Anbar (town)

Anbar
الأنبار
Anbar
Anbar's location inside Iraq
Coordinates: 33°25′11″N 43°18′45″E / 33.41972°N 43.31250°E / 33.41972; 43.31250
Country Iraq
Governorate Al Anbar

Anbar (Arabic: الأنبار‎) was a town in Iraq, at lat. 33 deg. 22' N., long. 43 deg. 49' E, on the east bank of the Euphrates, just south of the Nahr 'Isa, or Sakhlawieh canal, the northernmost of the canals connecting that river with the Tigris.[1]

History

Anbar was originally called Pērōz-Šāpūr or Pērōz-Šābuhr (from Middle Persian: 𐭯𐭥𐭩𐭥𐭦𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩‎, meaning "Victorious Shapur"; in Parthian: 𐭐𐭓𐭂𐭅𐭆𐭔𐭇𐭐𐭅𐭇𐭓 prgwzšhypwhr; in Aramaic: פירוז שבור‎), and became known as Perisapora or Pirisabora to the Greeks and Romans. The city was founded c. 350 by the Sasanian Persian king Shapur II, and in the Sassanid province of Asōristān. Perisapora was sacked and burned by Emperor Julian in April 363, during his invasion of the Sasanian Empire.[2] The town became a refuge for the Arab, Christian and Jewish colonies of that region.[1] According to medieval Arabic sources, most of the inhabitants of the town migrated north to found the city of Hdatta south of Mosul.[3]

Anbar was adjacent or identical to the Babylonian Jewish center of Nehardea (Aramaic: נהרדעא‎), and lies a short distance from the present-day town of Fallujah, formerly the Babylonian Jewish center of Pumbedita (Aramaic: פומבדיתא‎).

The name of the town was then changed to Anbar (Middle Persian word for "granaries"). Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah, the founder of the Abbasid Caliphate, made it his capital, and such it remained until the founding of Baghdad in 762. It continued to be a place of much importance throughout the Abbasid period.[1]

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[4] Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon.

  • Narses fl.540
  • Simeon fl.553
  • Salibazachi fl.714
  • Paul fl.740
  • Theodosius
  • Johnfl885
  • Enos 890
  • Elias fl.906-920
  • Jaballaha fl.960
  • Sebarjesus
  • Elias II fl.987
  • Unanmed bishop fl.1021
  • Mundar fl.1028
  • Maris fl.1075
  • Zacharias fl.1111

No longer a residential bishopric, having faded.

Titular see

Anbar is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see of the Chaldean Catholic Church,[5] established as titular bishopric in 1980.

It has had the following incumbents, generally of the lowest (episcopal) rank, with a single archiepiscopal (intermediate) exception, the first :

Today

It is now entirely deserted, occupied only by mounds of ruins, whose great number indicate the city's former importance.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Peters 1911.
  2. ↑ G. W. Bowersock, Julian the Apostate, (Harvard University Press, 1978), 112.
  3. ↑ Lewis, Bernard (1986). "Ḥadīt̲a". In Hertzfeld, E. Encyclopaedia of Islam. 3 (Second ed.). BRILL. p. 29. ISBN 9789004081185. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  4. ↑ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 1171-1174
  5. ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 832

Attribution:

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Peters, John Punnett (1911). "Anbar". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 944.

Coordinates: 33°22′43″N 43°42′57″E / 33.37861°N 43.71583°E / 33.37861; 43.71583

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