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al-Jārūd was a small-town in the
Al-Jarud was surrounded by a rectangular city wall, measuring approximately 650 x 650 m and featured projecting half-towers. A geophysical survey revealed a large number of the structures inside the walls, as well as some on the outside. Excavations in the northwestern part of the town revealed a mosque and a segment of a market with adjacent buildings. On the western stretch of the fortification, a gate and a stretch of the fortification have been uncovered. Towards the centre of the town, a bathhouse was uncovered. In the northwestern part of the town, the remains of at least seven residential buildings as well as those of a small mosque have been excavated. Two larger buildings, one situated in the southwest, the second on top of the third millennium tell, located in the south-eastern corner of the walled area, have been explored with smaller excavation. Additionally, numerous features of the water supply-system have been excavated. Two rooms of the residential buildings as well as parts of the mosque in the northwest of the town were decorated with stucco that shares similarities with decorations found in Samarra.
Kharab Sayyar's entry
from the Museum with No Frontiers website {{coord, 36, 35, 0, N, 39, 35, 0, E, display=title, region:SY_type:city Former populated places in Syria Syria under the Abbasid Caliphate Medieval Upper Mesopotamia Archaeological sites in Syria Archaeological sites in Raqqa Governorate
Wadi Hamar
Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portions of alluvial fans and ext ...
area, about 40 km east of the Balikh River
The Balikh River () 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 Euphrates at the modern cit ...
in present-day Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, inhabited during the 9th century. It is identified with Kharāb Sayyār, a ruin covering 42 hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...
s. The remains of its rectangular-shaped fortification with protruding half-round towers are the most prominent feature. At its peak, during the mid-9th century, al-Jarud was a regional center situated along an east-west running traffic and trading route and was embedded in a well settled, agricultural landscape. At least 60 contemporary settlements have been identified within a 13 km radius.
History
The site and its surroundings have been explored and excavated as a joint mission of the Directorate-General of Antiquities & Museums (DGAM Syria) and the Goethe-University Frankfurt between 1997 and 2011 (Directors: Imad Mussa and Jan-Waalke Meyer). Meyer originally proposed that occupation at the site began during theUmayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
period, perhaps in the 730s or 740s, but has since revised his chronology to exclude an Umayyad phase at al-Jarud. Although there is evidence of multiple phases, only the peak phase of the settlement can be dated with relative certainty. According to Stefan Heidemann, who studied the coin finds of Kharab Sayyar excavation, al-Jarud was only built "to any significant extent" in the middle of the 9th century. At this point, the Abbasid capital was in Samarra
Samarra (, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The modern city of Samarra was founded in 836 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim as a new administrative capital and mi ...
, and the demand for agricultural produce was at its peak. The latest dated numismatic evidence found at al-Jarud is a coin fragment dated to the reign of al-Mu'tadid
Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥa ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn (), 853/4 or 860/1 – 5 April 902, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaḍid bi-llāh (), was the caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 892 until his death ...
, between the years 892 and 902, and was probably abandoned not too long after that. This timeframe of the main phase of the settlement – the last in most of the buildings – is mostly supported by the dating of the undecorated pottery by C. Falb and that of the stucco decorations by A.Koppel.
Layout
Al-Jarud was surrounded by a rectangular city wall, measuring approximately 650 x 650 m and featured projecting half-towers. A geophysical survey revealed a large number of the structures inside the walls, as well as some on the outside. Excavations in the northwestern part of the town revealed a mosque and a segment of a market with adjacent buildings. On the western stretch of the fortification, a gate and a stretch of the fortification have been uncovered. Towards the centre of the town, a bathhouse was uncovered. In the northwestern part of the town, the remains of at least seven residential buildings as well as those of a small mosque have been excavated. Two larger buildings, one situated in the southwest, the second on top of the third millennium tell, located in the south-eastern corner of the walled area, have been explored with smaller excavation. Additionally, numerous features of the water supply-system have been excavated. Two rooms of the residential buildings as well as parts of the mosque in the northwest of the town were decorated with stucco that shares similarities with decorations found in Samarra.
See also
*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 ...
*Tall Mahra Tall Maḥrā was a small city of the central Balikh River valley, in what is now northern Syria, inhabited from the Hellenistic period until about the 13th century. It is identified with the 21-hectare tell now called Tall Shaykh Hasan, also roman ...
*Bajarwan (Syria)
Bājarwān was a small town or village in the Balikh River valley inhabited during the early Islamic period, located between Raqqa and Tall Mahra. It is attested in textual sources until the 10th century and probably peaked during the early Abbasid ...
*Bajadda
Bājaddā was a small town in the Balikh River valley inhabited during the early Islamic period. It is identified with the present-day Khirbat al-Anbār, located a few kilometers south of the contemporary town of Hisn Maslama.
Geography
The site ...
References
External links
Kharab Sayyar's entry
from the Museum with No Frontiers website {{coord, 36, 35, 0, N, 39, 35, 0, E, display=title, region:SY_type:city Former populated places in Syria Syria under the Abbasid Caliphate Medieval Upper Mesopotamia Archaeological sites in Syria Archaeological sites in Raqqa Governorate