The 803 Mopsuestia earthquake took place in the vicinity of
Mopsuestia and the
Gulf of Alexandretta (İskenderun) in 802 or 803 CE (
Hijri year
The Hijri year ( ar, سَنة هِجْريّة) or era ( ''at-taqwīm al-hijrī'') is the era used in the Islamic lunar calendar. It begins its count from the Islamic New Year in which Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Yathrib ...
187).
[Antonopoulos, 1980]
The main source for this earthquake is
Al-Suyuti
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti ( ar, جلال الدين السيوطي, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī) ( 1445–1505 CE),; (Brill 2nd) or Al-Suyuti, was an Arab Egyptian polymath, Islamic scholar, historian, Sufi, and jurist. From a family of Persian or ...
(15th century), who records both the earthquake and a related
inundation of the
Ceyhan River
The Ceyhan River (historically Pyramos or Pyramus ( el, Πύραμος), Leucosyrus ( el, Λευκόσυρος) or Jihun) is a river in Anatolia in the south of Turkey.
Course of the river
The Ceyhan River (Pyramus) has its source (known as ' ...
. He also records a seismic sea wave (
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...
) caused by the earthquake.
[Antonopoulos, 1980] Al-Suyuti omitted this earthquake in his work ''
History of the Caliphs''.
[Antonopoulos, 1980]
The earthquake is estimated to have taken place between 30 December, 802 and 19 December, 803.
[Antonopoulos, 1980]
References
General
*
Specific
{{earthquake-stub
803
9th-century earthquakes
9th century in the Abbasid Caliphate
Medieval Cilicia
History of Adana Province
Earthquakes in the Abbasid Caliphate