Gidara (
West Semitic
The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of ancient Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.[Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...]
. It was located at the upper course of the
Khabur river north of
Guzana
Tell Halaf ( ar, تل حلف) is an archaeological site in the Al Hasakah governorate of northeastern Syria, a few kilometers from the city of Ra's al-'Ayn near the Turkish border. The site, which dates to the 6th millennium BCE, was the fir ...
.
At the beginning of the 10th century BC the city was under
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n control. When
Aramaic tribes moved into northern Mesopotamia, one of them, called Temanites by the Assyrians, managed to snatch the city from Assyrian control under the reign of
Tiglath-Pileser II Tiglath-Pileser II (from the Hebraic form Spelled as "" "Tiglath-Pileser" in the Books of Kings () or as "" "Tilgath-Pilneser" in the Books of Chronicles (). of Akkadian ''Tukultī-apil-Ešarra'') was King of Assyria
The king of Assyria (Akkadia ...
(966-935). The Aramaeans called their city Raqamatu. The Assyrian king
Adad-nirari II
Adad-nirari II (reigned from 911 to 891 BC) was the first King of Assyria in the Neo-Assyrian period.
Biography
Adad-nirari II's father was Ashur-dan II, whom he succeeded after a minor dynastic struggle. It is probable that the accession encour ...
(911-891) led campaign into the Khabur valley and captured the city after a siege in 898. The city was plundered and its Aramaic ruler ''Muquru'' and his family were deported to Assyria.
References
* Trevor Bryce: ''The Routledge Handbook of The People and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire''. Routledge 2009, , p. 256 ({{Google books, E1aF0hq1GR8C, online copy, page=256)
Iron Age sites in Asia
Aramean cities