Harran
Encyclopedia
Harran was a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia whose site is near the modern village of Altınbaşak, Turkey
, 24 miles (44 kilometers) southeast of Şanlıurfa
. The location is in a district
of Şanlıurfa Province
that is also named "Harran".
A few kilometers from the village of Altınbaşak are the archaeological remains of ancient Harran, a major commercial, cultural, and religious center first inhabited in the Early Bronze Age III (3rd millennium BC) period. It was known as Ḫarrānu in the Assyrian period; possibly Ḥaran in the Hebrew Bible
; or Carrhae under the Roman Empire
; Hellenopolis ( 'pagan city') in the Early Christian period; and Ḥarrān (حرّان) in the Islamic period.
(c. 2300 BC). From these, it is known that an early king or mayor of Harran had married an Ebla
ite princess, Zugalum, who then became "queen of Harran", and whose name appears in a number of documents. It appears that Harran remained a part of the regional Eblaite kingdom for some time thereafter.
Royal letters from the city of Mari
on the middle of the Euphrates, have confirmed that the area around the Balikh
river remained occupied in ca. the 19th century BC. A confederation of semi-nomadic tribes was especially active around the region near Harran at that time.
. It lay directly on the road from Antioch
eastward to Nisibis
and Ninevah. The Tigris could be followed down to the delta to Babylon
. The fourth century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus
(325/330–after 391) said, “From there (Harran) two different royal highways lead to Persia: the one on the left through Adiabene
and over the Tigris; the one on the right, through Assyria and across the Euphrates.” Not only did Harran have easy access to both the Assyrian and Babylonian roads, but also to north road to the Euphrates that provided easy access to Malatiyah and Asia Minor
.
According to Roman authors such as Pliny the Elder
, even through the classical period
, Harran maintained an important position in the economic life of Northern Mesopotamia.
joins the highway between Nineveh
and Carchemish
. This location gave Harran strategic value from an early date. Because Harran had an abundance of goods that passed through its region, it became a target for raids. In the 18th century, Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I
(1813 – 1781 BC) launched an expedition to secure the Harranian trade route.
After the Suppiluliuma I
–Shattiwaza
treaty (14th century BC) between the Hittite Empire and Mitanni
, Harran was burned by a Hittite army under Piyashshili
in the course of the conquest of Mitanni.
In the 13th century BC, Assyrian king Adad-Nirari I
reported that he conquered the "fortress of Kharani" and annexed it as a province. It is frequently mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions as early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I
, about 1100 BC, under the name Harranu (Akkadian
harrānu, "road, path; campaign, journey"). Tiglath-Pileser had a fortress there, and mentioned that he was pleased with the abundance of elephants in the region.
10th century BC inscriptions reveal that Harran had some privileges of fiscal exemption and freedom from certain forms of military obligations. It had even been termed as the "free city of Harran". However, in 763 BC, it was sacked by a Harranian rebellion against Assyrian control that resulted in the loss of those privileges. Not until Sargon II
restored order, in the late 8th century BC, were those privileges restored.
During the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Harran became the stronghold of its last king, Ashur-uballit II
, who had retreated from Nineveh
when it was sacked by Nabopolassar
of Babylon and his Median
allies in 612 BC. Harran was besieged and conquered by Nabopolassar
in 610 BC. It was briefly retaken by Ashur-uballit II and his Egyptian allies in 609 BC before it definitely fell to the Babylonians.
. The city remained in Persian hands until 331 BC, when the soldiers of the Macedonian
conqueror Alexander the Great entered the city.
, Antigonus Monophthalmus, and Eumenes
visited the city, but eventually it became part of the realm of Seleucus I Nicator
, of the Seleucid Empire
, and capital of a province called Osrhoene (the Greek rendering of the old name Urhai). For one and a half centuries the town flourished, and became independent when the Parthian dynasty
of Persia occupied Babylonia
. The Parthian and Seleucid kings were both happy with a buffer state, and the dynasty of the Arab
ian Abgarides, technically a vassal of the Parthian "king of kings", was to rule Osrhoene for centuries. The main language spoken in Oshroene was Aramaic, and the majority of people were Christian Assyrians.
in 53 BC, in which the Parthians, commanded by general Surena
, defeated a large Roman army under the command of Crassus
, who was killed.
Centuries later, the emperor Caracalla
was murdered here at the instigation of Macrinus
(217). The emperor Galerius
was defeated nearby by the Parthians' successors, the Sassanid dynasty
of Persia, in AD 296. The city remained under Persian control until the fall of the Sassanids to the Arabs in AD 651.
). Along with ar-Ruha' (Şanlıurfa
) and Ar-Raqqah it was one of the main cities in the region. During the reign of the Umayyad
caliph
Marwan II
Harran became the seat of the caliphal government of the Islamic empire stretching from Spain
to Central Asia
.
It was allegedly the Abbasid
caliph al-Ma'mun
who, while passing through Harran on his way to a campaign against the Byzantine Empire
, forced the Harranians to convert to one of the 'religions of the book', meaning Judaism
, Christianity, or Islam. The pagan people of Harran identified themselves with the Sabians in order to fall under the protection of Islam. Aramaean and Assyrian Christians remained Christian. Sabians were mentioned in the Qur'an
, but those were a group of Gnostic
Mandaeans living in southern Mesopotamia. The relationship of the Harranian Sabians to the ones mentioned in the Qur'an is a matter of dispute.
to Syriac
by Assyrians
, and thence to Arabic
, bringing the knowledge of the classical world
to the emerging Arabic-speaking civilization in the south. Baghdad
came to this work later than Harran. Many important scholars of natural science, astronomy, and medicine originate from Harran; they were non-Arab and non-Islamic ethnic Assyrians
, including possibly the alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān.
-Shiite population and impoverished urban Muslim militias. In 1059–60 the temple was rebuilt into a fortified residence of the Numayrids, an Arab tribe assuming power in the Diyar Mudar (western Jazira
) during the 11th century. The Zangid ruler Nur al-Din Mahmud transformed the residence into a strong fortress.
, on May 7, 1104, a decisive battle was fought in the Balikh River valley, commonly known as the Battle of Harran
. However, according to Matthew of Edessa
the actual location of the battle lies two days away from Harran. Albert of Aachen and Fulcher of Chartres
locate the battleground in the plain opposite to the city of ar-Raqqah
. During the battle, Baldwin of Bourcq, Count of Edessa
, was captured by troops of the Great Seljuq Empire
. After his release Baldwin became King of Jerusalem
.
At the end of 12th century Harran served together with ar-Raqqah as a residence of Kurdish
Ayyubid
princes. The Ayyubid ruler of the Jazira, Al-Adil I
, again strengthened the fortifications of the castle. In the 1260s the city was completely destroyed and abandoned during the Mongol invasions of Syria. The father of the famous Hanbali
te scholar Ibn Taymiyyah was a refugee from Harran, settling in Damascus. The 13th century Arab historian Abu al-Fida describes the city as being in ruins.
Harran is famous for its traditional 'beehive' adobe houses
, constructed entirely without wood. The design of these makes them cool inside (essential in this part of the world) and is thought to have been unchanged for at least 3,000 years. Some were still in use as dwellings until the 1980s. However, those remaining today are strictly tourist exhibits, while most of Harran's population lives in a newly built small village about 2 kilometres away from the main site.
At the historical site the ruins of the city walls and fortifications are still in place, with one city gate standing, along with some other structures. Excavations of a nearby 4th century BC burial mound continue under archaeologist Dr Nurettin Yardımcı
.
The new village is poor and life is hard in the hot weather on this plain. The people here are now ethnic Arab
s and live by long-established traditions. It is believed that these Arabs were settled here during the 18th century by the Ottoman Empire
. The women of the village are tattooed and dressed in traditional Bedouin
clothes. The Assyrians who once occupied the area for thousands of years have moved to other areas, although there are some Assyrian
villages in the general area.
By the late 1980s the large plain of Harran had fallen into disuse as the streams of Cüllab and Deysan, its original water-supply had dried up. But the plain is irrigated by the recent Southeastern Anatolia Project
and is becoming green again. Cotton and rice can now be grown.
Sin
, under the Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians/Chaldeans
and even into Roman
times.
According to an early Arabic work known as Kitab al-Magall or the Book of Rolls (part of Clementine literature
), Harran was one of the cities built by Nimrod
, when Peleg
was 50 years old. The Syriac Cave of Treasures
(ca. 350) contains a similar account of Nimrod's building Harran and the other cities, but places the event when Reu
was 50 years old. The Cave of Treasures adds an ancient legend that not long thereafter, Tammuz was pursued to Harran by his wife's lover, B'elshemin
, and that he (Tammuz) met his fate there when the city was then burnt.
The pagan residents of Harran also maintained the tradition well into the tenth century AD, of being the site of Tammuz' death, and would conduct elaborate mourning rituals for him each year, in the month bearing his name
.
However, the Islamic historian Al-Masudi
in his Meadows of Gold (ca. 950) wrote that Harran had been built by Cainan
(the father of Abraham's ancestor Shelah
in some accounts), and had been named for another son of Cainan called Harran.
Sin's temple was rebuilt by several kings, among them the Assyrian Assur-bani-pal (7th century BC) and the Neo-Babylonian Nabonidus
(6th century BC).
Herodian
(iv. 13, 7) mentions the town as possessing in his day a temple of the moon.
Harran was a centre of Assyrian Christianity
from early on, and was the first place where purpose-built churches were constructed openly. However, although a bishop resided in the city, many people of Harran retained their ancient pagan faith during the Christian period, and ancient Mesopotamian/Assyrian gods such as Sin and Ashur were still worshipped for a time. In addition the Mandean religion, a form of Gnosticism
, was born in Harran.
(Hebrew: , transliterated: Charan). Very little is known about the premedieval levels of Harran and even less for the patriarchal times. (Lloyd and Brice) Scholars have yet to see what physical evidence will link this villiage of Harran to the biblical site that Abram and his family encamped at as mentioned in
Biblical Haran was where Terah
, his son Abram (Abraham
), his grandson Lot
, and Abram's wife Sarai
settled while in route to Canaan
, coming from Ur of the Chaldees
(Genesis 11:26–32). The region of this Haran is referred to variously as Paddan Aram
and Aram Naharaim. Genesis 27:43 makes Haran the home of Laban
and connects it with Isaac
and Jacob
: it was the home of Isaac's wife Rebekah, and their son Jacob spent twenty years in Haran working for his uncle Laban (cf. Genesis 31:38&41). The place-name should not be confused with the name of Haran
(Hebrew: הָרָן), Abraham's brother and Lot's father — note that the two names are spelled differently in the original Hebrew. Islamic tradition does link Harran to Aran, the brother of Abraham.
Prior to Sennacherib
's reign (704–681 BC), Harran rebelled from the Assyrians, who reconquered the city (see 2 Kings
19:12 and Isaiah
37:12) and deprived it of many privileges – which King Sargon II
later restored.
("Lawrence of Arabia") surveyed the ancient Harran site. Decades later, in 1950, Seton Lloyd
conducted a three-week archaeological survey there. An Anglo
–Turkish
excavation was begun in 1951, ending in 1956 with the death of D. S. Rice.
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, 24 miles (44 kilometers) southeast of Şanlıurfa
Sanliurfa
Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language , in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323 inhabitants Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language (Syriac ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhoy,Armenian Ուռհա Owr'ha, Arabic الرها ar-Ruhā), in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323...
. The location is in a district
Districts of Turkey
The 81 provinces of Turkey are divided into 957 districts . In the early Turkish Republic and in the Ottoman Empire, the corresponding unit was the kaza....
of Şanlıurfa Province
Sanliurfa Province
Şanlıurfa Province or simply Urfa Province is a province in Southeast Anatolia, Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which bears its name. The population is 1,663,371 ....
that is also named "Harran".
A few kilometers from the village of Altınbaşak are the archaeological remains of ancient Harran, a major commercial, cultural, and religious center first inhabited in the Early Bronze Age III (3rd millennium BC) period. It was known as Ḫarrānu in the Assyrian period; possibly Ḥaran in the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
; or Carrhae under the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
; Hellenopolis ( 'pagan city') in the Early Christian period; and Ḥarrān (حرّان) in the Islamic period.
History
The earliest records of Harran come from the Ebla tabletsEbla tablets
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1800 complete clay tablets, 4700 fragments and many thousand minor chips found in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria. The tablets were discovered by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75 during their...
(c. 2300 BC). From these, it is known that an early king or mayor of Harran had married an Ebla
Ebla
Ebla Idlib Governorate, Syria) was an ancient city about southwest of Aleppo. It was an important city-state in two periods, first in the late third millennium BC, then again between 1800 and 1650 BC....
ite princess, Zugalum, who then became "queen of Harran", and whose name appears in a number of documents. It appears that Harran remained a part of the regional Eblaite kingdom for some time thereafter.
Royal letters from the city of Mari
Mari, Syria
Mari was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Abu Kamal on the western bank of Euphrates river, some 120 km southeast of Deir ez-Zor, Syria...
on the middle of the Euphrates, have confirmed that the area around the Balikh
Balikh
The Balikh River is a perennial river that originates in the spring of 'Ayn al-'Arus . It flows due south and joins the Euphrates at the modern town of Ar-Raqqah. After the Khabur River, the Balikh is the largest tributary to the Euphrates on Syrian soil...
river remained occupied in ca. the 19th century BC. A confederation of semi-nomadic tribes was especially active around the region near Harran at that time.
Merchant outpost
By the 19th Century BC, Harran was established as a merchant outpost due to its ideal location. The community, well established before then, was situated along a trade route between the Mediterranean and the plains of the middle TigrisTigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
. It lay directly on the road from Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
eastward to Nisibis
Nisibis
Nusaybin Nisêbîn) is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey, populated mainly by Kurds. Earlier Arameans, Arabs, and Armenians lived in the city. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009.-Ancient Period:...
and Ninevah. The Tigris could be followed down to the delta to Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
. The fourth century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
(325/330–after 391) said, “From there (Harran) two different royal highways lead to Persia: the one on the left through Adiabene
Adiabene
Adiabene was an ancient Assyrian independent kingdom in Mesopotamia, with its capital at Arbela...
and over the Tigris; the one on the right, through Assyria and across the Euphrates.” Not only did Harran have easy access to both the Assyrian and Babylonian roads, but also to north road to the Euphrates that provided easy access to Malatiyah and Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
.
According to Roman authors such as Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, even through the classical period
Classical period
Classical period can refer to the following:*The Classical Period of ancient Greece, which fell between its Archaic Period and Hellenistic Period.*Classical antiquity*Classical period of music*Classic stage of American archaeology...
, Harran maintained an important position in the economic life of Northern Mesopotamia.
Assyrian period
In its prime Harran was a major Assyrian city which controlled the point where the road from DamascusDamascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
joins the highway between Nineveh
Nineveh
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq....
and Carchemish
Carchemish
Carchemish or Kargamış was an important ancient city of the Mitanni, Hittite and Neo Assyrian Empires, now on the frontier between Turkey and Syria. It was the location of an important battle between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible...
. This location gave Harran strategic value from an early date. Because Harran had an abundance of goods that passed through its region, it became a target for raids. In the 18th century, Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I
Shamshi-Adad I
Shamshi-Adad I Shamshi-Adad I Shamshi-Adad I (fl. late 18th century BC (short chronology) was an Assyrian king. He rose to prominence when he carved out an empire encompassing much of Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia Minor...
(1813 – 1781 BC) launched an expedition to secure the Harranian trade route.
After the Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I
Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites . He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant Egyptian empire for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates....
–Shattiwaza
Shattiwaza
Shattiwaza , was a king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in the fourteenth century BC.Shattiwaza was the brother of king Tushratta. His Hurrian name was Kili-Tešup. In the political turmoil following the death of his predecessor, the usurper Shuttarna tried to murder Shattiwaza...
treaty (14th century BC) between the Hittite Empire and Mitanni
Mitanni
Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and south-east Anatolia from ca. 1500 BC–1300 BC...
, Harran was burned by a Hittite army under Piyashshili
Piyashshili
Piyassili was a Hittite prince, and a middle son of King Suppiluliuma I; younger than the heir Arnuwanda II, but older than the eventual successor Mursili II and probably older than the doomed Zannanza too...
in the course of the conquest of Mitanni.
In the 13th century BC, Assyrian king Adad-Nirari I
Adad-nirari I
Adad-nirari I was a king of Assyria. He is the earliest Assyrian king whose annals survive in any detail. Adad-nirari I achieved major military victories that significantly strengthened the Assyrian kingdom and enabled Assyria to start to play a major role in Mesopotamian politics...
reported that he conquered the "fortress of Kharani" and annexed it as a province. It is frequently mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions as early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period . According to Georges Roux, Tiglath-Pileser was "one of the two or three great Assyrian monarchs since the days of Shamshi-Adad I"...
, about 1100 BC, under the name Harranu (Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
harrānu, "road, path; campaign, journey"). Tiglath-Pileser had a fortress there, and mentioned that he was pleased with the abundance of elephants in the region.
10th century BC inscriptions reveal that Harran had some privileges of fiscal exemption and freedom from certain forms of military obligations. It had even been termed as the "free city of Harran". However, in 763 BC, it was sacked by a Harranian rebellion against Assyrian control that resulted in the loss of those privileges. Not until Sargon II
Sargon II
Sargon II was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V. It is not clear whether he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family...
restored order, in the late 8th century BC, were those privileges restored.
During the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Harran became the stronghold of its last king, Ashur-uballit II
Ashur-uballit II
Ashur-uballit II , was the last king of the Assyrian empire. He reigned in the last capital city of Harran from 612 BC to 609 BC, having escaped Nineveh during the siege and capture of that city by the Babylonian-Mede army in 612 BC....
, who had retreated from Nineveh
Nineveh
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq....
when it was sacked by Nabopolassar
Nabopolassar
Nabopolassar was the king of the Babylonia and played a key role in the demise of the Assyrian Empire following the death of the last powerful Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal...
of Babylon and his Median
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
allies in 612 BC. Harran was besieged and conquered by Nabopolassar
Nabopolassar
Nabopolassar was the king of the Babylonia and played a key role in the demise of the Assyrian Empire following the death of the last powerful Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal...
in 610 BC. It was briefly retaken by Ashur-uballit II and his Egyptian allies in 609 BC before it definitely fell to the Babylonians.
Persian period
Harran became part of the Babylonian Empire after the fall of Assyria, and subsequently passed to the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in the 6th century BC. It became part of the Persian province of Athura, the Persian word for AssyriaAssyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
. The city remained in Persian hands until 331 BC, when the soldiers of the Macedonian
Ancient Macedonians
The Macedonians originated from inhabitants of the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, in the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios...
conqueror Alexander the Great entered the city.
Seleucid period
After the death of Alexander on June 11, 323 BC, the city was contested by his successors: PerdiccasPerdiccas
Perdiccas was one of Alexander the Great's generals. After Alexander's death in 323 BC he became regent of all Alexander's empire.Arrian tells us he was son of Orontes, a descendant of the independent princes of the Macedonian province of Orestis...
, Antigonus Monophthalmus, and Eumenes
Eumenes
Eumenes of Cardia was a Thracian general and scholar. He participated in the wars of the Diadochi as a supporter of the Macedonian Argead royal house.-Career:...
visited the city, but eventually it became part of the realm of Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucus I was a Macedonian officer of Alexander the Great and one of the Diadochi. In the Wars of the Diadochi that took place after Alexander's death, Seleucus established the Seleucid dynasty and the Seleucid Empire...
, of the Seleucid Empire
Seleucid Empire
The Seleucid Empire was a Greek-Macedonian state that was created out of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan.The Seleucid Empire was a major centre...
, and capital of a province called Osrhoene (the Greek rendering of the old name Urhai). For one and a half centuries the town flourished, and became independent when the Parthian dynasty
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire , also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia...
of Persia occupied Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
. The Parthian and Seleucid kings were both happy with a buffer state, and the dynasty of the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
ian Abgarides, technically a vassal of the Parthian "king of kings", was to rule Osrhoene for centuries. The main language spoken in Oshroene was Aramaic, and the majority of people were Christian Assyrians.
Classical period
In Roman times, Harran was known as Carrhae, and was the location of the Battle of CarrhaeBattle of Carrhae
The Battle of Carrhae, fought in 53 BC near the town of Carrhae, was a major battle between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic. The Parthian Spahbod Surena decisively defeated a Roman invasion force led by Marcus Licinius Crassus...
in 53 BC, in which the Parthians, commanded by general Surena
Surena
Surena or Suren may refer to either a noble family of Parthia also known as the House of Suren, or to a renowned 1st century BC General Surena who was a member of that family....
, defeated a large Roman army under the command of Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus
Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the...
, who was killed.
Centuries later, the emperor Caracalla
Caracalla
Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...
was murdered here at the instigation of Macrinus
Macrinus
Macrinus , was Roman Emperor from 217 to 218. Macrinus was of "Moorish" descent and the first emperor to become so without membership in the senatorial class.-Background and career:...
(217). The emperor Galerius
Galerius
Galerius , was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311. During his reign he campaigned, aided by Diocletian, against the Sassanid Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 299. He also campaigned across the Danube against the Carpi, defeating them in 297 and 300...
was defeated nearby by the Parthians' successors, the Sassanid dynasty
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
of Persia, in AD 296. The city remained under Persian control until the fall of the Sassanids to the Arabs in AD 651.
Early Islamic Harran
At the beginning of the Islamic period Harran was located in the land of the Mudar tribe (Diyar Mudar), the western part of northern Mesopotamia (JaziraAl-Jazira, Mesopotamia
Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq and northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey which is known by the traditional Arabic name of Al-Jazira , variously transliterated into Roman script as Djazirah, Djezirah and Jazirah...
). Along with ar-Ruha' (Şanlıurfa
Sanliurfa
Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language , in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323 inhabitants Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language (Syriac ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhoy,Armenian Ուռհա Owr'ha, Arabic الرها ar-Ruhā), in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323...
) and Ar-Raqqah it was one of the main cities in the region. During the reign of the Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
Marwan II
Marwan II
Marwan ibn Muhammad ibn Marwan or Marwan II was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 744 until 750 when he was killed. He was the last Umayyad ruler to rule from Damascus.In A.H. 114 Caliph Hisham appointed Marwan governor of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In A.H...
Harran became the seat of the caliphal government of the Islamic empire stretching from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
to Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
.
It was allegedly the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
caliph al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun
Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-Māʾmūn ibn Harūn was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833...
who, while passing through Harran on his way to a campaign against the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, forced the Harranians to convert to one of the 'religions of the book', meaning Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, Christianity, or Islam. The pagan people of Harran identified themselves with the Sabians in order to fall under the protection of Islam. Aramaean and Assyrian Christians remained Christian. Sabians were mentioned in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, but those were a group of Gnostic
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
Mandaeans living in southern Mesopotamia. The relationship of the Harranian Sabians to the ones mentioned in the Qur'an is a matter of dispute.
Islam's first university
During the late 8th and 9th centuries Harran was a centre for translating works of astronomy, philosophy, natural sciences, and medicine from GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
to Syriac
Syriac language
Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
by Assyrians
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...
, and thence to Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, bringing the knowledge of the classical world
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
to the emerging Arabic-speaking civilization in the south. Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
came to this work later than Harran. Many important scholars of natural science, astronomy, and medicine originate from Harran; they were non-Arab and non-Islamic ethnic Assyrians
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...
, including possibly the alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān.
The end of the Mandaeans
In 1032 or 1033 the temple of the Sabians was destroyed and the urban community extinguished by an uprising of the rural, starving 'AlidAlid
The Alid dynasties descended from Ali ibn Abi Talib, son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Shia Muslims consider him the First Imam appointed by Muhammad and the first rightful caliph. The Alid are followers of Ali ibn Abi Talib and his sons....
-Shiite population and impoverished urban Muslim militias. In 1059–60 the temple was rebuilt into a fortified residence of the Numayrids, an Arab tribe assuming power in the Diyar Mudar (western Jazira
Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia
Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq and northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey which is known by the traditional Arabic name of Al-Jazira , variously transliterated into Roman script as Djazirah, Djezirah and Jazirah...
) during the 11th century. The Zangid ruler Nur al-Din Mahmud transformed the residence into a strong fortress.
The Crusades
During the CrusadesCrusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
, on May 7, 1104, a decisive battle was fought in the Balikh River valley, commonly known as the Battle of Harran
Battle of Harran
The Battle of Harran took place on May 7, 1104 between the Crusader states of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa, and the Seljuk Turks. It was the first major battle against the newfound Crusader states in the aftermath of the First Crusade marking a key turning point against...
. However, according to Matthew of Edessa
Matthew of Edessa
Matthew of Edessa was an Armenian historian in the 12th century from the city of Edessa . Matthew was the superior abbot of Karmir Vank' , near the town of Kessoun, east of Marash , the former seat of Baldwin of Boulogne...
the actual location of the battle lies two days away from Harran. Albert of Aachen and Fulcher of Chartres
Fulcher of Chartres
Fulcher of Chartres was a chronicler of the First Crusade. He wrote in Latin.- Life :His appointment as chaplain of Baldwin of Boulogne in 1097 suggests that he had been trained as a priest, most likely at the school in Chartres...
locate the battleground in the plain opposite to the city of ar-Raqqah
Ar Raqqah
Ar-Raqqah , also spelled Rakka, is a city in north central Syria located on the north bank of the Euphrates, about 160 km east of Aleppo. It is the capital of the Ar-Raqqah Governorate and one of the main cities of the historical Diyār Muḍar, the western part of the Jazīra...
. During the battle, Baldwin of Bourcq, Count of Edessa
County of Edessa
The County of Edessa was one of the Crusader states in the 12th century, based around Edessa, a city with an ancient history and an early tradition of Christianity....
, was captured by troops of the Great Seljuq Empire
Great Seljuq Empire
The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...
. After his release Baldwin became King of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
.
At the end of 12th century Harran served together with ar-Raqqah as a residence of Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
Ayyubid
Ayyubid dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family, under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as soldiers for the Zengids until they...
princes. The Ayyubid ruler of the Jazira, Al-Adil I
Al-Adil I
Al-Adil I was an Ayyubid-Egyptian general and ruler of Kurdish descent. From his honorific "Sayf al-Din" he was sometimes known to the Frankish crusaders as "Saphadin".- Life :...
, again strengthened the fortifications of the castle. In the 1260s the city was completely destroyed and abandoned during the Mongol invasions of Syria. The father of the famous Hanbali
Hanbali
The Hanbali school is one the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. The jurisprudence school traces back to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal but was institutionalized by his students. Hanbali jurisprudence is considered very strict and conservative, especially regarding questions of dogma...
te scholar Ibn Taymiyyah was a refugee from Harran, settling in Damascus. The 13th century Arab historian Abu al-Fida describes the city as being in ruins.
Modern Harran
Beehive house
A beehive house is a building made from a circle of stones topped with a domed roof. The name comes from the similarity in shape to a straw beehive.The ancient Bantu used this type of house, which was made with mud, poles, and cow dung....
, constructed entirely without wood. The design of these makes them cool inside (essential in this part of the world) and is thought to have been unchanged for at least 3,000 years. Some were still in use as dwellings until the 1980s. However, those remaining today are strictly tourist exhibits, while most of Harran's population lives in a newly built small village about 2 kilometres away from the main site.
At the historical site the ruins of the city walls and fortifications are still in place, with one city gate standing, along with some other structures. Excavations of a nearby 4th century BC burial mound continue under archaeologist Dr Nurettin Yardımcı
Nurettin Yardımcı
Nurettin Yardımcı is a Turkish archaeologist and high-ranked bureaucrat who has served in the Ministry of Culture of Turkey and under the Prime Minister of Turkey...
.
The new village is poor and life is hard in the hot weather on this plain. The people here are now ethnic Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s and live by long-established traditions. It is believed that these Arabs were settled here during the 18th century by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. The women of the village are tattooed and dressed in traditional Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
clothes. The Assyrians who once occupied the area for thousands of years have moved to other areas, although there are some Assyrian
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...
villages in the general area.
By the late 1980s the large plain of Harran had fallen into disuse as the streams of Cüllab and Deysan, its original water-supply had dried up. But the plain is irrigated by the recent Southeastern Anatolia Project
Southeastern Anatolia Project
The Southeastern Anatolia Project is a multi-sector integrated regional development project based on the concept of sustainable development for the 9 million people living in the Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey...
and is becoming green again. Cotton and rice can now be grown.
Religion
The city was the chief home of the Mesopotamian moon godLunar deity
In mythology, a lunar deity is a god or goddess associated with or symbolizing the moon. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related to or an enemy of the solar deity. Even though they may be related, they are distinct from the...
Sin
Sin (mythology)
Sin or Nanna was the god of the moon in Mesopotamian mythology. Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, and became identified with Semitic Sin. The two chief seats of Nanna's/Sin's worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north.- Name :The original meaning of...
, under the Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians/Chaldeans
Neo-Babylonian Empire
The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 626 BC and ended in 539 BC. During the preceding three centuries, Babylonia had been ruled by their fellow Akkadian speakers and northern neighbours, Assyria. Throughout that time Babylonia...
and even into Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
times.
According to an early Arabic work known as Kitab al-Magall or the Book of Rolls (part of Clementine literature
Clementine literature
Clementine literature is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement of discourses...
), Harran was one of the cities built by Nimrod
Nimrod
Nimrod means "Hunter"; was a Biblical Mesopotamian king mentioned in the Table of Nations; an eponym for the city of Nimrud.Nimrod can also refer to any of the following:*Nimród Antal, a director...
, when Peleg
Peleg
__notoc__Peleg is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two sons of Eber, an ancestor of the Israelites, according to the "Table of Nations" in and . Peleg's son was Reu, born when Peleg was thirty, and he had other sons and daughters. According to the Hebrew Bible, Peleg lived to the age...
was 50 years old. The Syriac Cave of Treasures
Cave of Treasures
The Cave of Treasures, sometimes referred to simply as The Treasure, is a book of the New Testament apocrypha.-Origin:This text is attributed to Ephrem Syrus, who was born at Nisibis soon after AD 306 and died in 373, but it is now generally believed that its current form is 6th century or...
(ca. 350) contains a similar account of Nimrod's building Harran and the other cities, but places the event when Reu
Reu
Reu or Ragau in Genesis was the son of Peleg and the father of Serug, thus being Abraham's great-great-grandfather.He was 32 when Serug was born and lived to the age of 239 , according to the Masoretic text...
was 50 years old. The Cave of Treasures adds an ancient legend that not long thereafter, Tammuz was pursued to Harran by his wife's lover, B'elshemin
Beelshamen
Beelshamen , also known as Shamayim "lord of the heavens", was a supreme deity and the sky god of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria. His attributes are the eagle and the lightning bolt...
, and that he (Tammuz) met his fate there when the city was then burnt.
The pagan residents of Harran also maintained the tradition well into the tenth century AD, of being the site of Tammuz' death, and would conduct elaborate mourning rituals for him each year, in the month bearing his name
Tammuz (Babylonian calendar)
Tammuz was a month in the Babylonian calendar, named for one of the main Babylonian gods, Tammuz . Many different calendar systems have since adopted Tammuz to refer to a month in the summer season....
.
However, the Islamic historian Al-Masudi
Al-Masudi
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Mas'udi , was an Arab historian and geographer, known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs." Al-Masudi was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, Muruj adh-dhahab...
in his Meadows of Gold (ca. 950) wrote that Harran had been built by Cainan
Cainan
Cainan can refer to either:*A variant of the name Kenan in the generations of Adam, the lists of antediluvian patriarchs given in the Torah;*Cainan, the son of the Arpachshad mentioned in most manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke 3:36...
(the father of Abraham's ancestor Shelah
Shelah
According to the Bible, Shelah/Shela was the youngest brother among Judah's first three sons, and was born at Chezib.-Biblical narrative:...
in some accounts), and had been named for another son of Cainan called Harran.
Sin's temple was rebuilt by several kings, among them the Assyrian Assur-bani-pal (7th century BC) and the Neo-Babylonian Nabonidus
Nabonidus
Nabonidus was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from 556-539 BCE.-Historiography on Nabonidus:...
(6th century BC).
Herodian
Herodian
Herodian or Herodianus of Syria was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus in eight books covering the years 180 to 238. His work is not entirely reliable although his relatively unbiased account of Elagabalus is...
(iv. 13, 7) mentions the town as possessing in his day a temple of the moon.
Harran was a centre of Assyrian Christianity
East Syrian Rite
The East Syrian Rite is a Christian liturgy, also known as the Assyro-Chaldean Rite, Assyrian or Chaldean Rite, and the Persian Rite although it originated in Edessa, Mesopotamia...
from early on, and was the first place where purpose-built churches were constructed openly. However, although a bishop resided in the city, many people of Harran retained their ancient pagan faith during the Christian period, and ancient Mesopotamian/Assyrian gods such as Sin and Ashur were still worshipped for a time. In addition the Mandean religion, a form of Gnosticism
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
, was born in Harran.
Harran in scriptures
Premedieval Harran has been closely associated with the biblical place HaranHaran (biblical place)
Ḥaran, Charan, or Charran is a Biblical place. Haran is almost universally identified with Harran, an Assyrian city whose ruins are in present-day Turkey. In the Hebrew Bible, the name first appears in the Book of Genesis, in the context of Patriarchal times...
(Hebrew: , transliterated: Charan). Very little is known about the premedieval levels of Harran and even less for the patriarchal times. (Lloyd and Brice) Scholars have yet to see what physical evidence will link this villiage of Harran to the biblical site that Abram and his family encamped at as mentioned in
Biblical Haran was where Terah
Terah
Terah or Térach is a biblical figure in the book of Genesis, son of Nahor, son of Serug and father of the Patriarch Abraham, all descendants of Shem. He is mentioned in the Hebrew bible and the New Testament.-Genesis narrative:...
, his son Abram (Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
), his grandson Lot
Lot (Bible)
Lot is a man from the Book of Genesis chapters 11-14 and 19, in the Hebrew Bible. Notable episodes in his life include his travels with his uncle Abram ; his flight from the destruction of Sodom, in the course of which Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt; and the seduction by his...
, and Abram's wife Sarai
Sarah
Sarah or Sara was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Her name was originally Sarai...
settled while in route to Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
, coming from Ur of the Chaldees
Ur Kasdim
Ur Kaśdim or Ur of the Chaldees is a biblical place mentioned in the Book of Genesis that refers to a location that the Patriarch Abraham may have been from...
(Genesis 11:26–32). The region of this Haran is referred to variously as Paddan Aram
Paddan Aram
Paddan Aram or Padan-aram was an early Aramean kingdom in Mesopotamia. Paddan Aram in Aramaic means the field of Aram. The name may correspond to the Hebrew “sedeh Aram,” or “field of Aram.”...
and Aram Naharaim. Genesis 27:43 makes Haran the home of Laban
Laban (Bible)
Laban is the son of Bethuel, brother of Rebekah and the father of Leah and Rachel and Bilhah and Zilpah as described in the Book of Genesis. As such he is brother-in-law to Isaac and both father-in-law and uncle to Jacob...
and connects it with Isaac
Isaac
Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites...
and Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
: it was the home of Isaac's wife Rebekah, and their son Jacob spent twenty years in Haran working for his uncle Laban (cf. Genesis 31:38&41). The place-name should not be confused with the name of Haran
Haran
Haran or Aran is a figure in Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. Haran was born in Ur Kaśdim , the son of Terah and thus a descendant of Shem. Haran's brothers were Abram/Abraham and Nahor...
(Hebrew: הָרָן), Abraham's brother and Lot's father — note that the two names are spelled differently in the original Hebrew. Islamic tradition does link Harran to Aran, the brother of Abraham.
Prior to Sennacherib
Sennacherib
Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:...
's reign (704–681 BC), Harran rebelled from the Assyrians, who reconquered the city (see 2 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
19:12 and Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
37:12) and deprived it of many privileges – which King Sargon II
Sargon II
Sargon II was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V. It is not clear whether he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family...
later restored.
Archaeology
T. E. LawrenceT. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18...
("Lawrence of Arabia") surveyed the ancient Harran site. Decades later, in 1950, Seton Lloyd
Seton Lloyd
Seton Howard Frederick Lloyd, CBE , was an English archaeologist. He was President of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara , Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology in the Institute of Archaeology, University of London...
conducted a three-week archaeological survey there. An Anglo
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
–Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
excavation was begun in 1951, ending in 1956 with the death of D. S. Rice.
Notables
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Islamic scholar
- Hammad al-HarraniHammad al-HarraniHammad al-Harrani or Abu al-Thana' Hammad ibn Hibat Allah ibn Hammad ibn al-Fudayl al-Harrani al-Hanbali was a Muslim scholar, poet, merchant and traveler who left his home town Harran to live in Alexandria under the reign of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi. Both towns were dominated by Hanbali school...
, Islamic scholar - NabonidusNabonidusNabonidus was the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, reigning from 556-539 BCE.-Historiography on Nabonidus:...
, the last Neo-Babylonian king - BelshazzarBelshazzarBelshazzar, or Balthazar , was a 6th century BC prince of Babylon, the son of Nabonidus and the last king of Babylon according to the Book of Daniel . Like his father, it is believed by many scholars that he was an Assyrian. In Daniel Belshazzar, or Balthazar , was a 6th century BC prince of...
, Nabonidus's son and regent