Dhahab River or Dhahab Valley ( ar, نهر الذهب or وادي الذهب ''Gold River'' or ''Gold Valley''), also in medieval times known as Wadi Butnan ( ar, وادي بطنان, Wadī Buṭnān) or Butnan Habib, is an intermittent river and valley in northern

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 ...

. The principal towns in the valley are

al-Bab Al-Bab ( ar, الْبَاب / ALA-LC: ''al-Bāb'') is a city, ''de jure'' administratively belonging to the Aleppo Governorate of the Syrian Arab Republic. As of December 2016, the city is under the control of pro-Turkish militias, as part of t ...

Bizaah B'zaah ( ar, بزاعة) is a town located east of the city of al-Bab in northern-central Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. It is administratively part of Nahiya al-Bab in al-Bab District. The town had a population of 12,718 as per the 20 ...

and

Tadef Tadef ( ar, تادف; also spelled Tedef or Tadif) is a town southeast of Al-Bab, about east of Aleppo, Syria and less than south of Al Bab. The town, which is the site of a shrine to the Hebrew prophet Ezra (c. 400 BCE), was a popular summer r ...

. The river is located on the Aleppo plateau in the eastern part of

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of t ...

, 30 km east of

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

. It drains the heights north of al-Bab and runs from north to south for about 50 km before terminating at Sabkhat al-Jabbul.

History

During the early Muslim period the Arabic sources referred to the valley as Wadi Butnan (the lowland valley) or Butnan Habib (the lowlands of Habib), after the Muslim commander

Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri Ḥabīb ibn Maslama al-Fihrī ( ar, حبيب بن مسلمة الفهري; –) was an Arab general during the Early Muslim conquests, under Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan. Life Origin and career under Umar Born in Mecca , Habib was a member of the M ...

, who conquered the area during the

early Muslim conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...

(630s–640s). The region, located about east of

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, was part of Jund Qinnasrin (the military district of northern

). 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 ...

caliph Abd al-Malik camped in the valley in the winter of 689–690 in preparation of a confrontation with

Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr Muṣʿab ibn al-Zubayr ( ar, مصعب بن الزبير; died October 691) was the governor of Basra in 686–691 for his brother, the Mecca-based counter-caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, during the Second Fitna. Mus'ab was a son of Zubayr ib ...

of Iraq. In 901, it was sacked by the

Qarmatians The Qarmatians ( ar, قرامطة, Qarāmiṭa; ) were a militant Isma'ili Shia movement centred in al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a religious-utopian socialist state in 899 CE. Its members were part of a movement that ...

. In 966, it was ravaged by

Nikephoros II Phokas Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless included brilliant military exploits whi ...

. Later on, Kilabi chief Abu Za'ida led a tribal coalition in the region which defeated Seljuk reinforcements to

Tutush I Abu Sa'id Taj al-Dawla Tutush (; died 25 February 1095) or Tutush I, was the Seljuk emir of Damascus from 1078 to 1092, and sultan of Damascus from 1092 to 1094. Years under Malik Shah Tutush was a brother of the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I. In 1 ...

who was besieging Aleppo during the reign of

Sabiq ibn Mahmud Abūʾl-Faḍāʾil Sābiq ibn Mahmūd ( ar, سابق أبوالفضائل بن محمود) was the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo from 1076–1080. Rule Following the death of Sabiq's older brother, the emir of Aleppo Nasr, the latter's influential ad ...

of the Mirdasid dynasty in 1080. However, Seljuk revenge led to the extermination of the Ismaili community. In 1098, it was attacked by the Armenians in the region during the events of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...

. The lord of

Tell Bashir Turbessel ( syr, Tel Bshir, ar, Tell Bāshir or , hy, Թլպաշար, translit=Tʿlpašar, tr, Tilbeşar or ) is a fortress and Bronze Age tumulus in south-eastern Turkey, near the village of Gündoğan in the district of Oğuzeli, within Gazia ...

, Jocelin, devastated the region in 1125. In 1138, it was occupied by the Byzantine emperor

John II Komnenos John II Komnenos or Comnenus ( gr, Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, Iōannēs ho Komnēnos; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he ...

. It was later captured by Nur ad-Din of the

Zengid dynasty 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 Tripol ...

Dams

Two dams have been constructed on the river, the ʼUm-Julūd Dam and Shabāʼ Dam. Recently water from 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'') ...

is being diverted to the river to enhance irrigation in the valley.

References

Bibliography

* * * * Aleppo Aleppo Governorate Rivers of Syria {{Syria-river-stub