Shaizar or Shayzar (Arabic: شيزر; in modern Arabic Saijar; Hellenistic name: Larissa in Syria, Λάρισσα εν Συρία in Greek) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northwest of Hama. Nearby localities include, Mahardah, Tremseh, Kafr Hud, Khunayzir and Halfaya. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Shaizar had a population of 5,953 in the 2004 census. During the Crusades, the town was a fortress, ruled by the Banu Munqidh family. It played an important part in the Christian and Muslim politics of the crusades.
Location Shaizar is located at a strategically vital crossing point on the Orontes River, 28 km to the northwest of Hama.
Name evolution
In the Amarna letters (14th century BC) it is mentioned as Senzar or Sezar. To the Greeks it was known as Sidzara, but during the Seleucid Empire it was renamed Larissa, after the town Larissa in Thessaly (Greece) from which many colonists came. It reverted to its earlier name under the Roman Empire and was known as Sezer under the Byzantine Empire. The Crusaders rendered the city's name in Latin as Caesarea. This name had not been used in any earlier period, and was derived from the Crusaders mistakenly identifying this city as being Caesarea Mazaca, a place renowned in Christian history as the home of Saint Basil of Caesarea. Shaizar's ruins are known as Saijar in modern Arabic.
History
Late Bronze Age Shaizar is mentioned as Senzar or Sezar in the Amarna letters (14th century BC).
Classical Age
Hellenistic period Diodorus Siculus (first century BC) records local legends attributing the establishment of the town by one of Alexander's cavalry regiments originating from Thessaly. The town was renamed Larissa Sizara, Larissa being the town in Thessaly from which many Greek settlers came. According to Diodorus, these colonists received land as a reward for their bravery. Both the Thessalian city and the Syrian town were known for their horse breeding. Diodorus also mentions that the Larisans provided the horsemen for the first agema of the Seleucid cavalry.
Roman period The Roman armies led by Pompey conquered Syria in 64 BC. Syria was briefly occupied by Republican-Parthian forces under the Parthian prince Pacorus I. The Tabula Peutingeriana places Larisa 13 miles from Apamea and 14 miles from Epiphaneia.
Byzantine and Early Arab periods The city remained part of the Christianised empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, under the name of Sezer. Shaizar fell to the Arabs in 638 and frequently passed from Arab to Byzantine control. It was sacked in 968 by Byzantine emperor Nicephorus II, and was captured by Basil II in 999, after which it became the southern border of the Byzantine Empire and was administered by the Bishop of Shaizar. A Fatimid castle was standing at Shaizar by the time the Byzantines recaptured the town. It was lost to the Banu Munqidh in 1081 when Ali ibn Munqidh bought it from the bishop.
Munqidhite Shaizar (1081–1157)
The Munqidhites controlled territory east of Shaizar, across the al-Ansariyah mountains to the Mediterranean coast, from the coastal cities of Latakia in the north to Tortosa in the south. In 1086, Naṣr b. al-ʽAlī b. Munqidh had to submit to the Seljuk Sultan Malik-Shah I. Around 1088/89, the Seljuk governor of Aleppo, Aqsunqur, besieged the town and ravaged it. During the First Crusade in 1099, the emir assisted the Crusaders passing through his land, giving them horses and food and other provisions. After the crusade it was bordered by the crusader Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli. The interaction between the Crusader states and the Banu Munqidh rulers of Shaizar consisted of a series of wars and alliances. When the Crusaders briefly conquered Qalaat al-Madiq, a fortress to the northwest of Shaizar and overlooking ancient Apamea, in 1106, the Banu Munqidh clan harassed them from their base in Shaizar. In 1106, the Munqidhite emirs Murshid and Sultan defeated William-Jordan of Tripoli, and in 1108 and 1110 they had to bribe Tancred to leave. Tancred, Baldwin I of Jerusalem, and Bertrand of Tripoli besieged the city during the battle of Shaizar of 1111 for two weeks, but returned home when the army of Mawdud of Mosul cut off their access to food and water. Tancred nevertheless built a castle nearby on Tell ibn Ma'shar, in order to keep Shaizar under close watch. When Ridwan of Aleppo died in 1113, Shaizar was inundated by many of his Assassin supporters that were expelled from the city by his son Alp Arslan al-Akras. Shaizar participated in Ilghazi's campaign against Antioch in 1119. When Baldwin II of Jerusalem was taken captive by the Artuqid Belek Ghazi outside Edessa in 1123, he was held at Shaizar until his release the next year. As part of his ransom he was forced to give up his daughter Ioveta as a hostage, who was also held at Shaizar until her own ransom in 1125. As Shaizar was a friendly state, Baldwin was allowed to visit his daughter there, but Shaizar was also friendly to its Muslim neighbours, and in 1125 was incorporated into the territory of Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi, atabeg of Mosul. When Zengi succeeded-Bursuqi's son in Mosul in 1127 and claimed Aleppo as well, Shaizar recognized his suzerainty. In 1137, Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus arrived to impose Byzantine authority on Antioch, and promised Raymond of Antioch a principality consisting of Shaizar, Aleppo, Homs, and Hama if Antioch was returned to the Empire. In April 1138, the Byzantine army led the siege of Shaizar, but Raymond and Joscelin II of Edessa did not assist the emperor. Zengi soon arrived to relieve the fortress in May. The emir preferred Byzantine control to Zengid, and offered to recognize John as his overlord. Neither John or Zengi ever really enforced their authority there and Shaizar remained independent. The emirate lasted until the enormous earthquake of 1157, during which the citadel collapsed, killing almost the entire family, who had assembled there to celebrate a circumcision. The only survivors out of the whole family were the wife of emir, and the emir's nephew Usama ibn Munqidh, the famed poet-knight who was on a diplomatic mission to Damascus. Nur al-Din Zengi, the ruler of Aleppo and Damascus who had thus far been unable to exert direct rule over it, moved to occupy the city rather than allow it to fall into Christian hands. Thereafter, the city was besieged by Christian forces in 1157.
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