In the early Islamic period, Homs (in Arabic: Ḥimṣ) was one of the chief cities of the province of Syria, being the capital of one of its five military districts during the era of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750).
After the Syrian-based Umayyads were replaced by the Iraq-centric Abbasids, however, the city entered a turbulent period, in which tribal factionalism and the ambitions of the local ashraf triggered regular outbreaks of disorder.
Beginning in the reign of Harun al-Rashid (786–809), the central government was compelled to send numerous punitive expeditions against Homs and its vicinity,[1] and the city's reputation for rebellion became even greater following the end of the Fourth Civil War in Syria (c. 825).
[2] The first revolt occurred in October-November 854, when the city inhabitants rose up and attacked the chief of security police Abu al-Mughith Musa ibn Ibrahim.
Attab was instructed by the caliph to present Ibn Abdawayh to the Homsis, offering him as a replacement to Abu al-Mughith; if they however refused the choice and continued to resist, he was to request that troops be sent against the city.
Ibn Abdawayh was ordered to flog three of the local chiefs to death and crucify their bodies in front of their residences, while twenty more individuals were to each receive thirty lashes and then be sent to the Abbasid capital, Samarra.