Tall Maḥrā was a small city of the central

Balikh River The Balikh River ( ar, نهر البليخ) is a perennial river that originates in the spring of Ain al-Arous near Tell Abyad in the Eastern Mediterranean conifer-sclerophyllous-broadleaf forests ecoregion. It flows due south and joins the Euph ...

valley, in what is now northern Syria, inhabited from 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 ...

until about the 13th century. It is identified with the 21-

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

tell now called Tall Shaykh Hasan, also romanized as Tell Sheikh Hasan. Karin Bartl did a survey of the site's ceramics in the 1990s, and the Syrian Antiquities Service also conducted excavations here by digging a few test trenches. Tall Mahra peaked under 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 ...

, when it was the main town between

Raqqa 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, ...

and

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 ...

on the way to

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 ...

. It is best known as the birthplace of

Dionysius I Telmaharoyo Dionysius I Telmaharoyo (Latin: ''Dionysius Telmaharensis'', Syriac: ܕܝܘܢܢܘܣܝܘܣ ܬܠܡܚܪܝܐ, Arabic: مار ديونيسيوس التلمحري), also known as Dionysius of Tel Mahre, was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syr ...

, the 9th-century

Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch The Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch ܦܛܪܝܪܟܐ ܕܐܢܛܝܘܟܝܐ is the bishop of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church ( Syriac: ܥܺܕܬܳܐ ܣܽܘ̣ܪܝܳܝܬܳܐ ܬܪܺܝܨܰܬ ܫܽܘ̣ܒ̣ܚܳܐ). He is the Head of the Hol ...

. The oldest pottery fragments found at Tall Mahra date from the Hellenistic period. Later, it formed a Christian settlement under 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 ...

. The Late Roman/Byzantine settlement (from the 3rd/4th until 7th centuries) covered perhaps 7 ha. The only remains found from this period were two mud-brick walls, covered in lime plaster, under a street on the eastern side of the tell. These walls were probably also used during 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 ...

period. A few 7th-century Byzantine coins were also found at the site. Like other sites in the region, Tall Mahra underwent significant expansion during the Abbasid period. This was likely prompted by

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 ...

moving his court to Raqqa in 796, which created a new demand for agricultural produce and stimulated the region's economy in general. Under the Abbasids, Tall Mahra expanded to a size of 21 hectares. This was its greatest extent, and Abbasid potsherds cover the entire tell. Fragments of the city's stone walls are visible from the surface; they presumably date from the Abbasid period. They enclose an almost perfectly square area of 450x450m. The walls contain projecting half-towers, similar in design to the ones at al-Rafiqah in Raqqah, except these ones serve virtually zero defensive purpose. They instead seem to have been "symbols of urban pride and wealth in small rural town". In addition to the monumental walls, Tall Mahra had a church, a small mosque, and a '' quadriburgium'' of unknown function. Also, above the Byzantine mud-brick walls on the east side, a series of stone buildings was built during the Abbasid period. These were perhaps used as shops. The latest dated items found at Tall Mahra are from the 11th-13th centuries. The 13th-century geographer

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...

described Tall Mahra as a fortified town with a market lying between Raqqa and Hisn Maslama. Near the site of Tall Mahra is Tell Shahin, a tell covering 13.6 hectares that was inhabited at a roughly similar time: from early Abbasid times until the Ayyubid era.

References

{{coord missing, Syria Former populated places in Syria Syria under the Abbasid Caliphate Medieval Upper Mesopotamia Archaeological sites in Syria Roman sites in Syria

See also

References