Dhahab River or Dhahab Valley ( ''Gold River'' or ''Gold Valley''), also in medieval times known as Wadi Butnan () or Butnan Habib, is an intermittent river and valley in northern

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 ...

. The principal towns in the valley are

al-Bab Al-Bab ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Bāb'') is a Syrian city, administratively belonging to the Aleppo Governorate. Al-Bab is located northeast of Aleppo, south of the Turkish border, and has an area of . Al-Bab has an altitude of . According to the Cen ...

Bizaah B'zaah () 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 is inhabited by Turkmen and had a population of 12,718 ...

and Tadef. The river is located on the

Aleppo plateau The Aleppo plateau ( ) is a low, gently undulating plateau of northern Syria. It lies at the northern end of the junction between the Arabian Plate and the African Plate at the Dead Sea Rift. The plateau lies mostly in the Aleppo Governorate and ...

in the eastern part of

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' ) is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, 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 the t ...

, 30 km east of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

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

Sabkhat al-Jabbul Sabkhat al-Jabbūl or Mamlahat al-Jabbūl or Lake Jabbūl () is a large, traditionally seasonal, saline lake and concurrent salt flats (sabkha) 30 km southeast of Aleppo, Syria, in the Bāb District of Aleppo Governorate. It is the larg ...

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 (; –) was an Arab general during the Early Muslim conquests, under Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan. Habib fought in the Muslim conquest of the Levant and against the Byzantines in Upper Mesopotamia, where he later ser ...

, who conquered the area during the

early Muslim conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (), also known as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. He established the first Islamic state in Medina, Arabian Peninsula, Arabia that ...

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

, was part of

Jund Qinnasrin ''Jund Qinnasrīn'' (, "jund, military district of Qinnasrin") was one of five sub-provinces of Bilad al-Sham, Syria under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphates, organized soon after the Muslim conquest of Syria in the 7th century ...

(the military district of northern

). The

Umayyad 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 ...

caliph

Abd al-Malik Abdul Malik () is an Arabic (Muslim or Christian) male given name and, in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' Abd'', ''al-'' and ''Malik''. The name means "servant of the King", in the Christian instance 'King' meaning 'King ...

camped in the valley in the winter of 689–690 in preparation of a confrontation with

Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr Mu'sab ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam al-Asadi (; 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 al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam ...

of Iraq. In 901, it was sacked by the

Qarmatians The Qarmatians (; ) were a militant Isma'ili Shia movement centred in Al-Ahsa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a religious state in 899 CE. Its members were part of a movement that adhered to a syncretic branch of Sevener Ismaili ...

. 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 greatly contributed to the resurgence of t ...

. 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 ...

who was besieging Aleppo during the reign of

Sabiq ibn Mahmud Abūʾl-Faḍāʾil Sābiq ibn Mahmūd () was the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo from 1076 to 1080. Rule Following the death of Sabiq's older brother, the emir of Aleppo Nasr, the latter's influential adviser Sadid al-Mulk Ali of the Banu Munqidh, arr ...

of the

Mirdasid dynasty The Mirdasid dynasty (), also called the Banu Mirdas, was an Arab Shia Muslim dynasty which ruled an Aleppo-based emirate in northern Syria and the western Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) more or less continuously from 1024 until 1080. History Do ...

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 Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

. The lord of

Tell Bashir Tell may refer to: *Tell (archaeology), a type of archaeological site *Tell (name), a name used as a given name and a surname *Tell (poker), a subconscious behavior that can betray information to an observant opponent Arts, entertainment, and m ...

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

John II Komnenos John II Komnenos or Comnenus (; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexio ...

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

Zengid dynasty The Zengid or Zangid dynasty, also referred to as the Atabegate of Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus (Arabic: أتابكة الموصل وحلب ودمشق), or the Zengid State (Old Anatolian Turkish: , Modern Turkish: ; ) was initially an '' Atabegat ...

Dams

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

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

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

References

Bibliography

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