ANBAR
(TOWN)
![](anbartown.jpg)
Anbar's
location inside Iraq
Coordinates
: 33°22.5' N 43°43' E
Country : Iraq
Governorate : Al Anbar
Anbar
(Romanized: al-Anbar, Anbar) also known by its original ancient
name, Peroz-Shapur, was an ancient and medieval town in central
Iraq. It played a role in the Roman–Persian Wars of the 3rd–4th
centuries, and briefly became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate
before the founding of Baghdad in 762. It remained a moderately
prosperous town through the 10th century, but quickly declined thereafter.
As a local administrative centre, it survived until the 14th century,
but was later abandoned.
Its
ruins are near modern Fallujah. The city gives its name to the Al-Anbar
Governorate.
History
:
Origins :
![](640px-Assyrian_wall_relief_showing_a_scribe_and_a_horseman_trampling_enemies._From_Anah,_Iraq._Iraq_Museum.jpg)
Assyrian
wall relief showing a scribe and a horseman trampling enemies. From
Anah, al-Anbar Governorate, Iraq. 9th - 7th century BCE. Iraq Museum
The city is located on the left bank of the Middle Euphrates, at
the junction with the Nahr Isa canal, the first of the navigable
canals that link the Euphrates to the River Tigris to the east.
The origins of the city are unknown, but ancient, perhaps dating
to the Babylonian era and even earlier: the local artificial mound
of Tell Aswad dates to c. 3000 BC.
Sasanian
period :
The town was originally known as Misiche, Mesiche, or Massice (Middle
Persian: mšyk; Parthian: mšyk). As a major crossing point
of the Euphrates, and occupying the northernmost point of the complex
irrigation network of the Sawad, the town was of considerable strategic
significance. As the western gate to central Mesopotamia, it was
fortified by the Sasanian ruler Shapur I (r. 241–272) to shield
his capital, Ctesiphon, from the Roman Empire. After his decisive
defeat of the Roman emperor Gordian III at the Battle of Misiche
in 244, Shapur renamed the town to Peroz-Shapur (Peroz-Šapur
or Peroz-Šabuhr, from Middle Persian: "victorious Shapur";
in Parthian: romanized: prgwzšhypwhr). It became known as Pirisapora
or Bersabora to the Greeks and Romans.
The
city was fortified by a double wall, possibly through the use of
Roman prisoner labour; it was sacked and burned after an agreement
with its garrison in March 363 by the Roman emperor Julian during
his invasion of the Sasanian Empire. It was rebuilt by Shapur II.
By 420, it is attested as a bishopric, both for the Church of the
East and for the Syriac Orthodox Church. The town's garrison was
Persian, but it also contained sizeable Arab and Jewish populations.
Anbar was adjacent or identical to the Babylonian Jewish center
of Nehardea, and lies a short distance from the present-day town
of Fallujah, formerly the Babylonian Jewish center of Pumbedita.
Islamic
period :
The city fell to the Rashidun Caliphate in July 633, after a fiercely
fought siege. The Arabs retained the name (Firuz Shabur) for the
surrounding district, but the town itself became known as Anbar
(Middle Persian word for "granary" or "storehouse")
from the granaries in its citadel, a name that had appeared already
during the 6th century. According to Baladhuri, the third mosque
to be built in Iraq was erected in the city by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas.
Ibn Abi Waqqas initially considered Anbar as a candidate for the
location of one of the first Muslim garrison towns, but the fever
and fleas endemic in the area persuaded him otherwise.
According
to medieval Arabic sources, most of the inhabitants of the town
migrated north to found the city of Hdatta south of Mosul. The famous
governor al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf cleared the canals of the city.
Abu'l-Abbas
as-Saffah (r. 749–754), the founder of the Abbasid Caliphate,
made it his capital in 752, constructing a new town half a farsakh
(c. 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi)) to the north for his Khurasani troops.
There he died and was buried at the palace he had built. His successor,
al-Mansur (r. 754–775), remained in the city until the founding
of Baghdad in 762. The Abbasids also dug the great Nahr Isa canal
to the south of the city, which carried water and commerce east
to Baghdad. Thee Nahr al-Saqlawiyya or Nahr al-Qarma canal, which
branches off from the Euphrates to the west of the city, is sometimes
erroneously held to be the Nahr Isa, but it is more likely that
it is to be identified with the pre-Islamic Nahr al-Rufayl.
It
continued to be a place of much importance throughout the Abbasid
period. Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) stayed at the
town in 799 and in 803. The town's prosperity was founded on agricultural
activities, but also on trade between Iraq and Syria. The town was
still prosperous in the early 9th century, but the decline of Abbasid
authority during the later 9th century exposed it to Bedouin attacks
in 882 and 899. In 927, the Qarmatians under Abu Tahir al-Jannabi
sacked the city, and the devastation was compounded by another Bedouin
attack two years later. The town's decline accelerated after that:
while the early 10th-century geographer Istakhri still calls the
town modest but populous, with the ruins of the buildings of as-Saffah
still visible, Ibn Hawqal and al-Maqdisi, who wrote a generation
later, attest to its decline, and the diminution of its population.
The
town was sacked again in 1262 by the Mongols under Kerboka. The
Ilkhanids retained Anbar as an administrative centre, a role it
retained until the first half of the 14th century; the Ilkhanid
minister Shams al-Din Juvayni had a canal dug from the city to Najaf,
and the city was surrounded by a wall of sun-dried bricks.
Ecclesiastical
history :
Anbar used to host an Assyrian community from the fifth century:
the town was the seat of a bishopric of the Church of the East.
The names of fourteen of its bishops of the period 486–1074
are known, three of whom became Chaldean Patriarchs of Babylon.
•
Narses fl. 540
• Simeon fl. 553
• Salibazachi fl. 714
• Paul fl. 740
• Theodosius
• John fl. 885
• Enos 890
• Elias fl. 906 - 920
• Jaballaha fl. 960
• Sebarjesus
• Elias II fl. 987
• Unnamed bishop fl. 1021
• Mundar fl. 1028
• Maris fl. 1075
• Zacharias fl. 1111
Titular see :
Anbar is listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see of the Chaldean
Catholic Church, established as titular bishopric in 1980.
It
has had the following incumbents :
|
Incumbents |
• |
Titular
Archbishop Stéphane Katchou (1980.10.03 –
1981.11.10), as Coadjutor Archeparch of Bassorah
of the Chaldeans (Iraq) (1980.10.03 – 1981.11.10) |
• |
Titular
Bishop Ibrahim Namo Ibrahim (1982.01.11 –
1985.08.03), as Apostolic Exarch in the United States
of America (1982.01.11 – 1985.08.03) |
• |
Titular
Bishop Shlemon Warduni (since 2001.01.12), Curial
Bishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church |
|
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Anbar_(town)