Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
on the northeast bank of the
Euphrates River
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
, about east of
Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
. It is located east of the
Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and bishopric Callinicum (formerly a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and now a
Maronite Catholic titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...
) was the capital of the
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
between 796 and 809, under the reign of
Harun al-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar
, أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
. It was also the capital of the
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
from 2014 to 2017. With a population of 531,952 based on the 2021 official census, Raqqa is the sixth largest city in Syria.
[
During the Syrian Civil War, the city was captured in 2013 by the ]Syrian opposition
The Syrian opposition ( ar, المعارضة السورية ', ) is the political structure represented by the Syrian National Coalition and associated Syrian anti-Assad groups with certain territorial control as an alternative Syrian gover ...
and then by the Islamic State. ISIS made the city its capital in 2014. As a result, the city was hit by airstrikes from the Syrian government, Russia, the United States, and several other countries. Most non-Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
religious structures in the city were destroyed by ISIS, most notably the Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
Uwais al-Qarni Mosque, while others were converted into Sunni mosques. On , following a lengthy battle that saw massive destruction to the city, the Syrian Democratic Forces
, war = the Syrian Civil War
, image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder
, caption = Flag
, active = 10 October 2015 – present
, ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...
(SDF) declared the liberation of Raqqa from the Islamic State to be complete.
History
Hellenistic and Byzantine Kallinikos
The area of Raqqa has been inhabited since remote antiquity, as attested by the mounds ( tells) of Tall Zaydan and Tall al-Bi'a, the latter being identified with the Babylon
''Bābili(m)''
* sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠
* arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel''
* syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel''
* grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn''
* he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel''
* peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru''
* elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
ian city Tuttul
The Bronze Age town of Tuttul is identified with the archaeological site of Tell Bi'a in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria. Tell Bi'a is located near the modern city of Raqqa and the confluence of the rivers Balikh and Euphrates.
History
During ...
.
The modern city traces its history to the Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
, with the foundation of the city of Nikephorion ( grc, Νικηφόριον, Latinized as ''Nicephorion'' or ''Nicephorium'') by Seleucid King Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucus I Nicator (; ; grc-gre, Σέλευκος Νικάτωρ , ) was a Macedonian Greek general who was an officer and successor ( ''diadochus'') of Alexander the Great. Seleucus was the founder of the eponymous Seleucid Empire. In the po ...
(reigned 301–281 BC). His successor, Seleucus II Callinicus (r. 246–225 BC), enlarged the city and renamed it after himself as Kallinikos (, Latinized as ''Callinicum''). Isidore of Charax, in the Parthian Stations
Isidore of Charax (; grc, Ἰσίδωρος ὁ Χαρακηνός, ''Isídōros o Charakēnós''; la, Isidorus Characenus) was a Greco-Roman geographer of the 1st century BC and 1st century AD, a citizen of the Parthian Empire, about whom nothi ...
, writes that it was a Greek city, founded by Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
.
In Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
times, it was part of the Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
of Osrhoene
Osroene or Osrhoene (; grc-gre, Ὀσροηνή) was an ancient region and state in Upper Mesopotamia. The ''Kingdom of Osroene'', also known as the "Kingdom of Edessa" ( syc, ܡܠܟܘܬܐ ܕܒܝܬ ܐܘܪܗܝ / "Kingdom of Urhay"), according to ...
but had declined by the fourth century. Rebuilt by Byzantine Emperor
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...
Leo I
The LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office I) was the first computer used for commercial business applications.
The prototype LEO I was modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC. Its construction was overseen by Oliver Standingford, Raymond Thompson and D ...
(r. 457–474 AD) in 466, it was named Leontopolis (in Greek Λεοντόπολις or "city of Leon") after him, but the name ''Kallinikos'' prevailed. The city played an important role in the Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
's relations with Sassanid Persia and the wars
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
fought between the two empires. By treaty, the city was recognized as one of the few official cross-border trading posts between the two empires, along with Nisibis
Nusaybin (; '; ar, نُصَيْبِيْن, translit=Nuṣaybīn; syr, ܢܨܝܒܝܢ, translit=Nṣībīn), historically known as Nisibis () or Nesbin, is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009 and is ...
and Artaxata.
The town was near the site of a battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
in 531 between Romans and Sasanians, when the latter tried to invade the Roman territories, surprisingly via arid regions in Syria, to turn the tide of the Iberian War
Iberian refers to Iberia. Most commonly Iberian refers to:
*Someone or something originating in the Iberian Peninsula, namely from Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra.
The term ''Iberian'' is also used to refer to anything pertaining to the fo ...
. The Persians won the battle, but the casualties on both sides were high. In 542, the city was destroyed by the Persian Emperor Khusrau I
Khosrow I (also spelled Khosrau, Khusro or Chosroes; pal, 𐭧𐭥𐭮𐭫𐭥𐭣𐭩; New Persian: []), traditionally known by his epithet of Anushirvan ( [] "the Immortal Soul"), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from ...
(r. 531–579), who razed its fortifications and deported
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
its population to Persia, but it was subsequently rebuilt by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
(r. 527–565). In 580, during another war with Persia, the future Emperor Maurice scored a victory over the Persians near the city during his retreat from an abortive expedition to capture Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon ( ; Middle Persian: 𐭲𐭩𐭮𐭯𐭥𐭭 ''tyspwn'' or ''tysfwn''; fa, تیسفون; grc-gre, Κτησιφῶν, ; syr, ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢThomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modi ...
.
In the last years before it came under Muslim rule, Kallinikos was as important as any other urban center in the region, and based on the physical area that it covered it was only slightly smaller than Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
.
Early Islamic period
In the year 639 or 640, the city fell to the Muslim conqueror Iyad ibn Ghanm
ʿIyāḍ ibn Ghanm ibn Zuhayr al-Fihrī ( ar, عياض بن غنم بن زهير الفهري) (died 641), was an Arab general who played a leading role in the Muslim conquests of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and northern Syria. He was among th ...
. Since then, it has been known by the Arabic name al-Raqqah, or "the morass", after its marshy surroundings at the time. At the surrender of the city, the Christian inhabitants concluded a treaty with Ibn Ghanm that is quoted by al-Baladhuri. The treaty allowed them freedom of worship in their existing churches but forbade the construction of new ones. The city retained an active Christian community well into the Middle Ages (Michael the Syrian
Michael the Syrian ( ar, ميخائيل السرياني, Mīkhaʾēl el Sūryani:),( syc, ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܣܽܘܪܝܳܝܳܐ, Mīkhoʾēl Sūryoyo), died 1199 AD, also known as Michael the Great ( syr, ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܪܰܒ݁ܳܐ, ...
records 20 Syriac Orthodox (Jacobite) bishops from the 8th to the 12th centuries[''Revue de l'Orient chrétien''](_blank)
, VI (1901), p. 197.), and it had at least four monasteries, of which the Saint Zaccheus Monastery remained the most prominent one. The city's Jewish community also survived until at least the 12th century, when the traveller Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela ( he, בִּנְיָמִין מִטּוּדֶלָה, ; ar, بنيامين التطيلي ''Binyamin al-Tutayli''; Tudela, Kingdom of Navarre, 1130 Castile, 1173) was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, an ...
visited it and attended its synagogue. At least during the Umayyad period, the city was also home to a small Sabian Sabian may refer to:
*Sabians, name of a religious group mentioned in the Quran, historically adopted by:
**Mandaeans, Gnostic sect from the marshlands of southern Iraq claiming John the Baptist as their most important prophet
**Sabians of Harran, ...
pagan community.
Ibn Ghanm's successor as governor of Raqqa and the Jazira
Jazira or Al-Jazira ( 'island'), or variants, may refer to:
Business
*Jazeera Airways, an airlines company based in Kuwait
Locations
* Al-Jazira, a traditional region known today as Upper Mesopotamia or the smaller region of Cizre
* Al-Jazira (c ...
, Sa'id ibn Amir ibn Hidhyam, built the city's first mosque. The building was later enlarged to monumental proportions, measuring some , with a square brick minaret added later, possibly in the mid-10th century. The mosque survived until the early 20th century, being described by the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld in 1907, but has since vanished. Many companions of Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
lived in Raqqa.
In 656, during the First Fitna
The First Fitna ( ar, فتنة مقتل عثمان, fitnat maqtal ʻUthmān, strife/sedition of the killing of Uthman) was the first civil war in the Islamic community. It led to the overthrow of the Rashidun Caliphate and the establishment of ...
, the Battle of Siffin, the decisive clash between Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
and the Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
Mu'awiya took place about west of Raqqa. The tombs of several of Ali's followers (such as Ammar ibn Yasir
Abū 'l-Yaqẓān ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir ibn ʿĀmir ibn Mālik al-ʿAnsīy al-Maḏḥiǧī ( ar, أبو اليقظان عمار ابن ياسر ابن عامر ابن مالك العنسي المذحجي) also known as Abū 'l-Yaqẓān ʿAmmār i ...
and Uwais al-Qarani
Awais bin Bashir ( ar, أُوَيْس ٱبْن عَامِر ٱبْن جَزْء ٱبْن مَالِك ٱلْقَرَنِيّ, ), also spelled Uways or Owais, was a Muslim from Yemen who lived during the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.B ...
) are in Raqqa and have become sites of pilgrimage. The city also contained a column with Ali's autograph, but it was removed in the 12th century and taken to Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
's Ghawth Mosque.
The Islamic conquest of the region did not disrupt the existing trade routes too much, and new Byzantine coins continued to make their way into Raqqa until about 655-8. The Byzantine government may have seen the area as just temporarily in rebellion. Byzantine coinage probably continued to circulate until at least the 690s, if not even longer.
Raqqa appears to have remained an important regional center under Umayyad rule. The Umayyads invested in agriculture in the region, expanding the amount of irrigated farmland and setting the stage for an "economic blossoming" during and after their rule.
The strategic importance of Raqqa grew during the wars at the end of the Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
and the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
. Raqqa lay on the crossroads between Syria and Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and the road between Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
, Palmyra and the temporary seat of the caliphate Resafa
Resafa ( ar, الرصافة Reṣafa), also sometimes spelled Rusafa, and known in the Byzantine era as Sergiopolis (in greek Σεργιούπολις, Σεργιόπολις, "city of Saint Sergius") and briefly as Anastasiopolis (Αναστασ ...
, al-Ruha'.
Abbasid period
In 770-1 (155 AH), the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur
Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) w ...
made the decision to build a new garrison city, called al-Rāfiqah ("the companion"), about west of Raqqa as part of a general investment in strengthening the empire's fortifications. The most critical part of this project was to secure the northwestern frontier with the Byzantine Empire, and al-Rafiqah was its largest and most important construction. It also happens to be the only one that survives to the present day. Although most of the interior layout of al-Rafiqah has since been built over, and much of its fortifications have also been demolished, about of its massive city walls are still standing, as well as its congregational mosque
A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.*
*
*
*
*
*
*
...
– the first in the world to be built from scratch on "a coherent, integrated plan" and a major influence on later mosque architecture.
Although al-Mansur had conceived the vision for al-Rafiqah in 770-1, it wasn't until the next year that construction actually started. The caliph sent his son and eventual successor al-Mahdi to personally supervise the construction of the new city that year. The chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius indicates that workmen were brought from all over Mesopotamia to work on the construction, hinting at the monumental scale of this project. According to al-Tabari
( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari ...
, the plan of al-Rafiqah was basically the same as that of Baghdad: it was built with "the same gates, ''intervallum'' (''fuṣūl''), squares, and streets" as the recently-built Abbasid capital. In practice, there were some significant differences between the two: al-Rafiqah was somewhat smaller but more heavily fortified than Baghdad, and its shape was more elongated along a north-south axis instead of the famously round city of Baghdad. Construction continued at al-Rafiqah at least until 774-5, when al-Mahdi was again sent to check on its progress.
At least at the beginning of the construction work on al-Rafiqah, the indigenous residents of Raqqa were hostile to the military settlement – they expected a rise in their own cost of living. The newcomers were soldiers from Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
* Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
, in contrast to the Christians and Arabs who lived in the old city.
By 785, the old market of Raqqa had probably become physically too small to serve the needs of both it and al-Rafiqah. That year, Ali ibn Sulayman, the city's governor, moved the market from the old city of Raqqa to the agricultural land between the two cities. This probably marks the start of al-Muhtariqa, the industrial and commercial suburb located between the two (see below). (The old market, associated with the Umayyad caliph Hisham
Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ( ar, هشام بن عبد الملك, Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik; 691 – 6 February 743) was the tenth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 724 until his death in 743.
Early life
Hisham was born in Damascus, the administrat ...
, had been just north of the old city, outside the Bāb al-Ruhā' – near the later industrial site of Tall Aswad.)
Raqqa and al-Rāfiqah merged into one urban complex, together larger than the former Umayyad capital, Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
. In 796, the caliph Harun al-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar
, أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
chose Raqqa/al-Rafiqah as his imperial residence. For about 13 years, Raqqa was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, which stretched from Northern Africa to Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, but the main administrative body remained in Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. The palace area of Raqqa covered an area of about north of the twin cities. One of the founding fathers of the Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...
school of law, Muḥammad ash-Shaibānī
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Farqad ash-Shaybānī ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن الحسن بن فرقد الشيباني; 749/50 – 805), the father of Muslim international law, was an Arab jurist and a di ...
, was chief qadi
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
(judge) in Raqqa. The splendour of the court in Raqqa is documented in several poems, collected by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahāni in his "Book of Songs" ('' Kitāb al-Aghāni''). Only the small, restored so-called Eastern Palace at the fringes of the palace district gives an impression of Abbasid architecture. Some of the palace complexes dating to the period have been excavated by a German team on behalf of the Director General of Antiquities. There was also a thriving industrial complex located between the twin cities. Both German and English teams have excavated parts of the industrial complex, revealing comprehensive evidence for pottery and glass production. Apart from large dumps of debris, the evidence consisted of pottery and glass workshops, containing the remains of pottery kilns and glass furnaces.
Approximately west of Raqqa lay the unfinished victory monument Heraqla from the time of Harun al-Rashid. It is said to commemorate the conquest
Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms.
Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
of the Byzantine city of Herakleia in Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
in 806. Other theories connect it with cosmological events. The monument is preserved in a substructure of a square building in the centre of a circular walled enclosure, in diameter. However, the upper part was never finished because of the sudden death of Harun al-Rashid in Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plate ...
.
Harun al-Rashid also invested in the water supply in Raqqa. Under his rule, canals were dug along the Euphrates and Balikh rivers; they brought water from the area around Saruj to be used for domestic and agricultural purposes, as well as to supply the palace gardens with water. Meanwhile, the influx of residents generated plenty of demand for food, goods, and services, stimulating the economy and resulting in intensified activity in Raqqa's rural hinterland. Rural towns such as Hisn Maslama Ḥiṣn Maslama ("the fort of Maslama") was a small city in the upper Balikh River valley that was inhabited during the early Islamic period. It was located at the present-day ruin site of Madīnat al-Fār, located 6 km east of the Balikh rive ...
, Tall Mahra Tall Maḥrā was a small city of the central Balikh River valley, in what is now northern Syria, inhabited from the Hellenistic period until about the 13th century. It is identified with the 21-hectare tell now called Tall Shaykh Hasan, also roma ...
, and al-Jarud
al-Jārūd was a small city in the Wadi Hamar area, about 40 km east of the Balikh River in present-day Syria, inhabited during the 9th century. It is identified with Kharāb Sayyār, a ruin site covering 42 hectares and consisting of a square ...
flourished and reached their peak size. The surrounding countryside at this time was "one of the richest agricultural areas of the empire, with an extensive system of irrigation canals".
After the return of the court to Baghdad in 809, Raqqa remained the capital of the western part of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Geography of Abbasid Raqqa
The name "Raqqa" was used both for the entire urban sprawl, or more specifically for the old city of Raqqa aka Kallinikos. The old city was also known by the name al-Raqqah al-Bayḍā'. It had "almost rectangular" walls, although their entire extent is not known. Where the gates were located is also unknown. This area had a predominantly indigenous population.
= Al-Rafiqah
=
Somewhat to the west of Raqqa proper was al-Rāfiqah, which had horseshoe-shaped walls. Al-Rafiqah represents the location of present-day Raqqa; at some point the main center shifted here. The earliest evidence for this shift is a Fatimid dinar minted at Raqqa in 1010-11, which uses the name Raqqa rather than the official Abbasid name of al-Rafiqah. The writer Ibn al-Sam'ani
Ibn al-Samʿānī (, 1113–1166), full name Abū Saʿd ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Abī Bakr Muḥammad ibn Abi ʾl-Muẓaffar Manṣūr al-Tamīmī al-Marwazī al-Shafiʿī al-Samʿānī, Laqab, nicknamed ''Tāj al-Islām'' (Crown of Islam) and ''Qiwām ...
also recorded this shift over a century later. During Raqqa's rapid growth in the late 20th century, al-Rafiqah was almost completely built over with new construction, and today almost nothing remains of the Abbasid city.
Still, about of the original -long city walls remain today, indicating the massive scale of al-Rafiqah's fortifications. The 6.20m-thick walls themselves consisted of mud brick on a stone foundation, and their exterior was further reinforced by a stabilized burnt-brick cladding. The walls had 132 towers. Like the Abbasid capital of Baghdad, al-Rafiqah was protected by a series of outer defenses, which together made up a triple line of defense that any attackers would have to get through. A second, outer wall, itself 4.5m thick, was built beyond the first wall (at a distance of 20.8m). Beyond that, there was a 15.9m-wide moat. Both the outer wall and the moat were bulldozed in the 1970s or 80s to make room for new construction.
Although al-Rafiqah covered a much smaller area than the round city of Baghdad (less than half), it was much more heavily fortified because of its location close to the Byzantine frontier. The walls of al-Rafiqah were built a meter thicker than Baghdad's, and it had more (and larger) defensive towers.
The north gate of al-Rafiqah, excavated and partly rebuilt in the 1990s, is the earliest surviving city gate from the Abbasid period. Its name was probably the Bāb Ḥarrān, or the Harran
Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border cr ...
Gate. Its basic layout is "a tower gate with a rectangular room and a deep entrance niche". The structure is tall, with a ramp on the west side leading up to the top. The gateway was built from stone up to a height of about 2m (above that it was built from brick), while the door opening itself measures 4m. Archaeologists found two door posts made out of solid iron still standing in place here. These probably represent the last traces of a pair of massive iron doors, like the ones that historical texts often mention as part of the entryways to early Islamic cities and palaces. For Raqqa in particular, although not necessarily the Bab Harran itself, different traditions mention an iron gate that originally was part of the Byzantine city of Amorion
Amorium was a city in Phrygia, Asia Minor which was founded in the Hellenistic period, flourished under the Byzantine Empire, and declined after the Arab sack of 838. It was situated on the Byzantine military road from Constantinople to Cilici ...
before being carried off to Samarra
Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army ...
in 838 after the Abbasids captured and destroyed the city. This door was then installed at the Bāb al-'Āmma, the main entrance to the caliph al-Mu'tasim's newly-built palace. This door then supposedly found its way to Raqqa sometime later during the 9th century, before then being removed in 964 by Sayf al-Dawla, the Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
, to renovate the Bāb Qinnasrīn in his capital. It was then destroyed when the Mongols captured Aleppo in 1260, and its fragments were then taken by the Mamluk sultan Baibars
Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari ( ar, الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري, ''al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Bunduqdārī'') (1223/1228 – 1 July 1277), of Turkic Kipchak ...
to the citadels of Damascus and Cairo.
Al-Rafiqah itself was laid out on a north-south axis, roughly aligned with the qibla
The qibla ( ar, قِبْلَة, links=no, lit=direction, translit=qiblah) is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the s ...
. A major north-south street connected the Bab Harran in the north with al-Rafiqah's Great Mosque, right at the center of the walled city. The mosque is 108x93m, about the same size as the Abbasid mosque built at Baghdad a decade earlier. However, its materials are more sophisticated: whereas the Baghdad mosque was originally made from mud bricks with wooden columns and ceiling, the al-Rafiqah mosque is entirely made out of kiln-fired bricks. The roof of al-Rafiqah's mosque was also gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d, in contrast with the flat-roofed Baghdad mosque, showing an influence from earlier Umayyad mosque architecture in Syria, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus
The Umayyad Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأموي, al-Jāmiʿ al-Umawī), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus ( ar, الجامع الدمشق, al-Jāmiʿ al-Damishq), located in the old city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the ...
. The al-Rafiqah mosque was renovated in 1165-6 by Nur ad-Din Mahmud Zengi, but an archaeological sounding revealed that this renovation did not change the basic structure, so its origins can be firmly dated to the Abbasid period.
The al-Rafiqah mosque represents an important step in the history of mosque architecture. Earlier mosques had mostly been repurposed from earlier pre-Muslim structures, like the Great Mosque of Damascus, or featured a very rudimentary design, such as the original mosque at Baghdad. The al-Rafiqah mosque was the first to be built entirely from scratch on a coherent plan. It had an important influence on later mosque architecture, beginning in 808 when Harun al-Rashid – who was living in Raqqa at the time and would have been familiar with the al-Rafiqah mosque – had the original mosque at Baghdad rebuilt, adopting features of the design at al-Rafiqah. Later mosques such as the Great Mosque of Samarra and the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo also contain traces of its influence.
= Al-Muhtariqa
=
Between Raqqa and al-Rafiqah was a large commercial and industrial area, which was called "al-Raqqa al-Muḥtariqa", or "the burning Raqqa", probably because of all the thick smoke coming from pottery kilns and glass furnaces. This smoke may have affected Raqqa/Kallinikos and influenced its decline. It appears that al-Muqaddasi
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Maqdisī ( ar, شَمْس ٱلدِّيْن أَبُو عَبْد ٱلله مُحَمَّد ابْن أَحْمَد ابْن أَبِي بَكْر ٱلْمَقْدِسِي), ...
viewed this district as its own distinct city (i.e. ''madina'' or ''misr''), which according to legal norms at the time meant that it had to have a separate congregational mosque, and it had to be separated from other urban precincts by some sort of clearly-defined boundary. The congregational mosque may have been the "mosque suspended on columns", or perhaps the Samarran complex near the Bab al-Sibal.
Eventually a wall was built on the north side of al-Muhtariqa, probably to protect the central commercial district from Bedouin raids. This is probably the wall that Tahir ibn al-Husayn
Ṭāhir ibn Ḥusayn ( fa, طاهر ابن حسین, ''Tāher ebn-e Hoseyn''; ar, طاهر بن الحسين, ''Tahir bin al-Husayn''), also known as Dhul-Yamīnayn ( ar, ذو اليمينين, "the ambidextrous"), and al-Aʿwar ( ar, الأعو ...
built while he was governor, in the year following 1 October 815 according to the accounts of Michael the Syrian
Michael the Syrian ( ar, ميخائيل السرياني, Mīkhaʾēl el Sūryani:),( syc, ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܣܽܘܪܝܳܝܳܐ, Mīkhoʾēl Sūryoyo), died 1199 AD, also known as Michael the Great ( syr, ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܪܰܒ݁ܳܐ, ...
and Bar Hebraeus. The wall, as visible in old aerial photographs, did not cover the industrial sites north of Raqqa/Kallinikos, leaving them unprotected. Stefan Heidemann suggested that this may have been because those areas were exclusively used for industry, with no houses and no valuables to loot.
Five main streets have been identified in al-Muhtariqa. The northernmost runs eastward from the east gate of al-Rafiqah, called the Bāb al-Sibāl, past the still-unlocated northwestern corner of Raqqa/Kallinikos, and then along the north side of Raqqa/Kallinikos before finally ending around Tall Aswad in the northeast. It passes by several mounds of medieval industrial debris in this area exist. These include Tall Fukhkhār, a ceramic producing site; as well as Tall Ballūr, Tall Abī 'Alī, and Tall Zujāj, which were all glass workshops. Henderson and McLoughlin suggested Tall Ballur may have later been a production site again during the late 11th century after 150 years of abandonment, and Tonghini and Henderson suggested the same for Tall Fukhkhar, although Heidemann considered the latter improbable.
At the eastern end of this northern street, and to the northeast of Raqqa/Kallinikos, was Tall Aswad. This was the largest and easternmost center of pottery production, and probably the oldest among the industrial mounds excavated. It is a large mound consisting of ruins of kilns, potsherds, wasters, and industrial debris. The site had many kilns producing pottery of various types including unglazed, moulded, and high-quality glazed. It lay at the eastern end of the northernmost main road. Its location was probably chosen because it was downwind from the rest of the city, so that the wind wouldn't blow smoke from its kilns over residents' houses. However, this site was also vulnerable and exposed to nomadic attacks, which may have ultimately been the reason for its abandonment. The latest coin find from here is from 825/6, and Tall Aswad probably declined in the first half of the 9th century.
At the western end of the street, right outside the Bab al-Sibal, there was a 200x200m square compound which was probably built during the Samarran period. It featured two rows of small rooms on different levels that were probably rows of shops. There was also some construction to the north of this complex.
The 2nd street runs southeast from the Bab al-Sibal towards the also-still-unlocated western gate of Raqqa/Kallinikos. Like the 1st street, it appears to cut deep into the flat-topped tell formed by centuries of debris. Further south was the southwestern gate of Raqqa/Kallinikos, which was called the Bāb al-Hajarayn. This gate led to a cemetery where people who died in the Battle of Siffin were interred. The most important of the tombs here was that of Uways al-Qarani
Awais bin Bashir ( ar, أُوَيْس ٱبْن عَامِر ٱبْن جَزْء ٱبْن مَالِك ٱلْقَرَنِيّ, ), also spelled Uways or Owais, was a Muslim from Yemen who lived during the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.B ...
, considered the "patron saint" of Raqqa; his tomb survived until the late 20th century when it was torn down and replaced with the new Uways al-Qarani mosque. His name also became applied to the entire cemetery.
West of the Bab al-Hajarayn was the mosque called the Masjid al-Janā'iz, also called the Mashhad al-Janā'iz. This building is still unlocated. Its existence is known from the 10th until the 13th centuries. According to al-Qushayri, the Masjid al-Jana'iz was founded by a descendant of Muhammad named Abu Abdallah, a Khorasani who lived by the Bab al-Hajarayn near the city's moat.
The 3rd street starts further south, from the unnamed Gate #2 on the east side of al-Rafiqah. It crosses the 2nd street and probably converged with the 1st street at the northwestern corner of Raqqa/Kallinikos, where there was likely a gate.
The 4th and 5th streets both have their west end at the Bab Baghdad. Together, they mark the southern end of the al-Muhtariqa area. Since the Bab Baghdad is a comparatively newer structure, probably from the late 11th or 12th century, these two streets might have also been built later. The 4th street runs northeast toward the northwest corner of Raqqa/Kallinikos, where it probably converged with the 1st and 3rd streets. As for the 5th street, it goes southeast, cutting through the Siffin cemetery and passing by the southwest corner of Raqqa/Kallinikos.
The settlement of al-Muhtariqa probably began in 785, when the city's governor Ali ibn Sulayman transferred Raqqa's market from Raqqa/Kallinikos to somewhere between it and al-Rafiqah. Before then, this area had been used for agriculture. Later, al-Muhtariqa was expanded when Harun al-Rashid made Raqqa his capital, in order to serve the newly increased demand for luxury and everyday goods.
When al-Muhtariqa finally declined and became abandoned is not clear. Physical evidence includes coins, as late as 825-6 at Tall Aswad and 840-1 at Tall Zujaj, and pottery remains, which at both sites include fragments of the so-called "Samarra ware" in the upper layers, so activity at those sites must have continued at least until that period. Based on the account of Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi
Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi ( fa, أحمد بن الطيب السرخسي; died 899 CE) was a Persian traveler, historian and philosopher from the city of Sarakhs. He was a pupil of al-Kindi.
Al-Sarakhsi was killed by Caliph al-Mu'tadid becaus ...
in the 880s (see below), al-Muhtariqa was probably still active at least until that point.
= The palace city
=
When Harun al-Rashid made Raqqa his capital, he built a whole "palace city" to the north of the main city. During the 12 years he resided here, it was built up to an area of 15 square kilometers. Like al-Rafiqah, this area has been almost completely obliterated by new housing construction since the late 20th century. Besides palaces and other buildings, this area included irrigation canals and underground watercourses in order to ensure a constant water supply. Many of the palaces were set in large garden enclosures, with wide avenues and racecourses. Toward the end of Harun al-Rashid's reign, this area was also expanded further to the north.
The central palace of Harun al-Rashid is located about 1km northeast of al-Rafiqah. Here, a large 340x270m building set in a double garden enclosure probably represents the remains of the ''Qaṣr as-Salām'', or "palace of peace", mentioned in historical sources. This building's original floorplan has been obscured by later construction, but some of its ornate decoration survived to indicate its importance.
East of the Qasr as-Salam is a series of three smaller palaces, each one featuring courtyards, triple audience halls, and small private mosques. These were probably the residences of Harun al-Rashid's family members or close associates. A fresco inscription found in the westernmost of these three palaces names the caliph al-Mu'tasim, who was one of Harun al-Rashid's sons; this may date from a later renovation.
Just south of the palace with al-Mu'tasim's name inscribed is a 150x150m square building that was probably the barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
for the palace guard. It had several identical rooms to serve as living quarters, while the commander of the guards had a central room flanked by three connected courtyards. Excavation at the barracks unearthed "a group of particularly luxurious glass vessels", indicating the high living standards enjoyed even by the lower-ranking members of the caliphal court.
Farther south, at the southeastern corner of the palace complex, was a public square surrounded by several buildings. Some of these buildings were reception halls used for social gatherings. Other buildings were private residences, probably belonging to people who were not part of the caliph's inner circle. On the west side of the square was a building that included a small mosque facing the barracks.
Separate from this palace city and just outside the north gate of al-Rafiqah, there was a 160x130m rectangular building that also had a double enclosure. This may have actually been built earlier than the more monumental complexes further northeast.
Stylistically, like the mosque of al-Rafiqah, the palace complex contains decorative features typical of pre-Islamic Syria. These include stucco friezes depicting vine "scrolls", as well as the "use of decoration to emphasize key architectural features". This indicates that the builders were taking inspiration from previous local styles. The resulting style of Abbasid Raqqa is a transition between pre-Islamic styles and later Abbasid ones, such as the architecture of Samarra
Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army ...
after it became the new Abbasid capital in 836.
= Monasteries
=
Further north of Tall Aswad was the Dayr al-Zakkā monastery, which was built on top of the ancient settlement mound now called Tall al-Bī'a. This was the most important monastery in the city and the symbol of Christian Raqqa.
A second important monastery was the so-called Monastery of the Columns (''dērā d-esṭūnā''), also called the Bizūnā monastery. It was somewhere between Raqqa and al-Rafiqah, in the area of al-Muhtariqa. It was burned by the rebels Umar, a former prisoner in Raqqa, and Nasr ibn Shabath, a prominent Bedouin leader, during a violent conflict in 811/2 when Arab auxiliaries were mobilized at Raqqa. However, just a few years later in 818 it was the site of the installation of Patriarch Dionysios I, which indicates that either the monastery was only partly burned down, or that it had already been rebuilt. This monastery was probably replaced later on by the "mosque suspended on columns", as al-Muqaddasi called it. This may have been the congregational mosque of al-Muhtariqa.
= Port
=
Abbasid Raqqa had an important river port, which played a vital role in trade and communications. Raqqa's location was ideal for a river port on the upper Euphrates – it was ice-free throughout the year, whereas the early 14th century author al-Dimashqi The Arabic '' nisbah'' (attributive title) Al-Dimashqi ( ar, الدمشقي) denotes an origin from Damascus, Syria.
Al-Dimashqi may refer to:
* Al-Dimashqi (geographer): a medieval Arab geographer.
* Abu al-Fadl Ja'far ibn 'Ali al-Dimashqi: 12th- ...
wrote that the Euphrates sometimes froze further north. Archaeologists have not found evidence of this port, but it may have been south of al-Muhtariqa on the bank of the Euphrates because this would have been a convenient location close to the city's main commercial center. Based on Ibn Sa'd
Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd ( ar, ابن سعد) and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 C ...
's account of the famous hadith scholar al-Waqidi's visit to Raqqa under Harun al-Rashid, it seems that the port of Raqqa was separated from the city proper by a checkpoint and a "poor, simple guesthouse" ('' khān nuzūl''). Most of the boats used on this part of the Euphrates were probably light carriers called '' harraq''s.
Economy of Abbasid Raqqa
Abbasid Raqqa was an important center of glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
and ceramics production. Al-Muqaddasi also mentioned a soapmaking
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are used as ...
industry at Raqqa, which is connected to the glass industry because both make use of alkali
In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a ...
. Minerals used as colorants in glassmaking or glazing pottery may have come from Jabal Bishr to the south, since Yaqut al-Hamawi recorded glassmakers in Aleppo using minerals from Jabal Bishr as a colorant in the early 1200s.
According to Julian Henderson, Raqqa is one of the earliest places where an important shift in glassmaking technology occurred at the turn of the 9th century (i.e. around 800). Before, glassmakers had been using mineral alkali as a flux
Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...
or purifying agent in the glassmaking process. Around 800, though, Raqqawi glassmakers switched to using plant ashes, which were readily available and much cheaper to obtain. On top of that, the plant ashes contained potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...
, which lowered the melting temperature for the glass furnaces, reducing production costs even further. Henderson connects this technological change with the famous alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, who is known to have had an interest in glassmaking at around the same time, indicating that he may have been a resident of Raqqa during this period.
The port of Raqqa was probably the main entrepôt (shipment point) where food and goods from northern Syria and Mesopotamia were shipped to before then being exported to Baghdad and the rest of Iraq. For example, Ibn al-Adim noted that olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...
from northern Syria was traded in Raqqa and then shipped downstream to Iraq and the Gulf. One passage written by al-Tanukhi recorded a merchant from Baghdad named al-Marwazi (d. 909 or 910) who speculated in olive oil prices at Raqqa.
Raqqa also had a mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...
for coins and was the only important mint city in the region from the time of Harun al-Rashid onward. The last dated copper coin from Abbasid Raqqa was struck in 892 (copper coins in general had fallen out of widespread use in the region during the late 9th century), but it continued minting gold and silver coins uninterrupted until at least 934-5. No coins from anywhere in the region have been found for the rest of the 10th century, but some sporadic, debased coins from 11th-century Raqqa have been found.
Decline and period of Bedouin domination
Raqqa's fortunes declined in the late 9th century because of continuous warfare between the Abbasids and the Tulunids, and then with the Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
movement of the Qarmatians
The Qarmatians ( ar, قرامطة, Qarāmiṭa; ) were a militant Isma'ilism, Isma'ili Shia Islam, Shia movement centred in Al-Ahsa Oasis, al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a Utopia#Religious utopias, religious-utopian Socialis ...
. Under the Hamdānids in the 940s, the city declined rapidly. From the late 10th century to the early 12th century, Raqqa was controlled by Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
dynasties. The Banu Numayr
The Numayrids () were an Arab dynasty based in Diyar Mudar (western Upper Mesopotamia). They were emirs (princes) of their namesake tribe, the Banu Numayr. The senior branch of the dynasty, founded by Waththab ibn Sabiq in 990, ruled the Euph ...
had their pasture in the Diyār Muḍar
Diyar Mudar ( ar, دِيَارُ مُضَرَ, Diyār Muḍar, abode of Mudar) is the medieval Arabic name of the westernmost of the three provinces of Al-Jazira (caliphal province), al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), the other two being Diyar Bakr an ...
, and the Banu Uqay had their centre in Qal'at Ja'bar
Qal'at Ja'bar ( ar, قلعة جعبر, tr, Caber Kalesi) is a castle on the left bank of Lake Assad in Raqqa Governorate, Syria. Its site, formerly a prominent hill-top overlooking the Euphrates Valley, is now an island in Lake Assad that can o ...
.
One of the earliest sources to comment on Raqqa's decline is Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi
Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi ( fa, أحمد بن الطيب السرخسي; died 899 CE) was a Persian traveler, historian and philosopher from the city of Sarakhs. He was a pupil of al-Kindi.
Al-Sarakhsi was killed by Caliph al-Mu'tadid becaus ...
(d. 899), as quoted by Yaqut; he visited Raqqa in 884-5 and wrote that parts of its walls were in ruins at the time. However, the markets and presumably the industrial areas of al-Muhtariqa were still in use then.
Raqqa was conquered by the Hamdanids in 942. As a result, it lost its status as an Abbasid garrison city. This had a severe economic impact on Raqqa and the surrounding region: without the soldiers and their disposable income, the demand for food and goods decreased, and local artisans were deprived of potential customers. In the second half of the 10th century, Raqqa appears to have been eclipsed by Harran as the main city in the region based on mint activity and literary references.
With one notable exception, the Numayrid rulers were essentially Bedouin nomads by lifestyle. They had no interest in cities except as sources of income to be exploited. They resided at nomadic camps (called a ''ḥillah'', like the city in Iraq) in the pasture outside the cities and delegated administration of the cities to '' ghulam'' (military slave) governors. During this period of Bedouin rule, the area of settled agriculture shrank while the area allocated to Bedouin pastures grew, and trade routes linking various cities, towns, and villages were threatened by Bedouin raids.
After the death of the Numayrid amir Shabib ibn Waththab in 1039-40, Raqqa and its surrounding fertile pastures became the center of a conflict between the Numayrids and the Mirdasids
The Mirdasid dynasty ( ar, المرداسيون, al-Mirdāsiyyīn), also called the Banu Mirdas, was an Arab dynasty which ruled an Aleppo-based emirate in northern Syria and the western Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) more or less continuously fro ...
of Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
. Shabib's sister as-Sayyidah al-'Alawiyyah was given Raqqa as an inheritance; through her marriage to the Mirdasid amir Thimal ibn Salih, the city and its territory came under Mirdasid control She ousted the ''ghulam'' governor of Raqqa appointed by her brothers al-Muta'in and al-Qawam, who now shared power as Numayrid amirs. However, Shabib's young son Mani' viewed himself as the legitimate heir to his father's lands, including Raqqa. By 1056, he had become an adult and gained power as sole Numayrid amir. He sent a demand to Thimal requesting that Raqqa be handed over to him; Thimal refused, and in April 1056 war broke out between the two sides.
Ultimately, though, it was diplomacy that ended up bringing Raqqa back under Mani's control. While this was all happening, conflict was brewing between the Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...
(which Thimal was aligned with) and the Seljuk Empire
The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian tradition, Turko-Persian, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qiniq (tribe), Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total are ...
(which Mani' was aligned with). The Turkic general Arslan al-Basasiri
Abuʾl-Ḥārith Arslān al-Muẓaffar al-Basāsīrī (died 15 January 1059) was a Turkish slave-soldier (''mamlūk'') who rose to become a military commander of the Buwayhid dynasty in Iraq. When the Buwayhids were ousted by the Seljuks in 1055, ...
, who supported the Fatimids, had been driven out of Baghdad in December 1055 by the Seljuks and was now continuing anti-Seljuk operations from his new base at al-Rahba
Al-Rahba (/ALA-LC: ''al-Raḥba'', sometimes spelled ''Raḥabah''), also known as Qal'at al-Rahba, which translates as the "Citadel of al-Rahba", is a medieval Arab fortress on the west bank of the Euphrates River, adjacent to the city of Maya ...
nearby. In October 1057, al-Basasiri went north up the Euphrates towards Balis and on the way captured Raqqa from Thimal's forces. At the same time, the Fatimid envoy al-Mu'ayyad fi'l-Din al-Shirazi met with Mani' to secure his support for the Fatimids. In return, al-Basasiri handed over control of Raqqa to Mani'.
Now under Fatimid protection, the Numayrids reached the height of their power. Substantial amounts of Fatimid money were probably transferred into Mani's coffers at this point, which allowed him to undertake major construction projects in his cities and thus present himself as the only urban ruler from the Numayrid dynasty (although the Numayrids in general remained nomadic pastoralists). The biggest projects were in his capital of Harran, but he probably also started some in Raqqa as well. He certainly had a mint active in Raqqa at this point — archaeologists found coins struck in his name in Raqqa, dated to 1058, buried under a collapsed wall in the city's congregational mosque. Remains of a workshop under the same wall may also indicate that restoration work was started on the mosque around the same time. However, it appears that this work was stopped soon after it started. A possible reason is Mani's sudden death in 1062, which left the Numayrids without an effective ruler and dealt a huge blow to their overall political power.
Second blossoming
Raqqa experienced a second blossoming, based on agriculture and industrial production, during the Zangid
The Zengid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from Tripoli to ...
and Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...
dynasties during the 12th and the first half of the 13th century. The blue-glazed Raqqa ware
Raqqa ware or Rakka ware is a style of lustreware pottery that was a mainstay of the economy of Raqqa in northeastern Syria during the Ayyubid dynasty."Raqqah ware , Definition & Facts". ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. Retrieved 12 December 2018. ...
dates from this time. The still-visible ''Bāb Baghdād'' (Baghdad Gate) and the Qasr al-Banāt (Castle of the Ladies) are notable buildings of the period. The famous ruler 'Imād ad-Dīn Zangī, who was killed in 1146, was initially buried in Raqqa, which was destroyed during the 1260s Mongol invasions of the Levant
Starting in the 1240s, the Mongols made repeated invasions of Syria or attempts thereof. Most failed, but they did have some success in 1260 and 1300, capturing Aleppo and Damascus and destroying the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mongols were forced to r ...
. There is a report on the killing of the last inhabitants of the ruins of the city in 1288.
Ottoman period
In the 16th century, Raqqa again entered the historical record as an Ottoman customs post on the Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
. The eyalet
Eyalets ( Ottoman Turkish: ایالت, , English: State), also known as beylerbeyliks or pashaliks, were a primary administrative division of the Ottoman Empire.
From 1453 to the beginning of the nineteenth century the Ottoman local government ...
(province) of Raqqa was created in 1586. However, the capital of the ''eyalet'' and seat of the Wāli
''Wāli'', ''Wā'lī'' or ''vali'' (from ar, والي ''Wālī'') is an administrative title that was used in the Muslim World (including the Caliphate and Ottoman Empire) to designate governors of administrative divisions. It is still in us ...
was not Raqqa but Al-Ruha', which is about north of Raqqa. In the 17th century the famous Ottoman traveler and author Evliya Çelebi only noticed Arab and Turkoman nomad tents in the vicinity of the ruins. The citadel was partially restored in 1683 and again housed a Janissary detachment; over the next decades the province of al-Raqqah became the centre of the Ottoman Empire's tribal settlement (''iskân'') policy. Between 1800 and 1803, the province was governed by the famous Milli Timur Paşa of the Kurdish Milli tribe.
From the 1820s, Raqqa was a place of wintering for the semi-nomadic Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
'Afadla tribal confederation and was little more than its extensive archeological remains. It was the establishment in 1864 by the Ottomans of the Karakul Janissary garrison, in the south-east corner of the Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
enclosure, that led to the revival of the modern city of Raqqa.
The first families that settled in Raqqa were nicknamed ''The Ghul'' by the surrounding Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
semi-nomadic tribes from whom they bought the right to settle within the Abbasid enclosure, near the Janissary garrison. They used the ancient bricks of the enclosure to build the first buildings of modern Raqqa. They came under the protection of the surrounding Arab semi-nomadic tribes because they feared attacks from other neighboring tribes on their herds. As a result, these families formed two alliances. One joined Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
of the Mîlan tribe, Arabs of the Dulaim
Dulaim or Dulaimi or Al Duliam or Dulaym ( ar, الدليم) is an Arab royal tribe, with over seven million members. The tribe's history goes back to pre-Islamic times and members reside today in Iraq and neighboring countries such as Syria, ...
tribe, and possibly Turks as well. Most of the Kurdish families came from an area called ''Nahid Al-Jilab'', which is northeast of Şanliurfa. Prior to the Syrian Civil War, there were many families in Raqqa that still belonged to the Mîlan tribe such as Khalaf Al-Qasim, Al-Jado, Al-Hani and Al-Shawakh. They claimed the area west of the Ottoman garrison.
The Mîlan tribe had been in Raqqa since 1711. The Ottomans issued an order to deport them from the Nahid Al-Jilab region to the Raqqa area. However most of the tribe was returned to their original home as a result of diseases among their cattle and frequent deaths due to the Raqqa climate. In the mid-18th century, the Ottomans recognised the Kurdish tribal chiefs and appointed Mahmud Kalash Abdi as head of the iskân policy in the region. The tribal chiefs had the power to impose taxes and control over other tribes in the region.
Some of the Kurdish families were displaced to the northern countryside of Raqqa by the Arab 'Annazah tribe, after they began working with the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon.
The other alliance, Asharin, came from the town of Al-Asharah
Al-Asharah ( ar, ٱلْعَشَارَة, al-ʿAšārah, also spelled al-Ashareh or Esharah) is a town in eastern Syria, administratively part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, located along the Euphrates River, south of Deir ez-Zor. Nearby localities ...
downstream. It included several Arab tribes of the Al-Bu Badran and Mawali tribes. They claimed the area east of the Ottoman garrison.
The Raqqa Museum
The Museum of Raqqa, also known as the Ar-Raqqah Museum or Rakka Museum ( ar, مَتْحَفُ الرَّقَّةِ, Matḥaf ar-Raqqah), is a museum in Raqqa, Syria founded in 1981. The structure housing the museum was built in 1861 and served a ...
is housed in a building that was built in 1861 and served as an Ottoman governmental building.
20th century
In the early 20th century, two waves of Cherkess
The Circassians (also referred to as Cherkess or Adyghe; Adyghe and Kabardian: Адыгэхэр, romanized: ''Adıgəxər'') are an indigenous Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation native to the historical country-region of Circassia in ...
refugees from the Caucasian War were granted lands west of the Abbasid enclosure by the Ottomans.
In 1915, Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
fleeing the Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
were given safe haven in Raqqa by the Arab Ujayli family. Many moved to Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
in the 1920s. Armenians have since then formed the majority of Raqqa's Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
community.
In the 1950s, the worldwide cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
boom stimulated unprecedented growth in the city and the recultivation of this part of the middle Euphrates area. Cotton is still the main agricultural product of the region.
The growth of the city led to the destruction or removal of much of the archaeological remains of the city's past. The palace area is now almost covered with settlements, as is the former area of the ancient al-Raqqa (today Mishlab) and the former Abbasid industrial district (today al-Mukhtalţa). Only parts were archaeologically explored. The 12th-century citadel was removed in the 1950s (today Dawwār as-Sā'a, the clock-tower circle). In the 1980s, rescue excavations in the palace area began, as well as the conservation of the Abbasid city walls with the Bāb Baghdād and the two main monuments intra muros, the Abbasid mosque and the Qasr al-Banāt.
Syrian civil war
In March 2013, during the Syrian Civil War, Islamist jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
militants from Al-Nusra Front
Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...
, Ahrar al-Sham
Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...
, the Free Syrian Army
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...
, and other groups overran the government loyalists in the city during the Battle of Raqqa (2013)
The Battle of Raqqa, also known as the First Battle of Raqqa and code named by rebels as the "Raid of the Almighty", was a battle for control of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa during the Syrian civil war between mainly Sunni Islamist rebel ...
and declared it under their control, after they had taken the central square and pulled down the statue of the former president of Syria, Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad ', , (, 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian statesman and military officer who served as President of Syria from taking power in 1971 until his death in 2000. He was also Prime Minister of Syria from 1970 to 1 ...
. Raqqa was the first provincial capital to fall to the Syrian rebels
A number of states and armed groups have involved themselves in the ongoing Syrian Civil War as belligerents.
Syrian Arab Republic and allies
A number of sources have emphasized that as of at least late-2015/early-2016 the Syrian Arab Republic ...
.
The Al Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...
-affiliated Al-Nusra Front set up a sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
court at the sports centre and in early June 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
said that it was open to receive complaints at its Raqqa headquarters.
Migrations
Migration from Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
, Homs
Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
, Idlib
ar, إدلبي, Idlibi
, coordinates =
, elevation_m = 500
, area_code = 23
, geocode = C3871
, blank_name = Climate
, blank_info ...
and other inhabited places to the city occurred as a result of the ongoing civil war in the country, and Raqqa was known as the ''hotel of the revolution'' by some because of the number of people who moved there.
De facto capital of the Islamic State (January 2014–October 2017)
ISIL took complete control of Raqqa by 13 January 2014. ISIL proceeded to execute Alawite
The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...
s and suspected supporters of Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
in the city and destroyed
Destroyed may refer to:
* ''Destroyed'' (Sloppy Seconds album), a 1989 album by Sloppy Seconds
* ''Destroyed'' (Moby album), a 2011 album by Moby
See also
* Destruction (disambiguation)
Destruction may refer to:
Concepts
* Destruktion, a ...
the city's Shia mosques and Christian churches such as the Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs, which was then converted into an ISIL police headquarters and an Islamic centre, tasked to recruit new fighters. The Christian population of Raqqa, which had been estimated to be as much as 10% of the total population before the civil war began, largely fled the city.
On 15 November 2015, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, in response to attacks in Paris two days earlier, dropped about 20 bombs on multiple ISIL targets in Raqqa.
Pro-government sources said that an anti-IS uprising took place between 5 and 7 March 2016.
On 26 October 2016, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter
Ashton Baldwin Carter (September 24, 1954 – October 24, 2022) was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Be ...
said that an offensive to take Raqqa from IS would begin within weeks.
The Syrian Democratic Forces
, war = the Syrian Civil War
, image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder
, caption = Flag
, active = 10 October 2015 – present
, ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...
(SDF), supported by the US, launched the Second Battle of Raqqa on 6 June 2017 and declared victory in the city on 17 October 2017. Bombardment by the US-led coalition led to the destruction of most of the city, including civilian infrastructure. Some 270,000 people were said to have fled Raqqa.
Aftermath
At the end of October 2017, the government of Syria issued a statement that said: "Syria considers the claims of the United States and its so-called alliance about the liberation of Raqqa city from ISIS to be lies aiming to divert international public opinion from the crimes committed by this alliance in Raqqa province.... more than 90% of Raqqa city has been leveled due to the deliberate and barbaric bombardment of the city and the towns near it by the alliance, which also destroyed all services and infrastructures and forced tens of thousands of locals to leave the city and become refugees. Syria still considers Raqqa to be an occupied city, and it can only be considered liberated when the Syrian Arab Army enters it".
Control by Syrian Democratic Forces (October 2017–present)
By June 2019, 300,000 residents had returned to the city, including 90,000 IDPs, and many shops in the city had reopened.[ Through the efforts of the Global Coalition and the Raqqa Civil Council, several public hospitals and schools have been reopened, public buildings like the stadium, the ]Raqqa Museum
The Museum of Raqqa, also known as the Ar-Raqqah Museum or Rakka Museum ( ar, مَتْحَفُ الرَّقَّةِ, Matḥaf ar-Raqqah), is a museum in Raqqa, Syria founded in 1981. The structure housing the museum was built in 1861 and served a ...
, mosques and parks have been restored, anti-extremism educational centers for youth have been established and the rebuilding and restoration of roads, roundabouts and bridges, installation of solar-powered street lighting, water restoration, demining, re-institution of public transportation and rubble removal has taken place.
However, the Global Coalition's funding of the stabilization of the region has been limited, and the Coalition has stated that any large scale aid will be halted until a peace agreement for the future of Syria through the Geneva process has been reached. Rebuilding of residential houses and commercial buildings has been placed solely in the hands of civilians, there is a continued presence of rubble, unreliable electricity and water access in some areas, schools still lacking basic services and the presence of ISIL sleeper cells and IEDs. Some sporadic protests against the SDF have taken place in the city in the summer of 2018.
On 7 February 2019, the SDF media center announced the capture of 63 ISIL operatives in the city. According to the SDF, the operatives were a part of a sleeper cell and were all arrested within a 24-hour time span, ending the day-long curfew that was imposed on the city the day before.
In mid-February 2019, a mass grave holding an estimated 3,500 bodies was discovered below a plot of farmland in the Al-Fukheikha agricultural suburb. It was the largest mass grave discovered post-ISIL rule thus far. The bodies were reported to be the victims of executions when ISIL ruled the city.
In 2019 a project called the "Shelter Project" was launched by international organisations in coordination with the Raqqa Civil Council, providing funding to residents of partially destroyed buildings in order to aid with their reconstruction. In April 2019 the rehabilitation of the Old Raqqa Bridge over the Euphrates was finished. The bridge was originally built by British forces during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in 1942. The National Hospital in Raqqa was reopened after rehabilitation work in May 2019.
As a consequence of the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria
The 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring ( tr, Barış Pınarı Harekâtı) by Turkey, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Ar ...
, the SDF called on the Syrian Arab Army to enter the areas under its rule, including in the area of Raqqa as part of a deal to prevent Turkish troops from capturing any more territory in northern Syria.
Scanning for Syria project (2017–2018)
The Raqqa Museum had numerous clay tablet
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age.
Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...
s with cuneiform writing
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
and many other objects vanishing in the fog of war. A particular set of those tablets were excavated by archaeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
from Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
at the Tell Sabi Abyad. The excavation team cast silicone rubber Silicone rubber is an elastomer (rubber-like material) composed of silicone—itself a polymer—containing silicon together with carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Silicone rubbers are widely used in industry, and there are multiple formulations ...
moulds of the tablets before the war to create cast copies for subsequent studies in the Netherlands. As the original tablets were looted, those moulds became the only evidence of parts of the 12th century BC in Northern Syria. Having a lifespan of roughly thirty years, the moulds proved not be a durable solution, hence the need for digitization
DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a Digital data, digital (i ...
to counter the loss of the originals. Therefore the ''Scanning for Syria'' (SfS) project was initiated by the Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
and Delft University of Technology under the auspices of the ''Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Global Heritage and Development''. The project received a NWO–KIEM Creatieve Industrie grant to use of 3D acquisition and 3D printing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the Manufacturing, construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design, CAD model or a digital 3D modeling, 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is ...
technology to make high quality reproductions of the clay tablets. In collaboration with the Catholic University of Louvain and the Heidelberg University
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
several imaging technologies were explored to find the best solution to capture the precious texts hidden within the concavities of the moulds. In the end, the X-ray micro-CT scanner housed at the TU Delft laboratory of ''Geoscience and Engineering'' turned out to be a good compromise between time-efficiency, accuracy and text recovery. Accurate digital 3D reconstructions of the original clay tablets were created using the CT data of the silicon moulds. Furthermore, the ''Forensic Computational Geometry Laboratory'' in Heidelberg dramatically decreased the time for decipherment of a tablet by automatically computing high quality images using the GigaMesh Software Framework
The GigaMesh Software Framework is a free and open-source software for display, editing and visualization of 3D-data typically acquired with structured light or structure from motion.
It provides numerous functions for analysis of archaeologic ...
. These images clearly show the cuneiform characters in publication quality, which otherwise would have taken many hours to manually craft a matching drawing. The 3D-models and high-quality images have become accessible to both scholar and non-scholar communities worldwide. Physical replicas were produced using 3D-printing. The 3D-prints serve as teaching material in Assyriology
Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , '' -logia'') is the archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic study of Assyria and the rest of ancient Mesopotamia (a region that encompassed what is now modern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southea ...
classes as well as for visitors of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden to experience the ingenuity of Assyrian cuneiform writing. In 2020, the SfS received the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage of the Europa Nostra in the category research.
Ecclesiastical history
In the 6th century, Kallinikos became a center of Assyrian monasticism. ''Dayra d'Mār Zakkā'', or the Saint Zacchaeus monastery, situated on Tall al-Bi'a, became renowned. A mosaic inscription there is dated to the year 509, presumably from the period of the foundation of the monastery. Daira d'Mār Zakkā is mentioned by various sources up to the 10th century. The second important monastery in the area was the Bīzūnā monastery or ''Dairā d-Esţunā'', the 'monastery of the column'. The city became one of the main cities of the historical Diyār Muḍar, the western part of the Jazīra.
Michael the Syrian
Michael the Syrian ( ar, ميخائيل السرياني, Mīkhaʾēl el Sūryani:),( syc, ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܣܽܘܪܝܳܝܳܐ, Mīkhoʾēl Sūryoyo), died 1199 AD, also known as Michael the Great ( syr, ܡܺܝܟ݂ܳܐܝܶܠ ܪܰܒ݁ܳܐ, ...
records twenty Syriac Orthodox (Jacobite) bishops from the 8th to the 12th centuries—and had at least four monasteries, of which the Saint Zaccheus Monastery remained the most prominent.
In the 9th century, when Raqqa served as capital of the western half of the Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
, Dayra d'Mār Zakkā, or the Saint Zacchaeus Monastery, became the seat of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, one of several rivals for the apostolic succession
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...
of the Ancient patriarchal see, which has several more rivals of Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Bishopric
Callinicum early became the seat of a Christian diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
. In 388, Byzantine Emperor Theodosius the Great
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
was informed that a crowd of Christians, led by their bishop, had destroyed the synagogue. He ordered the synagogue rebuilt at the expense of the bishop. Ambrose
Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promo ...
wrote to Theodosius, pointing out he was thereby "exposing the bishop to the danger of either acting against the truth or of death", and Theodosius rescinded his decree.
Bishop Damianus of Callinicum took part in the Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bith ...
in 451 and in 458 was a signatory of the letter that the bishops of the province wrote to Emperor Leo I the Thracian
Leo I (; 401 – 18 January 474), also known as "the Thracian" ( la, Thrax; grc-gre, ο Θραξ),; grc-gre, Μακέλλης), referencing the murder of Aspar and his son. was Eastern Roman emperor from 457 to 474. He was a native of Dacia A ...
after the death of Proterius of Alexandria. In 518 Paulus was deposed for having joined the anti-Chalcedonian Severus of Antioch
Severus the Great of Antioch (Greek: Σεβῆρος; syr, ܣܘܝܪܝܘܣ ܕܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ), also known as Severus of Gaza or Crown of Syrians (Syriac: ܬܓܐ ܕܣܘܪܝܥܝܐ; Tagha d'Suryoye; Arabic: تاج السوريين; Taj al-Suriyyun ...
. Callinicum had a Bishop Ioannes in the mid-6th century. In the same century, a '' Notitia Episcopatuum'' lists the diocese as a suffragan
A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations.
In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...
of Edessa
Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene ...
, the capital and metropolitan see
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a t ...
of Osrhoene.
Titular sees
No longer a residential bishopric, Callinicum has been listed by the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
twice as a titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...
, as suffragan
A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations.
In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...
of the Metropolitan of the Late Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
of Osroene : first as Latin - (meanwhile suppressed) and currently as Maronite titular bishopric.
Callinicum of the Romans
No later than the 18th century, the diocese was nominally restored as Latin Titular bishopric of Callinicum (Latin), adjective ''Callinicen(sis)'' (Latin) / Callinico (Curiate Italian).
In 1962 it was suppressed, to establish immediately the Episcopal Titular bishopric of Callinicum of the Maronites (''see below'')
It has had the following incumbents, all of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank :
* Matthaeus de Robertis (1729.07.06 – death 1733) (born Italy) no prelature
* Meinwerk Kaup, Benedictine Order
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
(O.S.B.) (1733.09.02 – death 1745.07.24) as Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn
Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...
(Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) (1733.09.02 – 1745.07.24)
* Anton Johann Wenzel Wokaun (1748.09.16 – 1757.02.07) as Auxiliary Bishop of Praha (Prague, Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
) (1748.09.16 – 1757.02.07)
* Nicolas de La Pinte de Livry, Norbertines (O. Praem.) (born France) (1757.12.19 – death 1795) no prelature
* Luigi Pietro Grati, Servites
The Servite Order, officially known as the Order of Servants of Mary ( la, Ordo Servorum Beatae Mariae Virginis; abbreviation: OSM), is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. It includes several branches of friars (priests and brothe ...
(O.S.M.) (born Italy) (1828.12.15 – death 1849.09.17) as Apostolic Administrator
An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...
of Terracina
Terracina is an Italian city and ''comune'' of the province of Latina, located on the coast southeast of Rome on the Via Appia ( by rail). The site has been continuously occupied since antiquity.
History Ancient times
Terracina appears in anci ...
(Italy) (1829 – 1833), Apostolic Administrator of Priverno (Italy) (1829 – 1833), Apostolic Administrator of Sezze
Sezze (from the Latin "Setia") is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Latina, central Italy, about south of Rome and from the Mediterranean coast. The historical center of Sezze is located on a high hill commanding the Pontine plain.
Th ...
(Italy) (1829 – 1833) and on emeritate
* Godehard Braun (1849.04.02 – death 1861.05.22) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Trier (Germany) (1849.04.02 – 1861.05.22)
* Hilarion Silani, Sylvestrines (O.S.B. Silv.) (1863.09.22 – 1879.03.27) while Bishop of Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
(Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
) (1863.09.17 – 1879.03.27)
* Aniceto Ferrante, Oratorians of Philip Neri (C.O.) (1879.05.12 – death 1883.01.19) on emeritate as former Bishop of Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...
(Italy) (1873.03.20 – 1879.05.12)
* Luigi Sepiacci
Luigi Sepiacci, O.E.S.A. (12 September 1835 – 26 April 1893) – born Domenico Daniele Sepiacci – was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who held senior positions in the Roman Curia from 1886 until his death. He was made a cardinal i ...
, Augustinians
Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...
(O.E.S.A.) (1883.03.15 – cardinalate 1891.12.14) as Roman Curia official : President of Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy
The Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy ( la, Pontificia Ecclesiastica Academia, it, Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica) is one of the Roman Colleges of the Catholic Church. The academy is dedicated to training priests to serve in the diplomatic c ...
(1885.08.07 – 1886.06.28), Secretary of Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars (1886.06.28 – 1892.08.01), created Cardinal-Priest of S. Prisca
Santa Prisca is a titular church of Rome, on the Aventine Hill, for Cardinal-priests. It is recorded as the ''Titulus Priscae'' in the acts of the 499 synod.
Church
It is devoted to Saint Prisca, a 1st-century martyr, whose relics are containe ...
(1891.12.17 – death 1893.04.26), Prefect of Sacred Congregation of Indulgences and Sacred Relics (1892.08.01 – 1893.04.26)
* Pasquale de Siena (1898.09.23 – death 1920.11.25) as Auxiliary Bishop of Napoli (Napels, southern Italy) (1898.09.23 – 1920.11.25)
* Joseph Gionali (1921.11.21 – 1928.06.13) as Abbot Ordinary
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
of Territorial Abbacy of Shën Llezhri i Oroshit
The Abbey of Orosh (also known as ''Mirditë Abbey'' or ''St. Alexander Oroshi'') was a territorial Benedictine abbey at Orosh in the region of Mirdita, Albania. It was destroyed during the communist era and now rebuilt, dedicated to the martyr ...
(Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
) (1921.08.28 – 1928.06.13), later Bishop of Sapë
Sapë ( la, Sapa, sr, Сапа) was a medieval fortress, located near the village of Nënshat, in the municipality of Vau i Dejës (belonging to Shkodër County, in modern Albania). It is attested since the 13th century, situated in the histor ...
(Albania) (1928.06.13 – 1935.10.30), emeritate as Titular Bishop of Rhesaina (1935.10.30 – death 1952.12.20)
* Barnabé Piedrabuena (1928.12.17 – 1942.06.11) as emeritate; previously Titular Bishop of Cestrus (1907.12.16 – 1910.11.08) as Auxiliary Bishop of Tucumán (Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
) (1907.12.16 – 1910.11.08 - first time), Bishop of Catamarca (Argentina) (1910.11.08 – 1923.06.11), again Bishop of Tucumán (1923.06.11 – retired 1928.12.17)
* Tomás Aspe, Friars Minor
The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachin ...
(O.F.M.) (born Spain) (1942.11.21 – 1962.01.22) on emeritate as former Bishop of Cochabamba (Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
) (1931.06.08 – 1942.11.21)
Callinicum of the Maronites
In 1962 the simultaneously suppressed Latin Titular see of Callinicum (''see above'') was in turn restored, now for the Maronite Church ( Eastern Catholic, Antiochian Rite
Antiochene Rite or Antiochian Rite refers to the family of liturgies originally used by the Patriarchate of Antioch.
Liturgies in the Antiochene Rite
The Antiochian Rite, or the Antiochian Rite family, consists of Apostolic Liturgies including ...
) as Titular bishopric of Callinicum (Latin), ''Callinicen(sis) Maronitarum'' (Latin adjective) / Callinico (Curiate Italian).
It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank :
* Francis Mansour Zayek (1962.05.30 – 1971.11.29) as first Auxiliary Bishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
) (1962.05.30 – 1966.01.27), then Apostolic Exarch
An exarch (;
from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'', meaning “leader”) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical.
In the late Roman Empire and ea ...
of United States of America of the Maronites (USA) (1966.01.27 – 1971.11.29); later promoted with that see as only Eparch (Bishop) of Saint Maron of Detroit of the Maronites (USA) (1971.11.29 – 1977.06.27), restyled as that see moved to first Eparch (Bishop) of Saint Maron of Brooklyn of the Maronites (USA) (1977.06.27 – 1982.12.10), personally promoted Archbishop-Bishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...
of Saint Maron of Brooklyn of the Maronites (1982.12.10 – retired 1996.11.11); died 2010
* John George Chedid (1980.10.13 – 1994.02.19) as Auxiliary Bishop of Saint Maron of Brooklyn of the Maronites (USA) (1980.10.13 – 1994.02.19); laer first Eparch (Bishop) of its daughter see Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles of the Maronites
Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon (in Latin: Eparchia Dominae Nostrae Libanensis in civitate Angelorum in California Maronitarum), headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is an entity pertaining to the Apostolic Maronite Patriarchal Church of ...
(East Coast of USA) (1994.02.19 – retired 2000.11.20), died 2012
* Samir Mazloum (1996.11.11 – ...), as Bishop of Curia of the Maronites (2000 – retired 2011.08.13) and on emeritate.
Religion and culture
Raqqa has never been home to a sizeable Shi'i community. However, since the Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
made the important Shi'i holy cities of Najaf and Karbala
Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorat ...
inaccessible to Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian visitors, Raqqa has gained importance as a Shi'i pilgrimage destination (accessible via Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
). The main attractions are the tombs of Ammar ibn Yasir
Abū 'l-Yaqẓān ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir ibn ʿĀmir ibn Mālik al-ʿAnsīy al-Maḏḥiǧī ( ar, أبو اليقظان عمار ابن ياسر ابن عامر ابن مالك العنسي المذحجي) also known as Abū 'l-Yaqẓān ʿAmmār i ...
and Uways al-Qarani
Awais bin Bashir ( ar, أُوَيْس ٱبْن عَامِر ٱبْن جَزْء ٱبْن مَالِك ٱلْقَرَنِيّ, ), also spelled Uways or Owais, was a Muslim from Yemen who lived during the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.B ...
, two companions of Muhammad who died during the Battle of Siffin. Beginning in 1988 and completed in 2005, an Iranian project oversaw the construction of two new mosques to replace the tombs, making them the largest Shi'i mausoleums in Syria. The Uways mosque was blown up by the Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
in May 2014 for being what they called a "pagan Iranian shrine".
Uways al-Qarani is an important religious figure in Raqqa, and could be called the city's "patron saint". East of the main city, between the Bab Baghdad and the Siffin cemetery, a large mulberry tree
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
has been dedicated to him for a long time. It is considered a holy site placed under Uways's protection. At least until the 1940s, semi-nomadic families would leave their personal belongings at the foot of the tree before beginning their annual summer migration to keep livestock in the Balikh valley. They would return four months later to recollect them. According to elderly Raqqawis, nobody dared take other people's belongings lest they anger the saint.
Uways has also been considered a mediator for Raqqawis, especially during unsolved cases of theft or valuable objects disappearing. In such cases, there would be ritual procession involving a large copper cup, called the "Uways Cup", covered by a green sheet and carried by a public crier (or ''dallal'') chosen by the wronged family. The procession would then go through all the streets of Raqqa, with the ''dallal'' calling out for anyone who knew anything about the theft or missing object was "called upon, by the Uways Cup, to inform me of it or to return it". During these processions, the entire city would be regarded as a sacred space.
Media
The Islamic State banned all media reporting outside its own efforts, kidnapping and killing journalists. However, a group calling itself Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently
Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RSS or RBSS) is a citizen journalist group reporting Syrian war news and human rights abuses by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other forces occupying the northern Syrian city of Raqqa which I ...
operated within the city and elsewhere during this period. In response, ISIL has killed members of the group.[British Broadcasting Corporation (28 December 2015) ]
Anti-Islamic State journalist murdered in Turkey
BBC etrieved 30 December 2015/ref> A film about the city made by RBSS was released internationally in 2017, premiering and winning an award at that year's Sundance Film Festival.
In January 2016, a pseudonymous French author named Sophie Kasiki Sophie Kasiki (born 1981 Kinshasa, Congo) is the pseudonym of the French-language author of the 2016 book ''Dans la nuit de Daech'' (Trans: "In the night of ISIS"), co-authored by Pauline Guéna.
In the book, Kasiki recounts her experience of ha ...
published a book about her move from Paris to the besieged city in 2015, where she was lured to perform hospital work, and her subsequent escape from ISIL.
Transportation
Prior to the Syrian Civil War the city was served by Chemins de Fer Syriens.
Climate
Notable locals
* Al-Battani
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn Sinān al-Raqqī al-Ḥarrānī aṣ-Ṣābiʾ al-Battānī ( ar, محمد بن جابر بن سنان البتاني) ( Latinized as Albategnius, Albategni or Albatenius) (c. 858 – 929) was an astron ...
, astronomer, astrologer and mathematician (c. 858 – 929)
* Abdul-Salam Ojeili
Abd al-Salam al-Ujayli ( ar, عَبْد السَّلَام الْعُجَيْلِيّ ; 1918 – April 5, 2006) was a Syrian doctor, novelist and politician.
Life
Born in Raqqa, Syria, he taught in various Syrian universities such as the Alepp ...
, novelist and politician (1918–2006)
* Harun al-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar
, أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
, fifth Abbasid Caliph (786–809)
* Khalaf Ali Alkhalaf
Khalaf Ali Alkhalaf (Arabic: خلف علي الخلف); born 10 November 1969 in Raqqa, is a poet and writer. He holds Swedish nationality. He lived in Saudi Arabia from 1993 until 2001, then in the same year he moved to Greece and stayed there ...
, poet and writer (b. 1969)
* Yassin al-Haj Saleh
Yassin al-Haj Saleh ( ar, ياسين الحاج صالح; born 1961)[Battle of Callinicum
The Battle of Callinicum took place on Easter Saturday, 19 April 531 AD, between an army of the Byzantine Empire under Belisarius and a Sasanian cavalry force commanded by Azarethes. After being defeated at the Battle of Dara, the Sasanians move ...](_blank)
* Raqqa offensive (2016)
Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, ...
* Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently
Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RSS or RBSS) is a citizen journalist group reporting Syrian war news and human rights abuses by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other forces occupying the northern Syrian city of Raqqa which I ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
; Videos
*
*
*
*
External links
Current news and events
eraqqa
Website for news relating to Raqqa
Ecclesiastical
Historical and archeological
Inscription of Raqqa on the World Heritage Tentative List
The Citadel of Raqqa – article in German
Industrial Landscape Project – Nottingham University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raqqa
Cities in Syria
Capitals of caliphates
Capitals in Asia
Populated places in Raqqa District
Populated places on the Euphrates River
Populated places established in the 3rd century BC
3rd-century BC establishments
240s BC establishments
Hellenistic sites in Syria
Razed cities
Cities founded by Alexander the Great