Maryamin ( ar, مريمين, also spelled Mariamin or Meriamen) is a village in central

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, 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 geographical ...

starting from 2008 after being part of the

Hama Governorate Hama Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حماة / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥamā'') is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in western-central Syria, bordering Idlib Governorate, Idlib and Aleppo Governorates ...

, 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 , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

. 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 south, ...

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 H ...

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 to ...

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 Shin may refer to: Biology * The front part of the human leg below the knee * Shinbone, the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates Names * Shin (given name) (Katakana: シン, Hiragana: しん), a Japanese ...

al-Shinyah Al-Shinyah ( ar, الشنية, also spelled al-Shiniyeh) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located northwest of Homs. Nearby localities include Fahel to the southwest, al-Qabu to the south, Sharqliyya ...

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

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

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 The New Kingdom, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the sixteenth century BC and the eleventh century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties of Egypt. Radioca ...

.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 Mariamme was a city in the late Roman province of Syria I, corresponding to present-day Qal'at El-Hosn or Krak des Chevaliers. The bishopric of Mariamme is no longer a residential episcopal see and is therefore included in the Catholic Church's ...

". 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 Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

was used in antiquity. The other instruments seen in the mosaic are a pair of forked cymbals, a double

aulos An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology. Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or "double flute", it was usu ...

, an ''oxyvaphi'' (a percussion instrument, here consisting of eight yellow-coloured metal bowls played with two sticks), a

kithara The kithara (or Latinized cithara) ( el, κιθάρα, translit=kithāra, lat, cithara) was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. In modern Greek the word ''kithara'' has come to mean "guitar", a word which etymologic ...

(a type of

lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke ...

), 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 fo ...

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_ti ...

" when he visited in 1225, during

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

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 ci ...

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