°05′N36°30′E / 36.083°N 36.500°E /36.083; 36.500 | |
| Country |  Syria |
| Governorate | Idlib Governorate |
| District | Harem District |
| Nahiyah | Armanaz Nahiyah |
| Occupation | Hayat Tahrir al-Sham |
| Elevation | 340 m (1,120 ft) |
| Population (2004 census)[1] | |
• Total | 10,296 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
Armanaz (Arabic:أَرْمَنَاز,romanized: Armanāz) is a town in northwesternSyria, administratively part of theHarem District, in theIdlib Governorate. It is located 20 kilometers northwest ofIdlib near the Syrian-Turkish borders.[2] Nearby localities includeSalqin,Harem andKafr Takharim to the north andIdlib,Ma'arrat Misrin andSaraqib to the southeast.
According to theSyria Central Bureau of Statistics, Armanaz had a population of 10,296 in the 2004 census.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantlySunni Muslims.[3] The town is the administrative center of the Armanaz Subdistrict (nahiyah), consisting of 12 villages with a combined population of 27,267.[1]
Armanaz is well known for its glass-manufacturing industry.[4] It is the only village in northern Syria that specializes in this artisan craft, which it has been specializing since ancient times.[3] It is also well known for itsolive groves,olive oil andpottery.
The name "Armanaz" is of pre-Semitic origin.[4] It may be the sight of the ancientAssyrian city of Tarmanazi.[3] According to historian Carl Joham Lamm, ancient sources indicate that Armanaz was founded by glass workers from a town nearTyre (modern-dayLebanon) with the same name.[5]
In 1098 the MuslimSeljuk ruler ofAntioch,Yaghi-Siyan, was killed in Armanaz,[6] then an estate ofMaarrat Misrin,[7] while escaping the city upon the capture of nearbyAntioch by theCrusaders.[6] Armanaz became a Crusader town known as "Emine" or "Eminas" during the 11th century.[3] DuringAyyubid rule in the early 13th-century, Syrian geographerYaqut al-Hamawi wrote that the village Armanaz was "an ancient and small town, distant fromHalab (Aleppo) about 5leagues. They make here pots and drinking-vessels, red in colour, and very sweet to smell."[8]
Medieval Muslim historian Izz al-Din ibn Shaddad al-Halabi mentioned Armanaz as one of 22 abandoned or ruined fortresses in the Aleppo region, likely destroyed during theMongol invasions of Syria in the mid to late 13th century and was not rebuilt by theMamluks who gained power in the region during that time.[9]
During theanti-French revolt led byIbrahim Hananu in 1919, Hananu's fighters administered Armanaz and by working with the former head of its municipality, levied taxes on landowners, livestock owners and farmers to support the rebel effort. From Armanaz, Hananu's authority extended toHarem,Jisr al-Shughur,Kafr Takharim andIdlib with the same process of taxation and administration being repeated in those municipalities.[10]
In the early 1960s, it was a large village of approximately 3,000 people.[3]
Following weeks of clashes in the summer of 2012, during the ongoingSyrian Civil War, opposition rebels captured Armanaz from theSyrian Army on 20 June.[2]
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