Ḥuwwārīn

Huwwarin, ancient Evaria, lies on the edge of the Syrian steppe southeast of Homs. Its churches and fortress recall a settlement that was both a military station and a bishop's seat in late antiquity. In the sixth century the Byzantine official Magnus built a church and a wall here. He invited the Ghassanid ruler al-Mundhir to the church's consecration, only to arrest him on imperial orders, provoking a revolt led by al-Mundhir's son. The Umayyad caliph Yazid I later visited Huwwarin and died there; in 1226 the geographer Yaqut described it as a fortress near Homs.