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History of Hawarin


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Classical period

Huwwarin was an important town during the Byzantine Empire-era in Syria when it was known as "Evaria," "Euaria" or "Aueria." The name "Hawarin" was also used according to Syriac inscriptions between the 4th and 6th centuries CE. The Byzantines set up army units in the town.  A diocese was centered around Huwwarin in 451 CE. It later became a titular see of Phoenicia Secunda. According to Ptolemy, it was a part of the Palmyra district. The Ghassanids, who were Arab Christians, dominated Huwwarin and their first official bishop, John of Evaria, was from the town. By 519 there was at least one church in the town.

In the late 6th-century Magnus the Syrian, a prominent aristocratic figure in Byzantine Syria and close ally to emperors Justin II and Tiberius II, built another church in Huwwarin as well as a wall surrounding it.[6] He owned property in Huwwarin and financed many of its construction projects at the time. It was made a city in 573 by the Byzantines. In 581 Magnus invited the Ghassanid phylarch ("king") al-Mundhir III to the consecration of the newly-constructed church in Huwwarin before seizing him on behalf of the emperor. Al-Mundhir had been accused of treachery by Mauricius, a high-ranking secretary of Tiberius, and Magnus had him, his wife and three of his children arrested upon arrival in Huwwarin, then sent to Constantinople. Consequently, the Ghassanids revolted against the Byzantines in Syria, Palestine and Arabia under the leadership of Mundhir's son al-Nu'man VI. Following Magnus's departure from Huwwarin, al-Nu'man's troops raided and conquered the city. They slayed a number of its residents, took captive the rest and plundered Huwwarin of its gold, silver, brass, iron, wool, cotton, corn, wine, oil, cattle, sheep and goats. According to Byzantine historian George of Cyprus, by the 6th-century, Huwwarin was a suffragan see of Damascus.

Islamic era

In the summer of 634, during the
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