Raqqa

File:ArRaqqahMorningBread.jpg

Cooling down the bread, in the background the Museum of ar-Raqqah

Ar-Raqqah (الرقة, also spelled Rakka), is a city in north central Syria located on the north bank of the Euphrates River, about 160 km east of Aleppo. It is the capital of the Raqqah province and one of the main cities of the historical Diyar Mudar, the western part of the Jazira.

The Hellenistic and Byzantine Kallinikos

The Seleucid king Seleukos II. Kallinikos (reigned 246-226 BC) founded the Hellenistic city of Kallinikos or Callinicum named after him. In the Byzantine period it was named for a brief period Leontupolis by the emperor Leon I. (reigned 457-474 AD), but the name Kallinikos prevailed. In 542 the city was destroyed by the invasion of the Persian Sasanian Shah Khusrau I. Anushirwan (reigned 531-579) and subsequently rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Justianian II. (reigned 527-565).

Ar-Raqqah in the Early Islamic Period

In the year 18/639 the Muslim conqueror 'Iyad ibn Ghanm took the Christian city Kallinikos by contract. Since then it figured in Arabic sources as ar-Raqqah but still in Syriac sources the name of Kallinikos remained. The strategic importance of ar-Raqqah grew during the wars at the end of the Umayyad period and the beginning of the 'Abbasid regime. Ar-Raqqa lay on the crossroads between Syria and Iraq and the road between Damascus, Tadmur (Palmyra), the temporary caliphal residence ar-Rusafa, ar-Ruha' (present day Urfa in Turkey) and the Byzantine and Caucasian theaters of raids and wars.

In 771-2 the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur built a garrison city about 200 metres to the west of ar-Raqqah for a detachement of his Khorasanian Persian army. It was named ar-Rafiqah, "the companion". The strength of the Abbasid imperial military is still visible in the impressive city wall of ar-Rafiqah.

Ar-Raqqah and ar-Rafiqah merged into one urban complex, larger than the former Umayyad capital Damascus. In 796, the caliph Harun al-Rashid decided for ar-Raqqah/ar-Rafiqah as his imperial residence. For about thirteen years ar-Raqqah/ar-Rafiqah was the capital of the Abbasid empire stretching from Northern Africa to Central Asia, while the main administrative body remained in Baghdad. The palace area of ar-Raqqah covered an area of about 10 square kilometres north of the twin cities. One of the founding fathers of the Hanafi law school, Muhammad ash-Shaibani, was chief qadi (judge) in ar-Raqqah. The splendour of the court in ar-Raqqah is documented in several poems, collected by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani in his "Book of Songs" (Kitab al-Aghani). Only the small, restored so called Eastern Palace at the fringes of the palace district gives an impression of Abbasid architecture. 8 km west of ar-Raqqah lay the unfinished virctory monument called Herakla from the period of Harun al-Rashid. Is is said to commemmorize the temporary conquest of the Byzantine city Herakleia in Asia Minor. It is a substructure of a square building in the centre of a circular walled enclosure 500 m in diameter.

After the return of the court to Baghdad in 809, ar-Raqqa/ar-Rafiqah remained the capital of the western part of the empire including Egypt. During the period of the Hamdanids in the 940s the city declined rapidly.

The Second Blossom of ar-Raqqah

Ar-Raqqah lived a second blossom, based on agriculture and industrial production, during the Zangid and Ayyubid period in the 12th and first half of the 13th century. Most famous is the blue-glazed so called Raqqa-ware, which can be seen in may Museums in the world. The still visible Bab Baghdad (Baghdad Gate) and the so called Qasr al-Banat (Castle of the Ladies) are splendid witnesses for this period. Ar-Raqqah was destroyed during the Mongol wars in the 1260s. There is a report about the killing of the last inhabitants of the urban ruin in 1288.

Remains of the Bab Baghdad

The Ottoman and Modern Period

In the 16th century, ar-Raqqah again enters the historical record as an Ottoman customs post on the Euphrates.

Sunset over the rooftops in one of the recent quarters

The ruins were resettled from 1864 onwards, first as a military outpost, then as a settlement for former Bedouin Arabs and for Chechens, who came as refugees from the Caucasian war theaters in the middle of the 19th century. An adminstration-building was errected during the French Mandate. It houses nowadays the Museum of ar-Raqqah (ill. 1). In the fifties of the twentieth century, in the wake of the Corean war, the world wide cotton boom stimulated an unpreceded growth of 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 meant on the other hand a removal of the archaeological remains of the cities great past. The palace area is now almost covered with settlements, as well as the former area of the ancient ar-Raqqa (today Mishlab) and the former Abbasid industrial district (today al-Mukhtalta). Only parts were archaeologically explored. The 12th-century citadel was removed in the 1950s (today Dawwar as-Sa'a, the clock-tower circle). In the 1980s rescue ecavations in the palace area began as well as the conservation of the Abbasid city walls with the Bab Baghdad and the two main monuments intra muros, the Abbasid mosque and the Qasr al-Banat.

Modern population is around 190,000 (2000 estimate).

External links

Historical & Archeological

• The Citadel of ar-Raqqah - article in German
• An Ancient Cityscape Revealed
• Raqqa II - Archaeological Publication on ar-Raqqah

Additional Pictures

• Images of ar-Raqqah and Vicinity dated 2003
• A picture gallery about a 2005 trip in Raqqa