With a population of 996,000 (2023 census), Hama is one of the four largest cities in Syria, with Damascus, Aleppo and Homs, it is also home to the dessert of Halawet el Jibn.

[8] Irhuleni of Hamath and Hadadezer of Aram-Damascus (biblical "Bar-Hadad") led a coalition of Aramean cities against the encroaching Assyrian armies.

[5] After the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, Hamath's king Ilu-Bi'di (Jau-Bi'di) led a failed revolt of the newly organized Assyrian provinces of Arpad, Simirra, Damascus, and Samara.

Styling himself the "Destroyer of Hamath," Sargon II razed the city c. 720 BC,[10] recolonized it with 6300 Assyrians and removed its king to be flayed alive in Assyria.

[11] Displaced persons from Hamath subsequently comprised an important part of the multi-ethnic Aramaean community at Elephantine and Syene (now Aswan) in Egypt starting in 700 BCE, where alongside similarly displaced Jews they produced a large corpus of materials in Imperial Aramaic known as the Elephantine papyri and ostraca.

1 Kings 8:65 names the "entrance of Hamath", or Lebo-Hamath, as the northern border of Israel at the time of the dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem.

In July 522 BC, Cambyses II died at a location called Agbatana, which is most likely the modern city of Hama.

After the death of Alexander the Great his Near East conquests were divided between his generals, and Seleucus Nicator became ruler of Syria and the founder of the Seleucid dynasty.

The Aramaeans were allowed to return to the city, which was renamed Epiphaneia[5] (Ancient Greek: Ἐπιφάνεια),[15] after the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

[16] As Syria became part of the Roman Empire, five hundred Hamian archers, known as "Cohors Prima Hamiorum Sagittaria", were stationed at Magnis on Hadrian's Wall in northern Britain starting from AD 120.

Roman rule from Byzantium meant the Christian religion was strengthened throughout the Near East, and churches were built in Hama and other cities.

After its capitulation to the Muslims, it became administratively part of Jund Hims (the military district of Homs), remaining as such through the 10th century.

In 944, the Hamdanids under Sayf al-Dawla captured the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and by the following year expanded their control to Jund Hims.

[21][22] These were considered the 'dark years' of Hama as the local rulers of northern and southern Syria struggled for dominance in the region.

By the 11th century, the Fatimids gained suzerainty over northern Syria and during this period, the Aleppo-based Mirdasids sacked Hama.

By 1154, the Zengid ruler of Aleppo, Nur al-Din conquered Damascus and thus brought Muslim Syria, including Hama, under his control (the coastal regions were under Crusader rule).

In 1157 two earthquakes cumulatively shattered the city and caused immense damage to the neighboring towns of Maarrat al-Numan, Shaizar and Kafartab.

The first earthquake, on 13 July, left Hama partly in ruins and repairs were undertaken by Nur al-Din to the city's walls in early August to prevent Crusader forces from taking advantage of its damaged state.

[26] The more severe earthquake, on 12 August, collapsed most of the town, its fortress and citadel, and all its large residences, which were clustered around the Orontes, killing most of Hama's inhabitants.

[21] Geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, who was born in Hama, described it in 1225 as a large town surrounded by a strongly built wall.

The city was filled with palaces, markets, mosques, madrasas, and a hospital, and over thirty different sized norias (water-wheels).

[21] Ibn Battuta visited Hama in 1335 and remarked that the Orontes River made the city "pleasant to live in, with its many gardens full of trees and fruits."

He also speaks of a large suburb called al-Mansuriyyah (named after an Ayyubid emir) that contained "a fine market, a mosque, and bathes.

[33] The governor of Hama was tasked in 1692 with settling Turkoman nomads in the Hama-Homs region under the aegis of the Ottoman Empire's tribal settlement program.

By then, Hama had developed into what it has remained: a medium-sized provincial town, important as the market for an agricultural area abundant in cereals, but also cotton and sugar beets.

[37] Starting in the late 1940s, significant class conflict erupted as agricultural workers sought reform in Hama.

Akram al-Hawrani, a member of an impoverished notable family in Hama, began to agitate for land reform and better social conditions.

As early as the spring of 1964, Hama became the epicentre of an uprising by conservative forces, encouraged by speeches from mosque preachers, denouncing the policies of the Ba'ath.

[37] In the early 1980s, Hama had emerged as a major source of opposition to the Ba'ath government during the Sunni armed Islamist uprising, which had begun in 1976.

[39] Tanks and artillery shelled the neighbourhoods held by the insurgents indiscriminately, and government forces are alleged to have executed thousands of prisoners and civilian residents after subduing the revolt, which became known as the Hama massacre.