The ancient city of Hama rose to fame not for any educational or cultural breakthrough but for the river of blood that flowed through its old alleys in 1982 during the military showdown between then-president Hafez al-Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood. Thousands were killed, and entire parts of the city were pounded to dust by al-Assad.
Hama would be punished and ignored for the next 30 years, receiving very little government attention or funds, until it returned to the limelight for its anti-Assad demonstrations in 2011. And now again in 2024, after it fell to Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) this week, following 61 years of Baathist rule. Yet another page from Hama’s long history is being turned—a history that pre-dates Christianity.
Hama and the Azems
Hama witnessed different kinds of rulers until the Ottomans occupied Syria in 1516. They relied heavily on the powerful Azem family of Hama to rule over Syria during the 18th century, and their foremost figure was Asaad Pasha Al Azem, the governor of Ottoman Damascus from 1743 to 1757. He built the Azem Palace of Hama in 1742, followed by the Azem Palace of Damascus in 1749 and the Khan Asaad Pasha of Damascus in 1753.
The Azems would soon become Syria’s most powerful and influential family—not to mention the wealthiest—maintaining that status until the Baath Party came to power in 1963. That is when their wealth was confiscated, and they were systematically eliminated from Syria’s political, economic, and cultural landscape.
Another famous family member was Mohammad Fawzi Al Azem, a cabinet minister under the Ottomans and then the first president of the Syrian National Council (parliament) in 1919. Then came Haqqi Bey Al Azem, Syria’s premier during the French Mandate, followed by his cousin Khaled Al Azem—a five-time prime minister and political heavyweight during the 1950s. Famed for his economic and business acumen, the Syrian lira would stabilise, shares would rise on the Syrian stock market, and foreign investment would pour in whenever he was named premier.
The Shishakli Years
Hama rose against French colonial rule in 1925, and two of its notables, Tawfiq Al Shishakli and Najib Al Barazi, became leaders of the Syrian nationalist movement. Towards the end of the mandate, a prominent Hamwi named Adib Shishakli defected from French military service and led an anti-French insurgency in Hama in 1945. He would later join the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and become one of the co-founders of the Syrian Army.
Shishakli fought in Palestine in two capacities—first as a volunteer with the Arab League-founded Army of Deliverance in 1947, then as an officer with the Syrian Army in 1948. He participated in Syria’s first two coups in March and August 1949, and before the end of the year, he would lead his own against army commander Sami Al Hinnawi. Then came his second coup in November 1951, after which he became president in July 1953. Shishakli was Syria’s second military president and both the first and last Hamwi to assume the job.
His second coup came in defiance of a Syrian-Iraqi union that was in the works, which he never supported. Although brief, the Shishakli era witnessed a process of economic liberalisation, with warming ties with the Arab world. Many would later believe that the Free Officers of Egypt were inspired by the successes of the Shishakli coups when staging their own coup in 1952.
The Shishakli era collapsed in 1954, with him resigning to prevent more bloodshed after a nationwide revolt broke out against him. He would be killed by a Syrian Druze on 27 September 1964, exactly ten years after leaving the presidency, in revenge for having ordered the killing of many Druze during his tenure. Shishakli had famously warned: “Beware of the two mountains (the Alawite and Druze Mountains).”
