The Daysan River or Daisan River was the name of the river that flowed through

Urfa Urfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa from Hellenistic period, Hellenistic times and into Christian times. Urfa is situated on a plain abo ...

, a tributary of the Khabur. Historically known as the Scirtus (),

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

, ''de Aed.'' 2.7

describes it as a river of Mesopotamia, a western tributary of the

Chaboras The Khabur River is the largest perennial tributary to the Euphrates in Syria. Although the Khabur originates in Turkey, the karstic springs around Ras al-Ayn are the river's main source of water. Several important wadis join the Khabur north of A ...

(modern Khabur). It flowed from 25 sources, and ran past

Edessa Edessa (; ) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It was founded during the Hellenistic period by Macedonian general and self proclaimed king Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Sel ...

. (''Chron. Edess.'' in Asseman, ''Bibl. Or.'' i. p. 388.) Its name, which signifies the skipping or jumping (from σκιρτάω), is said to have been derived from its rapid course and its frequent overflowings; and its present name of Daysan or Daisan means the same thing. The river has flooded Edessa numerous times, including in 204, 305, and 415 CE. The Syriac writer

Bardaisan Bardaisan (11 July 154 – 222 AD; , ''Bar Dayṣān''; also Bardaiṣan), known in Arabic as ibn Dayṣān () and in Latin as Bardesanes, was a Syriac-speaking Prods Oktor Skjaervo. ''Bardesanes''. Encyclopædia Iranica. Volume III. Fasc. 7-8. . ...

takes his name from the river.

References

* Rivers of Turkey Edessa Tributaries of the Khabur (Euphrates) {{Turkey-river-stub