Maryamin ( ar, مريمين, also spelled Mariamin or Meriamen) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the

Homs Governorate Homs Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حمص / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥimṣ'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in central Syria. Its area differs in various sources, from to . It is thus geographic ...

starting from 2008 after being part of the Hama Governorate, located in

Homs Gap The Homs Gap ( ar, فتحة حمص) (also called the Akkar Gap and known in Arabic as al-Buqay'a) is a relatively flat passage in the Orontes River Valley of southern Syria. Nicknamed the "gateway to Syria," the gap separates the An-Nusayriyah M ...

southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include

Aqrab Aqrab ( ar, عقرب, also spelled Akrab) is a Town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Nisaf and Baarin to the west, Awj to the southwest, Qarmas to the s ...

Nisaf Nisaf ( ar, نيصاف, also spelled Nasaf) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located west of Hama. Nearby localities include Kafr Kamrah to the southeast, Baarin and Taunah to the east, al-Bayyadiyah to ...

and

Baarin Baarin ( ar, بعرين, ''Baʿrīn'' or ''Biʿrīn'') is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located in Homs Gap roughly southwest of Hama. Nearby localities include Taunah and Awj to the south, Aqrab and ...

to the north,

Kafr Kamrah Kafr Kamra ( ar, كفر كمرة, also spelled Kfar Kamrah) is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located west of Hama. Nearby localities include Awj to the north, Aqrab and Qarmas to the northeast, Houla t ...

and

Mashta al-Helu Mashta al-Helu ( ar, مشتى الحلو, also known as Meshta al-Helu or Mashta al-Helo) is a town and resort in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located 35 kilometers east of Tartus. The village is located in ...

to the west, Shin, al-Shinyah and al-Qabu to the south, and

Taldou Taldou ( ar, تلدو, Talldū, also spelled Tall Daww, Taldo, Tall Dhu or Taldao) is a town in the Houla region of northern Syria, north of Homs in the Homs Governorate. Nearby towns include Burj al-Qa'i to the east, Tallaf to the northeast, Ka ...

and

Tell Dahab Tell Dahab ( ar, تل ذهب, also spelled Tal Dhahab) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located northwest of Homs. Nearby localities include Taldou and Kafr Laha, Maryamin and al-Taybah al-Gharbiyah ...

to the east. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Maryamin had a population of 4,174 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Its inhabitants are predominantly Alawites.

History

Maryamin is believed to be located on the site of a town founded by

Ramses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as t ...

of the New Kingdom of Egypt.Boulanger (1966), p. 453. Maryamin, or ancient "Mariamme", was mentioned by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

and in late Roman lists.Butcher (2003), p. 110. The town likely served as the capital of the Mariamnitai tribe,Butcher (2003), p. 89. but very little mention of the Roman town survives. The Roman Catholic Church still maintains a titular "Bishop of Mariamme". An important late fourth-century mosaic from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

era was discovered in the ruins of a villa in Maryamin in 1960.Braun (2002), p. 286. The mosaic has an area of 20 square meters and depicts six female musicians playing instruments. The depiction is one of the few artifacts that give an indication on how the organ was used in antiquity. The other instruments seen in the mosaic are a pair of forked cymbals, a double aulos, an ''oxyvaphi'' (a percussion instrument, here consisting of eight yellow-coloured metal bowls played with two sticks), a kithara (a type of lyre), and cymbals. The mosaic is currently displayed at the regional museum of Hama. The Syrian geographer

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

noted that Maryamin was "one of the villages of

Hims ar, حمصي, Himsi , population_urban = , population_density_urban_km2 = , population_density_urban_sq_mi = , population_blank1_title = Ethnicities , population_blank1 = , population_blank2_t ...

" when he visited in 1225, during Ayyubid rule. In 1929 Maryamin and a number of other Alawite villages in the

Masyaf Masyaf ( ar, مصياف ') is a city in northwestern Syria. It is the center of the Masyaf District in the Hama Governorate. As of 2004, Masyaf had a religiously diverse population of approximately 22,000 Ismailis, Alawites and Christians. The c ...

district were transferred to the

Alawite State The Alawite State ( ar, دولة جبل العلويين, '; french: État des Alaouites), officially named the Territory of the Alawites (french: territoire des Alaouites), after the locally-dominant Alawites from its inception until its int ...

after negotiations with their landlords. The villages' cultivated lands were distributed among the peasantry that worked them.Bosworth (1989), p. 791. In the early 1960s Maryamin had a population of 600 residents. It was a center for growing grape vines and contained a number of springs.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * *Kiilerich, Bente (2010). 'The Mosaic of the Female Musicians from Mariamin', ''Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia'' XXII, n.s. 8, 2010, pp. 87-107. *Kiilerich, Bente (2017). ''Mariamin Mosaic'', in P.C. Finney, ed., ''The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology'', Grand Rapids, Mi., 2017, vol. II, p. 107. * * {{Homs Governorate, homs Populated places in Homs District Alawite communities in Syria