In the ninth century, the Middle Abbasid period, saw the rise of metropolises in Iraq in a size virtually unprecedented in the Middle East. This urban transformation marks the last apogee of the fluorescence of the Hellenistic world, continuing a remarkable development that began in Classical and Late Antiquity.
During the Middle Abbasid period, al-Raqqa was the capital and principal garrison of the western Islamic empire situated at the geographical hinge between Syria and Iraq, and within a landscape that was a burgeoning bread basket for the imperial, Iraqi metropolises of Samarraʾ and Baghdad.
The project explores the political and economic function of al-Raqqa in the Abbasid Empire and its regional relation to its rural and economic hinterland. In the 10th and 11th centuries al-Raqqa declined and came under the sway of the same Nomad principality. The region belongs to the best-documented archaeological landscapes in the Middle East and offers data on the Islamic period from excavations at the major urban sites of al-Raqqa and Ḥarrān, excavations at rural sites, and regional settlement surveys.
The project continues my work on the history and economy presented in "Raqqa II - The Islamic City", which focussed the Umayyad and early Abbasid period and the residence of Harun al-Rashid in al-Raqqa. Currently I am editing also the fifth volume of the Raqqa series on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute.
Aspects of the project were supported by the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (2005) and the Rathgen-Research Laboratory in Berlin. I had and have the privilege to work with German, British and American archaeological missions in al-Raqqa, Ḥarrān, Hisn Maslama Kharāb Sayyār and Tall Mahrā, to become acquainted with the archaeological sites and the numismatic evidence of each of them.
The different parts of my work on al-Raqqa and settlement pattern in the Diyār Muḍar are indicated by the headings and associated publications can be downloaded.
allows us to understand the transition from an Abbasid garrison city to the capital of the western Islamic empire as well as its 10th to 11th century demise under the sway of nomad tribes.
Die Geschichte von ar-Raqqa/ar-Rafiqa - ein Überblick (The History of al-Raqqa/al-Rafiqa - An Overview). In: Stefan Heidemann - Andrea Becker (eds.): Raqqa II - Die islamische Stadt, Mainz 2003, pp. 9-56.
Defining an Imperial Metropolis: The Palace Area of al-Raqqa. From Madīnat al-Salām/Baghdād and Qasr al-Salām/`Īsābādh to al-Rāfiqa/al-Raqqa. In: Nasser Rabbat (ed.): The Islamic City in the Classical Age, Leiden (forthcoming). [Abstracts]
The History of the Industrial and Commercial Area of 'Abbasid al-Raqqa Called al-Raqqa al-Muhtariqa. In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 69/1 (2006), pp. 32-52.
Numayrid ar-Raqqa. Archaeological and Historical Evidence for a 'Dimorphic State' in the Bedouin Dominated Fringes of the Fatimid Empire. In: Urbain Vermeulen - Jan Van Steenbergen (eds.): Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras IV (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 140), Leuven 2005, pp. 85-110.
explores the history of the relation ship between city in relation to the countryside and in the larger contexts of newly founded metropolises between the 750s and 850s such as Baghdad, Samarra' and Isabadh.
The Agricultural Hinterland of Baghdād, al-Raqqa and Sāmarrā' - Settlement Patterns in the Diyār Muḍar. In: Arietta Papaconstantinou, Antoine Borrut et al. (eds.): Le Proche-Orient des Byzantins aux Abbasides (Antiquité Tardive), Leuven (forthcoming).
Settlement Patterns, Economic Development and Archaeological Coin Finds in Bilād aš-Šām: the Case of the Diyār Mudar - The Process of Transformation from the 6th to the 10th Century A.D. In: Karin Bartl - Abd al-Razzaq Moaz (eds.): Residences, Castles, Settlements. Transformation Processes from Late Antiquity to Early Islam in Bilad al-Sham. Proceedings of the International Conference Held at Damascus, 5-9 November 2006 (Orient-Archäologie 24), Rahden 2009, pp. 493-516.
This region is one of the best known archaeological landscapes in the Islamic Near East due to major excavations in al-Raqqa and Ḥarrān, as well as several settlement surveys and additional site explorations. I re construct local histories of major cities, small towns and villages and unnamed settlements by using archaeological, numismatic data and literary sources. With a better historical understanding of the sites outside the major places an economic history of the region within the Islamic empire can be aggregated.
Die frühe Münzprägung von ar-Raqqa/ar-Rafiqa als Dokumente zur Geschichte der Stadt (The Early Coin Production of al-Raqqa/al-Rafiqa as Documents for the History of the City). In: Stefan Heidemann - Andrea Becker (eds.): Raqqa II - Die islamische Stadt, Mainz 2003, pp. 115-140
Der Münzumlauf und die Lokalgeschichte von ar-Raqqa/ar-Rafiqa (The Coin Circulation in Relation to the Local History of al-Raqqa/al-Rafiqa). In: Stefan Heidemann - Andrea Becker (eds.): Raqqa II - Die islamische Stadt, Mainz 2003, pp. 161-168.
Katalog der Fundmünzen aus ar-Raqqa/ar-Rafiqa (Catalogue of the Coin Finds from al-Raqqa/al-Rafiqa). In: Stefan Heidemann - Andrea Becker (eds.): Raqqa II - Die islamische Stadt, Mainz 2003, p. 169-196.
IV. Fundmünzen (Coin Finds). In: Peter A. Miglus (ed.): Ar-Raqqa I - Die frühislamische Keramik von Tall Aswad, Mainz 1999, pp. 15-17, plate 8g, h and plate 10.
Die Fundmünzen vom Tall al-Bī`a bei ar-Raqqa und ihr Verhältnis zur lokalen Geschichte (The Coin Finds of Tall al-Bī`a near al-Raqqa in Relation to Its History). In: Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 1 (2008), pp. 336-374.
Ein Schatzfund aus dem Raqqa der Numairidenzeit, die "Siedlungslücke" in Nordmesopotamien und eine Werkstatt in der Großen Moschee (A Coin Hoard from al-Raqqa from the Time of the Numayrids. The 'Gap of Settlements' in Northern Mesopotamia and a Workshop Within the Great Mosque). In: Damaszener Mitteilungen 11 (1999), pp. 227-242, plate 34, 35.
Die Fundmünzen von Harran und ihr Verhältnis zur lokalen Geschichte. (The Coin Finds From Harran in Northern Mesopotamia in Relation to the Local History). In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 65 (2002), pp. 267-299.
VIII.2.6 Münzen (Coins). In: Evelyn Klengel-Brandt - Sabina Kulemann-Ossen - Lutz Martin (eds.): Tall Knēdiğ. Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen des Vorderasiatischen Museums Berlin in Nordost-Syrien von 1993-1998 (Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen-Orientgesellschaft 113), Saarwellingen 2005, pp. 248-249, plate 170.
2003. Die Fundmünzen von Harāb Sayyār im Verhältnis zur lokalen Geschichte (The Coin Finds from Kharāb Sayyār in Relation to the Local History). In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 135, pp. 103-112.
in the Diyār Muḍār are compared with those from Syria decribes the interaction of regions within the ʿAbbasid empire and allows conclusions about the economic development.
Der Kleingeldumlauf in der Ğazîra in früh-'abbasidischer Zeit und die Münzemissionen aus al-Kűfa (The Circulation of Petty Coinage in the Jazira, Northern Mesopotamia, in the Early 'Abbasid Period and the Coin Emissions from al-Kűfa). In: Stefan Heidemann - Andrea Becker (eds.): Raqqa II - Die islamische Stadt, Mainz 2003, pp. 141-160.
(fourthcoming). The Circulation of North African Dirhams in Northern Mesopotamia - The Dirham Hoard of Tall al-Bī`a /al-Raqqa (t.p.q. 186/802). In: Michael Anderson - Nadia Haupt (eds.): Kufic Coins, Proceeding of the Symposium held in Damascus 5-7 November 2007, Copenhagen.
flourished at the peak of the Early Abbasid period, which is demonstrated by technological changes within the industrial quarter of al-Raqqa. While Julian Henderson, Nottingham University, worked on the changes in the glass technology, a series of metallurgical test on coins revealed also the earliest production of brass in the Abbasid capitals Baghdad and al-Raqqa.
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