Hamah حماة
Hamah Location in Syria
Coordinates: 35°08′N 36°45′E / 35.133°N 36.75°E / 35.133; 36.75
Country	Syria
Governorate	Hama Governorate
District	Hama District
city
Government
• Governor	Abdul Razzaq al-Qutainy
Population (2004 census[1])
• City	312,994
• Metro	467,254
• Ethnicities	Arab
• Religions	Sunni Islam and the Greek Orthodox Church under the Patriarch of Antioch
Area code(s)	33
Website	www.ehama.sy

Hama (Arabic: حماة‎ Ḥamāh [ħaˈmaː], Biblical Ḥamāth, ("Fortress") is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria north of Damascus. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 312,994 (2004 census), Hama is the fifth-largest city in Syria after Aleppo, Damascus, Homs and Latakia. The modern city is built on the site of the ancient city of Hamath ( /ˈheɪ.mʌθ/^[2]).

The city is renowned for its seventeen norias used for watering the gardens, which are locally claimed to date back to 1100 BC. Though historically used for purpose of irrigation, the norias exist today as an almost entirely aesthetic traditional show.

In the last decades, the city of Hama has become known as a center of the anti-Ba'ath opposition in Syria, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood. The city was raided by the Syrian Army, beginning with the 1964 Islamic uprising, and becoming the scene of carnage during the Islamic uprising in Syria in April 1981 and especially in 1982, when some 25,000 people were killed in what became known as Hama massacre. The city was once again besieged by the Syrian military, as one of the main arenas of the 2011 uprising.

History[link]

Ancient era[link]

An alley in Old Hama

The ancient settlement of Hamath was occupied from the early Neolithic to the Iron Age. The site is inside a tight curve of the Orontes, which made it relatively easy to defend, and was the original place of the settlement; later on, as the town grew beyond it, the mound became the military center of Hama.^[3] Remains from the Chalcolithic era have been uncovered by Danish archaeologists on the mount on which the former citadel once stood.^[3] The excavation took place between 1931 and 1938 under the direction of Harald Ingholt. The stratigraphy is very generalized, which makes detailed comparison to other sites difficult. Level M (6 m or 20 ft thick) contained both white ware (lime-plaster) and true pottery. It may be contemporary with Ras Shamra V (6000-5000 BC). The overlying level L dates to the Chalcolithic Halaf-period.

The Amorite people colonized the area during the third millennium BC. The Amorites came from Mari on the River Euphrates, some 250 miles (400 km) to the east of Hama, and they colonized many parts of what is now Syria and Iraq.^[3] Although the town appears to be unmentioned in cuneiform sources before the first millennium BC,^[4] the site appears to have enjoyed great prosperty around 1500 BC, during which time it was presumably an Amorite dependency of Mittanni, an empire along the Euphrates in northeastern Syria.^[3] Mitanni was subsequently overthrown by the Hittites, who controlled all of northern Syria following the famous Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptians under Ramses II near Homs in 1285. The site also shows Assyrian and Aramaean settlement.^[3]

By the turn of the millennium, the centralized old Hittite Empire had fallen, and Hama is attested as the capital of a prosperous Aramaean neo-Hittite kingdom known from the Hebrew Bible as Hamath (Aramaic: Ḥmt; Hittite: Amatuwana;^[4] Hebrew: חֲמָת, Ḥmṯ), which traded extensively, particularly with Israel and Judah.^[5] The Aramaean and Hittite peoples lived comparatively peacefully, co-existing with other states in the region, such as Carchemish.^[3] The most significant of all the Aramaean states was Damascus, which became the leader of a federation of Aramaic states, of which Hamath was a member. Gradually Aramaic became the most widely used language of the Near East.

When the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (BC 858-824) conquered the north of Syria he reached Hamath (Assyrian: Amat or Hamata^[4]) in 835 BC; this marks the beginning of Assyrian inscriptions relating to the kingdom.^[6] Irhuleni of Hamath and Im-idri of Aram (biblical Bar-Hadad) led a coalition of Syrian cities against the encroaching Assyrian armies. According to Assyrian sources, they were confronted by 4,000 chariots, 2,000 horsemen, 62,000 foot-soldiers and 1,000 Arab camel-riders in the Battle of Qarqar. The Assyrian victory seems to have been more of a draw, although Shalmaneser III continued on to the shore and even took a ship to open sea. In the following years, Shalmaneser III failed to conquer Hamath or Aram. After the death of Shalmaneser III, the former allies Hamath and Aram fell out, and Aram seems to have taken over some of Hamath's territory.

An Aramaic inscription of Zakir, dual king of Hamath and La'ash, tells of an attack by a coalition including Sam'al under Ben-Hadad III, son of Hasael, king of Aram. Zakir was besieged in his fortress of Hazrak, but saved by intervention of the God Be'elschamen. Later on, Ja'udi-Sam'al came to rule both Hamath and Aram.

In 743 BC, Tiglath-Pileser III took a number of towns in the territory of Hamath, distributed the territories among his generals, and forcibly removed 1223 selected inhabitants to the Upper Tigris valley; he exacted tribute from Hamath's king, Eni-Îlu (Eniel). In 738 BC, Hamath is listed among the cities again conquered by Assyrian troops. Over 30,000 natives were deported to Ullaba and replaced with captives from the Zagros.^[4] 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. It was this revolt which led to the deportation of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Styling himself "Destroyer of Hamath," Sargon II razed the city,^[7] recolonized it with 6,300 Assyrians and removed its king to be flayed alive in Assyria.^[4] He also carried off to Nimrud the ivory-adorned furnishings of its kings^[8]

The conquests of the New Assyrian Empire eventually stretched over most of the Near East up to the Mediterranean coast. However, their empire fell, when in 612 an allied army of Babylonians and Medes captured Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. The Assyrians were replaced briefly by the Babylonians as the rulers of Syria, but by about 540 Hama, like the rest of Syria, was part of the Persian Empire.^[9]

The few Biblical reports state that Hamath was the capital of a Canaanite kingdom (Genesis 10:18; 2 Kings 23:33; 24:21), whose king congratulated King David on his victory over Hadadezer, king of Soba (2 Samuel 8:9-11; 1 Chronicles 13:9-11). Solomon, it would seem, took possession of Hamath and its territory and built store cities.^[10] Assyria's defeat of Hamath made a profound impression on Isaiah.^[11] The prophet Amos called the town "Hamath the Great."^[12] Indeed, the name appears to stem from Phoenician khamat, "fort."^[13]

Hellenistic and Roman history[link]

Aqueduct in Epihaneia

In the second half of the 4th century BC the modern region of Syria came under the influence of Greco-Roman culture, following long lasting semitic and Persian cultures. Alexander the Great's campaign from 334 to 323 BC brought Syria under Hellenic rule. Since the country lay on the trade routes from Asia to Greece, Hama, and many other Syrian cities, again grew rich through trade. 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. Under the Seleucids there was a revival in the fortunes of Hama. The Aramaeans were allowed to return to the city, which was renamed Epiphania^[4] (Greek: Ἐπιφάνεια), after the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Seleucid rule began to decline, however, in the next two centuries, and Arab dynasties began to gain control of cities in this part of Syria, including Hama.^[9]

The Romans took over original settlements such as Hama and made them their own. They met little resistance when they invaded Syria under Pompey and annexed it in 64 BC, whereupon Hama became part of the Roman province of Syria, ruled from Rome by a proconsul. Hama was an important city during the Greek and Roman periods, but very little archaeological evidence remains.^[9]

In AD 330, the capital of the Roman Empire was moved to Byzantium, and the city continued to prosper. In Byzantine days Hama was known as Emath. Roman rule from Byzantium meant the Christian religion was strengthened throughout the Near East, and churches were built in Hama and other cities. The Byzantine historian John of Epiphania was born in Hama in the 6th century.^[9]

Muslim rule[link]

Nur al-Din Mosque

During the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 7th century, Hama was conquered by Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah in 638 or 639 and the town regained its ancient name, and has since retained it. Following its capture, it came under the administration of Jund Hims and remained so throughout the rule of Umayyads until the 9th century.^[14] The Umayyads built the Great Mosque in Hama in the early 8th century and modelled it on the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.^[9]

Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi writes Hama became a part of Jund Qinnasrin during Abbasid rule.^[15] Although the city's history is obscure at this time period, it is known that Hama was a walled market town with a ring of outlying cities. It came under the control of the Hamdanid rulers of Aleppo in the 10th century and was consequently drawn into the orbit of that city where it remained until the 12th century.^[14] These were considered the "dark years" of Hama as the local rulers of northern and southern Syria struggled for dominance in the region. The Byzantines under emperor Nicephorus Phocas raided the town in 968 and burned the Great Mosque. By the 11th century, the Fatimids gained suzerainty over northern Syria and during this period, the Mirdasids sacked Hama.^[14] Persian geographer Nasir Khusraw noted in 1047 that Hama was "well populated" and stood on the banks of the Orontes River.^[16]

Tancred, Prince of Galilee, took it in 1108, but in 1114 the Crusaders lost it definitively to the Seljuks. In 1157 an earthquake shattered the city.^[17] For the next sixty years, Hama was battled for by competing rulers. Nur al-Din, the Zengid sultan, erected a mosque with a tall, square minaret in the city in 1172.^[18] In 1175, Hama was taken from the Zengids by Saladin. He granted the city to his nephew, al-Muzaffar Umar, four years later, putting it under the rule of his Ayyubid family. This ushered in an era of stability and prosperity in Hama as the Ayyubids ruled it almost continuously until 1342.^[14] Geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, who was born in Hama, described it in 1225 as a large town surrounded by a strongly built wall.^[19] Hama was sacked by the Mongols in 1260, as were most other Syrian cities, but the Mongols were defeated that same year and then again in 1303 by the Mamluks who succeeded the Ayyubids as rulers of the region.^[9] Hama briefly passed to Mamluk control in 1299 after the death of governor al-Mansur Mahmoud II. However, unlike other former Ayyubid cities, the Mamluks reinstated Ayyubid rule in Hama by making Abu al-Fida, the historian and geographer, governor of the city and he reigned from 1310 to 1332.^[14] He described his city as "very ancient... mentioned in the book of the Israelites. It is one of the pleasantest places in Syria."^[20] After his death, he was succeeded by his son al-Afdal Muhammad who eventually lost Mamluk favor and was deposed. Thus, Hama came under direct Mamluk control.^[14]

Hama grew prosperous during the Ayyubid period, as well as the Mamluk period. It gradually expanded to both banks of the Orontes River, with the suburb on the right bank being connected to the town proper by a newly built bridge. The town on the left bank was divided into upper and lower parts, each of which was surrounded by a wall. The city was filled with palaces, markets, mosques, madrasas, and a hospital, and over thirty different sized norias (water-wheels). In addition, there stood a massive citadel in Hama.^[14] It was during Mamluk rule that many of the norias, initially started during the rule of the Ayyubid dynasty, were reconditioned and enlarged, and their numbers increased. Currently, only seventeen norias remain, unused. Aqueducts and other channeling systems were built to take water from the river and use it to irrigate nearby fields.^[9] Moreover, a special aqueduct brought drinking water to Hama from the neighboring town of Salamiyah.^[14]

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."^[20] In 1400, Timurlane conquered Hama, along with nearby Homs and Baalbek.^[21]

Ottoman rule[link]

The Azem Palace in Hama was built in 1742

The prosperous period of Mamluk rule came to an end in 1516, when the Ottoman Turks conquered Syria from the Mamluks after defeating them at the Battle of Marj Dabiq near Aleppo. Hama, and the rest of Syria, came under Ottoman rule from Constantinople.^[22] Under the Ottomans, Hama gradually became more important in the administrative structure of the region. It was first made capital of one of the liwas ("districts") of the vilayet ("province") of Tripoli.^[14] Hama once again became an important center for trade routes running east from the Mediterranean coast into Asia. A number of khans ("caravansaries"s) were built in the city, like Khan Rustum Pasha which dates from 1556. Syria was later divided into three governorships and Hama was ruled by the governorship based at Aleppo.^[22]

Then in the 18th century, it became apart of the holdings of the governor of Damascus.^[14] The governors of Damascus at this time were the Azems, who also ruled other parts of Syria, for the Ottomans. They erected sumptuous residences in Hama, including the Azem Palace and Khan As'ad Pasha which were built by As'ad Pasha al-Azem, who governed Hama for a number of years until 1742.^[22] By then, there were 14 caravansaries in the city, mostly used for the storage and distribution of seeds, cotton, wool, and other commodities.^[23] After the passing of the Vilayet Law in 1864, Hama became the capital of the Sanjak of Hama (gaining the city more administrative powers), part of the larger vilayet of Sham.^[14]

Colonial rule and independence[link]

General view

The clock tower of Hama

Ottoman rule ended in 1918, after their defeat in World War I to the Allied Forces. Hama was made part of the French Mandate of Syria. 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. It gained notoriety as the center of large estates worked by peasants and dominated by a few magnate families. During the French Mandate, the district of Hama contained within its bounds the municipality of Hama and 114 villages. By an estimate in 1930, only four of these villages were owned outright by local cultivators, while sharing ownership of two villages with a notable family. Thus, the hinterland was owned by landowning elites.^[24] Starting in the late 1940s, significant class conflict erupted as agricultural workers sought reform in Hama.

Syria gained full independence from France in 1946. Akram al-Hawrani, a member of an impoverished notable family in Hama, began to agitate for land reform and better social conditions. He made Hama the base of his Arab Socialist Party, which later merged with another socialist party, the Ba'ath. This party's ascent to power in 1963 signaled the end of power for the landowning elite.

Ba'athist rule 1963-today[link]

Political insurgency by Sunni Islamic groups, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, occurred in the city, which was reputed as a stronghold of conservative Sunni Islam. As early as the spring of 1964, Hama became the epicenter of an uprising by conservative forces, encouraged by speeches from mosque preachers, denouncing the policies of the Ba'ath. The Syrian government sent tanks and troops into the quarters of Hama's old city to put down the insurrection.^[24]

In the early 1980s, Hama had emerged as a major source of opposition to the Ba'ath regime during the Sunni Islamist uprising, which had begun in 1976. The city was a focal point for bloody events in the 1981 massacre and the most notable 1982 Hama massacre.^[25] The most serious insurrection of the Syrian Islamic uprising happened in Hama during February 1982, when Government forces, led by the president's brother, Rifaat al-Assad, quelled the revolt in Hama with very harsh means.^[26] 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. The story is suppressed and regarded as highly sensitive in Syria.^[27]

Wikinews has related news: More than 100 reported dead after Syrian troops move against protesters

In summer 2011, the city became one of the main opposition centers of the popular uprising, taking place in Syria, as part of the Arab Spring. An armed blockade was imposed on the town on July 3, when more than 50 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Climate[link]

Hama's inland location ensures that it receives no softening costal influences and breezes from the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, the city has a much hotter and dryer climate than nearby Homs.

Demographics[link]

A Greek Orthodox church.

According to Josiah C. Russel, during the 12th century, Hama had a population of 6,750.^[28] In 1932, while Hama was under the French Mandate, there were approximately 50,000 residents. In the 1960 census, there were 110,000 inhabitants. The population continued to rise, reaching 180,000 in 1978 and 273,000 in 1994.^[29] The infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births in the Hama Governorate was 99.4.^[30] A 2005 estimate had Hama's population at around 325,000 inhabitants.^[31]

Most of the residents are Sunni Muslims, although some districts of the city are exclusively Christian.^[31] Hama is reputed to be the most conservative Sunni Muslim city in Syria since French Mandate times. During that period there was an old saying reflecting this characteristic: "In Damascus, it takes only three men to make a political demonstration, while in Hama it takes only three men to get the town to pray."^[24] The Christian population mostly adheres to the Greek Orthodox Church or the Syriac Orthodox Church.^[32]

Ecclesiastical status[link]

The Greek Orthodox Church has a prelacy in Hama under the Patriarch of Antioch.^[32] Hama is still a Roman Catholic titular see (referred to as "Hamath" or Amath"), suffragan of Apamea. It is as "Epiphania" that it is best known in ecclesiastical documents. Lequien mentions nine Greek bishops of Epiphania.^[33] The first of them, whom he calls Mauritius, is the Manikeios whose signature appears in the First Council of Nicaea.^[34] Currently, it has two Catholic archbishops, a Greek Melkite and a Syrian, the former residing at Labroud, the latter at Homs, reuniting the titles of Homs (Emesus) and Hamah.^[35]

Main sights[link]

The Orontes River and Norias of Hama.

Hama's most famous attractions are the 17 Norias of Hama (Arabic: نواعير حماة‎), dating back to the Byzantine times. Fed by the Orontes river, they are up to 20 metres (66 ft) in diameter. The largest norias are the al-Mamunye (1453) and the al-Muhammediye (14th century). Originally they were used to route water into aqueducts, which led into the town and the neighbouring agricultural areas.

Other sights include:

• the museum, housed in an 18th-century Ottoman governor residence (Azem Palace). Remains in the exhibition include a precious Roman mosaic from the nearby village of Mariamin (4th century AD)
• al-Nuri mosque, finished in 1163 by Nur ad-Din after the earthquake of 1157. Notable is the minaret.
• The small Mamluk al-Izzi mosque (15th century)
• The mosque and Mausoleum of Abu al-Fida, a celebrated Arab historian who was also governor of the city.
• al-Hasanain mosque, also rebuilt by Nur ad-Din after the aforementioned earthquake.
• The Great Mosque. Destroyed in the 1982 bombardment, it has been rebuilt in its original forms. It has elements dating from the ancient and Christian structures existing in the same location. It has two minarets, and is preceded by a portico with an elevated treasury.

See also[link]

Ancient Near East portal

	Sound of a noria Sound of a noria
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Hama massacre
• Short chronology timeline

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Further reading[link]

• P. J. Riis/V. Poulsen, Hama: fouilles et recherches 1931-1938 (Copenhagen 1957).

External links[link]

• The Official City's Group on facebook ( Arabic - English )
• E.sy Governmental online services
• Official site of Hama governorate (in Arabic)
• Hama city community on the net (in Arabic)

Coordinates: 35°08′N 36°45′E / 35.133°N 36.75°E / 35.133; 36.75

v t e Cities of Syria Governorate capitals Aleppo Damascus Daraa Deir ez-Zor Hama Al-Hasakah Homs Idlib Latakia Quneitra Ar-Raqqah As-Suwayda Tartus District capitals Afrin Arihah Atarib Ayn al-Arab Azaz Al-Bab Baniyas Al-Bukamal Darayya Dayr Hafir Douma Drekish Fiq Al-Haffah Harem Afrin Jableh Jarabulus Jisr ash-Shugur Kiswe Maarrat al-Numan Manbij Al-Malikiyah Masyaf Mayadin Mhardeh Mukharram al-Foqani Al-Nabk Palmyra Al-Qamishli Qardaha Qatana Al-Qusayr Al-Qutayfah Ra's al-'Ayn Al-Rastan As Safirah Safita Salamiyah Salkhad Al-Sanamayn Shahba Ash-Shaykh Badr Al-Suqaylabiyah Tal Abyad Talkalakh Al-Tall Al-Thawrah Yabrud Zabadani Others Binnish Bosra Al-Darbasiyah Deir Atiyah Al-Hajar al-Aswad Harasta Jaramana Kafr Nabl Khan Shaykhun Ma'arrat Misrin Nawa Saidnaya Salqin Saraqib Sayyidah Zaynab

v t e Hama Governorate Cities Hama Masyaf Mhardeh Salamiyah al-Suqaylabiyah Hama Governorate Towns and villages Ain-Halakim Albaida Deirmama Kafr Buhum Nahr al-Bared Suran Wadi al-'Uyun

Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk at a book festival in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2008.
Born	(1946-07-12) 12 July 1946 (age 65) Maidstone, Kent, England
Education	Lancaster University (B.A., 1968) Trinity College, Dublin (Ph.D., 1985)
Occupation	Middle East correspondent for The Independent
Notable credit(s)	Jacob's Award, Amnesty International UK Press Awards, British Press Awards, International Journalist of the Year, "Reporter of the Year", David Watt prize, Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize
Website
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/

Robert Fisk (born 12 July 1946) is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of The Independent, he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years.^[1] He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and its 2003 invasion of Iraq. Fisk holds more British and International Journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent.^[2]

Career[link]

The New York Times once described Robert Fisk as "probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain."^[3] He reported the Northern Ireland troubles in the 1970s, the Portuguese Revolution in 1974, the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A vernacular Arabic speaker,^[4] he is one of few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden, and did so three times between 1994 and 1997.^[5][6] His awards include being voted International Journalist of the Year seven times.

Fisk has said that journalism must "challenge authority, all authority, especially so when governments and politicians take us to war." He has quoted with approval the Israeli journalist Amira Hass: "There is a misconception that journalists can be objective ... What journalism is really about is to monitor power and the centres of power."^[7] Speaking on "Lies, Misreporting, and Catastrophe in the Middle East," at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 22 September 2010, Fisk stated, "I think it is the duty of a foreign correspondent to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer, whoever they may be." ^[8]

He has written at length on how much of contemporary conflict has its origin, in his view, in lines drawn on maps: "After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career—in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad—watching the people within those borders burn."^[9]

Fisk is a pacifist and has never voted.^[10]

The blogosphere term fisking originates from various American conservative blogs, which have taken particular issue with Mr. Fisk, who holds a "very skeptical view of U.S. foreign policy", and his articles and reports. Many of these bloggers have responded by reprinting his dispatches on their blogs, adding their own paragraph-by-paragraph commentary, purportedly dissecting and debunking Fisk's facts and opinions.^[11] Irrespective of the success of their endeavour, the term "fisking" has come to denote the practice of "savaging an argument and scattering the tattered remnants to the four corners of the internet".^[12]

In a 2002 appearance at the Cambridge Union Society, actor John Malkovich when asked whom he would most like to "fight to the death", replied that he would "rather just shoot" journalist Robert Fisk and British MP George Galloway.^[13] Both Fisk and Galloway reacted with outrage.^[14][15]

Early career[link]

Fisk was educated at Yardley Court preparatory school,^[16] Sutton Valence School and at Lancaster University ^[17] and has a PhD in Political Science, from Trinity College, Dublin in 1983.^[18] The title of his doctoral thesis was "A condition of limited warfare: Éire’s neutrality and the relationship between Dublin, Belfast and London, 1939–1945".^[18] He worked on the Sunday Express diary column before a disagreement with the editor, John Junor, prompted a move to The Times.^[19] From 1972–75, the height of The Troubles, Fisk served as Belfast correspondent for The Times, before becoming its correspondent in Portugal covering the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution. He then was appointed Middle East correspondent (1976–1988). When a story of his was spiked (Iran Air Flight 655) after Rupert Murdoch's takeover, he moved to The Independent, with his first report published there on 28 April 1989.

Lebanon, and other conflicts[link]

Fisk has been living in Beirut since 1976,^[20] and was present in Beirut throughout the Lebanese civil war. He was one of the first journalists to visit the scene of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, as well as the Syrian Hama Massacre. His book on the Lebanese conflict, Pity the Nation, was first published in 1990. Fisk also reported on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Kosovo war, the Algerian civil war, and the Iran-Iraq War. Fisk suffered partial but permanent hearing loss as a result of being close to Iraqi heavy artillery in the Shatt-al-Arab when covering the early stages of the Iran-Iraq conflict.^{[citation needed]}

Osama bin Laden[link]

Fisk is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden—three times (all published by The Independent: 6 December 1993, 10 July 1996, and 22 March 1997). During one of Fisk's interviews with Bin Laden, Fisk noted an attempt by Bin Laden to convert him. Bin Laden said; "Mr Robert, one of our brothers had a dream. He dreamed ... that you were a spiritual person ... this means you are a true Muslim." Fisk replied; "Sheikh Osama, I am not a Muslim ... I am a journalist ... A journalist's task is to tell the truth." Bin Laden replied: "If you tell the truth, that means you are a good Muslim."^[21][22]

During the 1996 interview, Bin Laden accused the Saudi royal family of corruption. During the 1997 (and final) interview, Bin Laden said he sought God's help "to turn America into a shadow of itself".^[23]

11 September attacks[link]

Fisk condemned the 11 September 2001 attacks, describing them as a "hideous crime against humanity." He also denounced the Bush administration's response to the attacks, arguing that "a score of nations" were being identified and positioned as "haters of democracy" or "kernels of evil," and urged a more honest debate on U.S. policy in the Middle East. He argued that such a debate had hitherto been avoided "because, of course, to look too closely at the Middle East would raise disturbing questions about the region, about our Western policies in those tragic lands, and about America's relationship with Israel."^[24]

In August 2007 Fisk expressed personal doubts about the official historical record of the 11 September attacks. In an article for The Independent, he claimed that, while the Bush administration was incapable of successfully carrying out such attacks due to its organisational incompetence: "I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11." He proceeded to raise his concerns about a lack of aircraft debris, the melting point of steel, the collapse of World Trade Center 7, misidentified suicide-hijackers, the authenticity of correspondence attributed by the CIA to Mohamed Atta, and other familiar questions that have circulated within the 9/11 Truth Movement. He added that he does not condone the "crazed 'research' of David Icke [...] I am talking about scientific issues".^[25] Fisk had earlier addressed similar concerns in a speech at Sydney University in 2006.^[26] During the speech, Fisk said: "Partly I think because of the culture of secrecy of the White House, never have we had a White House so secret as this one. Partly because of this culture, I think suspicions are growing in the United States, not just among Berkeley guys with flowers in their hair [...] But there are a lot of things we don’t know, a lot of things we’re not going to be told [...] perhaps the plane was hit by a missile, we still don’t know."^[27]

War in Afghanistan[link]

After the United States launched its attack on Afghanistan, Fisk was for a time transferred to Pakistan to provide coverage of that conflict. While reporting from there, he was attacked and beaten by a group of Afghan refugees fleeing heavy bombing by the United States Air Force. He was saved from this attack by another Afghan refugee. In his graphic account of his own beating, Fisk pardoned the attackers of responsibility and pointed out that their "brutality was entirely the product of others, of us—of we who had armed their struggle against the Russians and ignored their pain and laughed at their civil war and then armed and paid them again for the 'War for Civilisation' just a few miles away and then bombed their homes and ripped up their families and called them 'collateral damage.'"^[28]

Iraq[link]

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Fisk was stationed in Baghdad and filed many eyewitness reports. He has criticized other journalists based in Iraq for what he calls their "hotel journalism", literally reporting from one's hotel room without interviews or first hand experience of events.^[29] His opposition to the war brought criticism from both Irish Sunday Independent columnist and senator, Eoghan Harris,^[30] and The Guardian columnist, Simon Hoggart.^[31]

Fisk has criticised the American handling of the sectarian violence in post-invasion Iraq, and argued that the official narrative of sectarian conflict is not possible: "The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war? Now the Americans will say it's Al Qaeda, it's the Sunni insurgents. It is the death squads. Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior. Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militia men who make up the death squads? We do, the occupation authorities [...] We need to look at this story in a different light."^[32]

Books and other works[link]

Books[link]

Fisk has published a number of books. His 2005 work, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, with its criticism of Western and Israeli approaches to the Middle East, was well-received by critics and students of international affairs, and is perhaps his best-known work.

• The Point of No Return: The Strike which Broke the British in Ulster (1975). London: Times Books/Deutsch. ISBN 0-233-96682-X
• In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939–1945 (2001). London: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-2411-8 (1st ed. was 1983).
• Pity the Nation : Lebanon at War (3rd ed. 2001). London: Oxford University Press; xxi, 727 pages. ISBN 0-19-280130-9 (1st ed. was 1990).
• The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East (October 2005) London. Fourth Estate; xxvi, 1366 pages. ISBN 1-84115-007-X
• The Age of the Warrior: Selected Writings (2008) London, Fourth Estate ISBN 978-0-00-727073-6

Video documentary[link]

Fisk produced a three-part series titled From Beirut To Bosnia in 1993 which Fisk says was an attempt "to find out why an increasing number of Muslims had come to hate the West."^[33] Fisk says that the Discovery Channel did not show a repeat of the films, after initially showing them in full, due to a letter campaign launched by pro-Israel groups such as CAMERA.^[33][34]

Forgery misattributed to Robert Fisk[link]

• Saddam Hussein—From Birth to Martyrdom (2007). Egypt: Ibda; 272 pages.^[35]

Awards[link]

In 1991, Fisk won a Jacob's Award for his RTÉ Radio coverage of the first Gulf War.^[36] He received Amnesty International UK Press Awards in 1998 for his reports from Algeria and again in 2000 for his articles on the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. In 1999, Fisk won the Orwell Prize for journalism.^[37]

He has received the British Press Awards' International Journalist of the Year seven times, and twice won its "Reporter of the Year" award.^[38] In 2001, he was awarded the David Watt Prize for "outstanding contributions towards the clarification of political issues and the promotion of their greater understanding" for his investigation into the Armenian Genocide by the Turks in 1915.^[39] In 2002 he was the fourth recipient of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. More recently, Fisk was awarded the 2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize along with $350,000.^[40]

He was made an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of St Andrews on 24 June 2004. The Political and Social Sciences department of Ghent University (Belgium) awarded Fisk an honorary doctorate on 24 March 2006. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the American University of Beirut in June 2006. Trinity College Dublin awarded him a second, honorary, Doctorate in July 2008.^[41]

Fisk gave the 2005 Edward Said Memorial lecture at Adelaide University.^[42]

In 2011, Fisk was awarded the International Prize at the Amalfi Coast Media Awards in Italy.^[43]

Fisk is also a recipient of the College Historical Society's "Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse".^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Robert Fisk on Shakespeare and war
• Man of War by Rachel Cooke of The Observer, 13 April 2008
• Journalism and 'the words of power': Robert Fisk address to the fifth Al Jazeera annual forum on 23 May

External links[link]

	England portal
	Biography portal

• Column archive at The Independent
• Robert Fisk at ZSpace
• Article archive at Journalisted
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Robert Fisk on Charlie Rose
• Robert Fisk at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Robert Fisk in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Robert Fisk on the Gap Between U.S. Rhetoric and Action in the Egyptian Uprising—video interview by Democracy Now!, 2011
• Interview with Robert Fisk in Lebanon - 16 May 2011 (The Student Journals)

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