حمص _ دراسة وثائقية ١٨٤٠ - ١٩١٨ ه ، كيف كانت حمص في تلك الحقبة ١_a .. كتاب حمص

Chapter one

Homs - Documentary study 1840 - 1918 AH

What was Homs like in that era?

A - Its borders:

The town was surrounded by a wall of basalt stones that had an irregular, trapezoidal shape. Its smaller base was the southern one, extending between (Bab al-Duraib) and (Bab al-Sbaa’) with a length of 900 meters, and its largest base was the northern one, extending between (Bab Tadmur in the east and the (Forty Mosque Tower) in length. (1575) m, and its eastern side extends between (Bab Tadmur) in the north and (Bab al-Duraib) in the south, and its length is (900) m, and its western side is between (Bouj Jami’ al-Arba’in) in the north and (Bab al-Turkman), which is adjacent to the northwestern foot of the citadel in the south, and its length is (25). ) m, so the perimeter of the wall will be like this (4200) m.

B - Its doors:

There were doors in the wall that connected the interior of Homs to its exterior:

1 - Bab Al-Rastan: On the northern side, it will be called (Bab Al-Souq) after the establishment of the (Al-Hamidiyah) neighborhood and the construction of the markets, the inns, and the floors between it and the Great Mosque in the late nineteenth century, and before that it was known. (Bab al-Mughlaq) and the square in front of it from the north, in al-Mughlaq Square.

2 _ Bab Hud on the western side near the Maqam of the Prophet (Hud) and to the south of it.

3 _ The blocked door: When Sultan (Salim) entered Homs (1516) AD. He left it through this door and it was closed behind him and was never opened again. It became called the blocked door, and perhaps it was known before that as (the Mountain Gate), and it is the only one of the city’s gates whose features are still visible until now.

4 - The Turkmen Gate: which was based on its pillars at the northwestern foot of the castle and near the road ascending to the palace. We think that this door was a crack in the wall, after the blocked door was closed. So that the people behind it could reach the west of the town from that side, and since Sultan Selim Q had camped in that area a large number of Turkmen, he knew their names as well as the neighborhood in which they had camped.

5 - Bab al-Sabaa: It was based on its western support on the north-eastern foot of the citadel, and on its eastern support on the city wall, and it used to go from it to Damascus via Maskanah, Jandar, and Hassia.

6 - Bab al-Duraib: It was facing east and was located at the southern end of the city’s eastern wall, west of the Ka’b al-Ahbar Mosque in the aforementioned neighborhood, and it also went from there to Damascus via Maskanah.

7: Palmyra Gate: It is located at the northern end of the eastern wall of the country, and its features remained until the seventies of this century, and it goes from it! Ban
Eastern Homs is destroyed.

Between the Turkmen Gate and the Sebaa Gate, the city halls are attached to the northern slope of the citadel, the slope of which is almost vertical. Some features of the wall are still visible between Bab Tadmur and Bab al-Duraib, and when the municipality demolished (Al-Arba’in District), a piece of the city wall appeared that was included in the structure of the houses that pass through it, so the municipality kept it for memory and history and did not annex it to Al-Arba’in District. There were towers on these walls, some of which still exist today, such as the tower of the Arbaeen Mosque.

As for the city ditch, some of its features still remain in Khandaq Street in Bab al-Sibbaa, and in the area between Bab Tadmur and Bab al-Duraib, as indicated by the low ditch street in the west of Bab Hud between it and the blocked gate. As for the citadel, it is located, as we saw, on the southwestern side of the city, which is It was built on a hill 533 meters above sea level. It is likely that the bottom of the hill is natural and rocky, and the top is artificial. It is in the shape of an incomplete cone, its circumference at the bottom is about 900 metres, and its height above the surface of the surrounding land is about thirty metres. Its northern foot, adjacent to the city, is steep and almost vertical. The Levant was struck by a major earthquake that demolished its cities and sowed devastation therein in the year 552 AH. Corresponding to (1157) AD. Nour al-Dī restored it as much as he could. As for fortifying the citadel and the city, it was the work of the Mujahid Asad al-Din Shirkuh II, who ruled Homs and its environs for (54) years AD (1185-1239). It was mentioned in Al-Mansouri’s history book when speaking about the events of the year (624) AH, in which Sultan Al-Malik Al-Mujahid, his companion, began digging the castle’s moat, expanding it, and strengthening it because it was one of the Islamic frontiers.