Idlib

Byzantine temple at Ruweiha near Idlib.

Idlib, along with the rest of Syria were conquered by the Armenian king Tigranes the Great, and incorporated in the Armenian Empire, only to be later conquered by the Roman Pompey the Great around 64 BC. The city was never of much significance, belonging to the province of Roman Syria under the Roman Empire, and later to the Eastern Roman province of Syria Secunda before being conquered by the Arabs around the middle of the seventh century. Not much remains from Roman and Byzantine times in the city, except in its museum. North of the city are the Dead Cities, a collection of important archaeological sites from the Byzantine era.

During Ottoman rule in Syria, between the 16th and 19th centuries, Idlib served as the capital of a kada ("subdistrict capital") bearing its name, part of the larger Vilayet of Aleppo ("Province of Aleppo.")[8] The city was a center of olive production during the reign of Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha,[9] which in turn gave way to a prosperous olive-based soap industry. Although the major markets for Idlib's soap were at Aleppo, Antioch, and Hama,[10] the product was exported as far as the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. Idlib was also a major producer of cotton fabrics.[11] Western traveler Josias Leslie Porter noted that Idlib was "encompassed in olive groves, rare in this bleak region",[10] and remarked that its olive groves were larger than those of Damascus, Beirut, or Gaza. In the mid-19th-century, the town had an estimated population of 8,000, including 500 Christians.[10] In the late 19th century, Idlib was "flourishing" and still contained a number of Christian families, according to German orientalist Albert Socin.[8]

Ba'athist mural at the Mihrab roundabout in Idlib, defaced after the city's capture by rebel forces in 2015.

During the uprising since 2011, Idlib was the focus of protests and fighting in the early phase of the Syrian war. As the uprising descended into armed conflict, Idlib became the focus of a rebel campaign, which temporarily captured the city and the governorate, prior to a government offensive in April 2012. After this, government forces retook the city and the rebel-controlled province after a month of fighting, prior to the attempted enforcement of the ceasefire proposed by Kofi Annan. After the 2015 Idlib offensive in March, the rebel alliance Army of Conquest, led by the al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, succeeded in the Second Battle of Idlib and captured the city,[12] as well as besieging the Shi'a-majority towns of Al-Fu'ah and Kafriya to the north of Idlib city.[13] In April 2015, the interim seat of the Syrian opposition's Syrian Interim Government was proposed to be Idlib,[14] in Idlib Governorate. On 23 July 2017, Tahrir al-Sham, the successor to the al-Nusra Front, expelled the remaining forces of Ahrar al-Sham from Idlib, capturing the entire city.[15]

• eIdleb The first complete website for Idleb news and services

• E.sy: The First Complete Governmental Online Services

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