Nov 12 - Site of the Grand or 'Paradise' mosque (744-750, Ummayad), Harran (the seat of the Caliphal government of the Islamic world [!] in the 740s when this was built)

Harran has such great importance to history. Consider:

1. According to the Book of Genesis 11:31,32; 12:4,5, Harran [Haran in the bible] was "where Terah settled with his son the Patriarch Abraham (who was known as Abram at that time), his nephew Lot, and Abram's wife Sarai, all descendants of Arpachshad, son of Shem, during their planned journey from Ur Kaśdim (Ur of the Chaldees) to the Land of Canaan. ... Abram lived there until he was 75 yr.s old before continuing on to Canaan, in response to the command of God. Although Abram's nephew Lot accompanied him to Canaan, Terah and his other descendants remained in [Haran,] where Abraham's grandson [Isaac's son] Jacob sought his parents' relatives, namely Laban, for whom he worked for 20 yr.s in Haran. (Wikipedia) Harran was also the home of Isaac's wife Rebekah. (Genesis 31:38 & 41). In Genesis 28:10–19, Abraham's grandson Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. He had his dream of Jacob's Ladder en route.

2. Harran was a "major commercial, cultural and religious centre" in Upper Mesopotamia that became and remained a centre of worship of the moon god Sin from the early Assyrian period in the early 2nd mill. BC until well after the fall of the Neo-Assyrians to the Neo-Babylonians and the Medes in the 7th cent. BC. With the fall of Nineveh to Nabopolassar in 612 BC, the Assyrian elite ran to Harran and it became the provisional and last neo-Assyrian capital ("the stronghold of the last [neo-Assyrian] king, Ashur-Ubalit II") for 2 years until it fell to Nabopolassar and Cyaxares in 610 BC. (!!)

3. It's believed that Nabonidus, the last neo-Babylonian king, hailed from Harran "as substantiated by evidence from the temple stele of his mother Adad-Guppi." She's believed to have been a priestess of Sin. The city again became a centre for moon worship during his reign from 555-536 BC "much to the consternation of the city of Babylon in the south where Marduk remained the primary deity." (Wikipedia) This presented an opportunity to "the Persian King Cyrus, who promised to restore the cult of Marduk, [and] was able to take control of Babylon and Harran." (See the link below). And so the favour shown to Harran by Nabodinus was an important factor which led to the fall of Babylon and the rise of the Persian empire, the greatest the world would see (in area) until Genghis Khan. (An analogy is the British crown's treatment of Quebec city and New France after the fall of Quebec in 1759, perceived to be favourable by colonists in the '13 colonies', and a source of resentment which led to the American Revolution.)

4. Nabonidus, the last Babylonian king, conducted one of the earliest archaeological excavations in recorded history (or THE earliest?) in 550 B.C. when he led men to Sippar to uncover the foundation deposits of the temples of Samas, the sun god and of Nunatu, the warrior goddess, and the sanctuary that the great Akkadian emperor Naram-Sin had built here at Harran to Sin, the moon god. Nabonidus then restored these sites to their former glory. He also attempted to date the artifacts discovered at Naram-Sin's sanctuary (although his estimates were off by @ 1,500 yr.s.)

5. Harran was at a crossroads of major trade routes, on a road from the Mediterranean to the plains of the middle Tigris. "It lay directly on the road from Antioch eastward to Nisibis and Ninevah ... and from Harran 2 royal highways led to Persia." The city was "frequently mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions as early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I", @ 1100 BC, who had a fortress here and "mentioned that he was pleased with the abundance of elephants in the region." (Wikipedia)

6. Harran was known as 'Carrhae' in the Roman period when, in 53 BC, it was the site of a great battle between the Romans and the Parthians in which the Romans were so badly beaten that the defeat led to the instability and fall of the Republic and the emergence of Julius Caesar and Imperial Rome.

7. Centuries later, "the [Roman] emperor Caracalla was murdered here at the instigation of Macrinus" in 217 AD. (Wikipedia)

8. The Moon god was worshipped here by the 'Sabians' (or Sabaeans) until as late as 1032 or 1033 AD when their temple was destroyed and converted into a fortress. (Wikipedia)

9. "Harran was a centre of Assyrian Christianity from early on, and was the first place where purpose-built churches were constructed openly." (Wikipedia) Wow!

10. During the crusades, Baldwin, Count of Edessa (Urfa) (who later became 'King of Jerusalem') was captured by the Seljuqs at what became known as 'the Battle of Harran' (although the battle site could have been as far as "2 days away").

- But "in the 1260s the city was completely destroyed and abandoned during the Mongol invasions of Syria." (Wikipedia)

- More here: traveltoeat.com/harran-southeasten-turkey/ and more re the importance of Harran to the early history of the Islamic world in the description for the next shot (the one of the minaret).

www.google.ca/maps/@36.8646994,39.0313889,305m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

- Update, Feb. '23: Watching the video of this lecture re the 'Early Armenian Reuse of Urartian Inscriptions' just now on youtube, I learned that a stele from the reign of King Nabonidus had been placed and used as a step in the stairs leading up to the 'Grand mosque' in Harran, so that the faithful would step on it in a symbolic rejection of paganism. See it at the 43:28 min. pt.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SG5owPePAA

Done