Raqqa
Also known as Rakka, city in north central Syria, capital of Raqqah province. Ar Raqqah is located in the Al Jaz?¬rah region on the north bank of the Euphrates River, about 160 km (about 100 mi) east of the city of Aleppo. Since the mid-1970s much of Ar Raqqah's economy has depended on the development of nearby oil fields and the construction of the Euphrates Dam. A paved road and a winding railway connect Ar Raqqah with Damascus and Halab. The city also sits beside a long irrigation channel that crosses the Al Jazirah region at the Turkish border and runs south to Iraq.
Ar Raqqa has a small archaeological museum, and government archaeologists have excavated many city ruins that date from the Abbasid period (AD 750-1258). Some of the best-preserved remains of the old city today are the Palace of the Maidens, built in the 9th century, and the Great Mosque, built in the 8th century. A number of Muslim saints are buried in the ruins of the old city.
Ar Raqqa was founded in either 244 or 242 BC by Seleucus II, called Callinicus, and was for a time called Callinicus, probably in his honor. (One legend, likely false, holds that the town was named for the Greek sophist Kallinikos, who was murdered there.) The town became a strong fortress and an important business center under the Byzantines before surrendering peacefully to Arab armies in AD 639 or 640. The city soon became known as Ar Raqqa.
In 772 the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur began building a new summer capital called Al Rafika next to the old city of Ar Raqqa. Modeled on the city of Baghdad, which al-Mansur had also built, Al Rafika was built in the shape of a horseshoe and was intended as a symbol of Abbasid domination. The new town soon incorporated the old and took its name. Between 796 and 808 the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid used Ar Raqqah as his capital, and the city became a scientific center. The Arab astronomer al-Battani (858-929) studied in Ar Raqqah and spent most of his life there. In 1258 Ar Raqqah was ravaged along with Baghdad by the Mongols.
