Salamiyya

Dr Farhad Daftary – J.H. Kramers

Salamiyya, a town in central Syria in the district of Orontes (Nahr al-‘Asi), about 25 miles south-east of Hamat and 35 miles north-east of Hims.

Salamiyya lies in a fertile plain 1,500 feet above sea level, south of the Jabal al-A‘la and on the margin of the Syrian steppe. The older and more correct pronunciation of the town’s name was Salamya, but the form Salamiyya is also found very early and is now the form almost universally in use. The nisba from the name is Salami. The town seems to be the ancient Salamias or Salaminias, which flourished in the Christian period, but the references of the classical authors to this place are uncertain. Yakut gives a popular etymology. The town, he says, was originally called Salam-mi’a, after the hundred surviving inhabitants of the destroyed town of al-Mu’tafika; the survivors then settled in Salamiyya and rebuilt it.

The situation of the town was important as an outpost of Syria, where main routes from the steppe (Palmyra) and Iraq joined; but it was never of any great military importance. Salamiyya was conquered by the Arabs in the year 15 AH (636 CE), and became one of the towns of the Djund of Hims; it was only after 906 AH (1500 CE) in the Mamluk period that it was placed in the district of Hamat for administrative purposes.

Complete at the source: Institute of Ismaili Studies