HALL OF AR-RAQQAH
Historical Glance:
The city of ar-Raqqah is situated on the eastern bank of the Euphrates,
at the mouth of the Balikh tributary. When the
Muslim conquest took place, the city was inhabited by the Arabs of Mudar
tribe who gave it his name because its climate is cool owing to its
position between the two rivers. The word Raqqah means in Arabic " large
and damp land ".
The site was inhabited in the pre-historic times as well as in the later
periods. There is now a number of archaeological earlier with the
participation of Mr. Maurice Dunand, and later sites in the area,
prominent among them is Tell al-Bay'ah The site is abundant in remains
of the third and second millennia B.C.
In the Hellenistic Age, Seleucus I founded a city on this very site to
which he gave the name " Nikephorium ". On its ruins another city was
built in the Roman era lasting between the first and
third century AD. The city was replaced later on by the Byzantine
city of Callinicium which was Christened afterwards "Leontopolis" after
the name of Emperor Leon II (473 - 474 A.D.
).
Ar-Rafiqah expanded in the days of Harun ar-Rashid and the Byzantines
until the Muslim-Arab under the command of Iyad ibn Ghanm occupied it in
circa 17 A.H.
At that time the city prospered considerably by virtue of its natural
position, fertility and its location on the commercial routes.
According to the historians. ar-Raqqah constituted an agglomeration of
many cities: the white Raqqah, the dark Raqqah and the outskirt of
Raqqah which was its market. On its opposite bank, Hisham b.
Ahd-al-Malik built a palace which he named "Wasit ar-Raqqah"
.
Realizing the importance of ar-Raqqah with regard
to its strategic and economic position as well as its agreeable climate,
the Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur ordered, in 155 A.H.
= 771 AD., the construction of the city of
ar-Rafiqah near ar-Raqqah to be the seat
of the Khurasani troops and a centre of the estival troops which took
care of the control of North Syria and the movements of the Byzantine
armies.
Al-Mansur surrounded the city with a wall similar to that of Baghdad.
but the course of the river in the southern side made the wall in the
form of a horseshoe. The longest diameter of the new city was 1500 m. He
provided the city with double brick walls: an exterior wall of 4.50 m.
thickness and an interior wall of 5.8 m in thinness, separated by a span
of 20.80m wide. The exterior wall was surrounded by a moat of
l5.90m in width. The foundations of the wall were constructed with
calcareous or gypsum stone and were completed with bricks and tiles. The
walls had two gates : the eastern gate (Bab Baghdad) and the western
gate (probably Bab al-Jinan) according to Yaqut, Bab al-Jinan
disappeared a long time ago.
Inside the wall, there are the ruins of a mosque of which nothing
remained save a raw of arches and a cylindrical minaret constructed in
bricks. As to the palace and residential of the ancient ar-Rafiqah, have
not yet been cleared. Some remains in bricks are scattered here and
there indicating the development of architecture and decorations.
Ar-Rafiqah expanded in the days of Harun ar-Rashid and his successors.
The air photography of the site indicates that the area covered by
ar-Rafiqah touched that of ar-Raqqah and its outskirts. It constituted,
in fact, a big city whose diameter extended 10 Km. The city developed
greatly in the Ayyubid Period.
The city was destroyed on account of the Móngol invasion, 656 A.H. =
1257 A.D.
Archaeological exploration of ar-Raqqah:
The Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums conducted a number of
excavations at ar-Raqqah between 1949- 1956, earlier with the
participation of Mr. Maurice Dunand, and later on under the direction of
Mr. Nasib Salibi. These excavations works have brought to light four
palaces which we termed A , B , C and D. It has been proved that the
Palace B dates back to the reign of al-Mu’tasim
Billah, (218 - 227 A.H. = 833 - 842 AD.), on account of an inscription,
found in the Palace, bearing a part of the name of al-Mu’tasim.
The excavations have also yielded very important finds, some of which
are exhibited in the Hall of ar-Raqqah, together with other objects
found accidentally at the same site.
Glassware of ar-Raqqah :
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