جولة ٢ : الضفة اليسرى لنهر الفرات ٢_a .. كتاب في ربوع سورية

Its inhabitants are from various clans (Deirion, Qalayoun from Al-Mayadeen, Jabbour, Baggara,

and nodules, and Qasion).

Hebal, and after the village of Al-Musharahtah Al-Diriyah by about 2 km, we reach the first village in the governorate of Raqqa, which is the village of Al-Matab (Abu Rashid Mutab), after which we pass through five successive villages in the middle of the distance between one and the other within the limits of -2-3 km. Khass, Alaj, Khass Ajeel, and Khass together include about ten thousand people, the largest of which is the village of Khass Alaj. Near the village of Khas Dakour Al-Matb, there are the ruins of an old village called Al-Hajrah, and an archaeological hill known as the Maqam Hill. It is only about 3 km from Khass Hubal until we pass through the village of Awja Hamad Al-Assaf 1500 (approximately a population), followed after about 7 km by the new village of Khabur, and then the new village of Al-Baladiyah, from which a road branches off towards the riverbed, where the buildings of a new village spread like a wall on its left bank, and the estimated population of the three new ones is about 4500 people. Continuing our tour, we will pass through the government farm of Al-Ghassania, and then pass the village of Fatima Abdel-Ismail, also known as Al-Baydar, followed by the village of Fatesa Bayram, after which we will reach the center of the district (Al-Karama municipality, whose population is estimated at approx. And in it there is the industry of weaving houses of poetry and popular rugs.After five kilometers from Karama, we pass the village of Fatsa Lakson (about 1000 inhabitants), and along about 20 km after the aforementioned village, we pass five villages from the Hamrat villages (Hamrat Balasim, Hamrat Nasser, Hamrat Ghannam, Hamrat al-Jamasa, and Hamrat Buwaiti). Hamrat Al-Jamasa Road branches off from the main road towards the Euphrates, and near Hamrat Balasm there is an archaeological hill known as Tal Al-Daidla, and the lands of Hamrat Nasser contain many archaeological hills and ancient ruins, as in the hill of 5,000 people.

Aswad, Khirbet al-Sayyid, Tal al-Awar, and Khirbet al-Hamra, as well as Wadi al-Naqalalat al-Saili. And near Hamra Bouitiyeh some ancient ruins. The total population of the villages of Hamrat villages is estimated at about 7,500 people.

It is likely that to the north-east of the city of Raqqa, there is the archaeological Tell Al-Bayaa, which is attributed to Al-Bayah, i.e. the church. It is the contemporary city of Tutul to the cities of Ebla and Mari, and it was flourishing in the first half of the third millennium BC, and in the ancient Babylonian era around 1600-1900 BC. As for the Roman era, its importance has diminished. LM

After Hamra Buwaitiya, about 5 km, we reach the village of Raqqa al-Samra, which is not more than 5 km from the city of Raqqa. Zidan, and most of its residents live in mud houses, and its current age dates back to about 500 years ago. From Raqqa al-Samra, a road diverges southward to the bank of the Euphrates, where the village of Tawi al-Rumman lies.

The city of Raqqa has been a governorate center since 1960. It is an ancient historical city inhabited by successive civilizations of the ancient world. It is located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, about 10 km west of the confluence of the Balikh with the Euphrates. It was a human gathering center in the Stone Ages (6000 BC). Raqqa's ancient history remains shrouded in mystery. It was an important Aramaic principality in the Aramean era, and during that era the king of the Assyrians, Ashur Nasser Pal, attacked it and seized it, and it was devastated in the Assyrian era. In the Greek era, it was known as “Niceforium, which was founded on the ruins of an ancient Seleucus I, and it was also rebuilt by Seleucus

The second (244-242 B.C.) and called it by the name of Kaliniqus” the name by which it became famous later, even during the era of the Romans and the Byzantines. The Byzantines took from it a fortified fortress in the face of the Persians and an important commercial center, and it was alternated between the Persians at times and the Byzantines at other times until the Arab Muslims came to it and conquered it a year 639 A.D. Raqqa in the Byzantine era was the center of an episcopate, and next to it was a great monastery, Deir Zaki, at the site now known as Tell Al-Baya’a, east of Raqqa, about 3 km.

It has a mosque from when the Arab Muslims conquered Raqqa, it was like a small city with walls, doors, and a public market, and it produced a variety of crops. In the era of Umar ibn al-Khattab Bani al-Ajar, the old marble ruins were used in its construction in the old city, which was east of al-Rafiqa, whose features were lost more than half a century ago. Today, the village of Raqqa al-Shamra. Raqqa did not know the prosperity and development as it knew it during the Umayyad and Abbasid eras. In the Umayyad era, Hisham bin Abdul Malik (105-125 AH) established a group of forts and palaces in it and increased its markets, and built its largest market in it, which was called the Attarin Market, and he cared about its cultivation and the provision of water to irrigate its lands by dividing the canals. From the Euphrates River, he also built a new Raqqa west of the Euphrates (opposite the old Raqqa) and called it Raqqa Wasit.

Al-Raqqa has emerged and flourished in the Abbasid era more than the Umayyad era.

One of the palaces of pay is similar to the building of the city of Al-Mudawara in Baghdad, to the northwest of the oldest Raqqa (Al-Bayda), in the year 772 AD (155 AH), and it was fortified with two walls that are about 20.8 meters apart from each other, and four gates were made for it. Baghdad is in the southeastern corner of Al-Rafah. The outer wall was surrounded by a trench and was erected during the reign of Al-Mansur, in which there were many luxurious buildings, the most important of which is the Palace of Girls, whose ruins and features are still very clear to the present day, next to the Al-Rafah Mosque, which is still standing to the present day as well. Two water canals were also drawn to it, one from the Euphrates, and the other from the Suruj area at the Turkish border, and a battalion of the Khorasani soldiers was placed in it. The lands around Al-Rafiqa were reclaimed and flourished with orchards and various crops. During the reign of Harun al-Rashid, al-Rafiqa expanded and left the wall and connected to Raqqa to become a double city (Raqqa - al-Rafiqa). And he built a great palace outside the wall, which he called the Palace of Peace, as it was called by the name of the White Palace. Industry and agriculture were also taken care of during the Rashid era. He used to reside there sometimes, and Raqqa is still called the city of Al-Rashid to this day.

Raqqa continued to enjoy prosperity during the Ayyubid era, but the attacks of the Mongols (1371 AD) and the collapse of Baghdad led to the destruction of Raqqa and it became ruins. It did not gradually return to its status until the second half of the previous (nineteenth) century, and that was around 1870 AD, when some Arabs and others inhabited it... Its population did not exceed 5,000 in 1945, to reach about 14,500 in 1960, and to about 37,300 people in 1970 and until 1981, and today they are close to 125 thousand people. 87,100 people

This is from the large population increase in Raqqa during the sixties and seventies of the century, but a reflection of the large migration towards it from all regions of the interior of Syria