Ras al-Ayn

Ras al-Ayn (Arabic: رأس العين‎, romanized: Raʾs al-ʿAyn, Kurdish: Serê Kaniyê‎, Classical Syriac: ܪܝܫ ܥܝܢܐ‎, romanized: Rēš Aynā[2]), also spelled Ras al-Ain, is a city in al-Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria, on the Syria–Turkey border.

For other uses, see Ras al-Ayn (disambiguation).
Ras al-Ayn

رأس العين
City
Ras al-Ayn
Ras al-Ayn
Location of Ras al-Ayn in Syria
Coordinates: 36°51′01″N 40°04′14″E
Country Syria
Governorateal-Hasakah
DistrictRas al-Ayn
SubdistrictRas al-Ayn
Control Turkey
Syrian Interim Government
Elevation
360 m (1,180 ft)
Population
 (2004)[1]
29,347
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)
Area code+963 52
GeocodeC4988

One of the oldest cities in Upper Mesopotamia, the area of Ras al-Ayn has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic age (c. 8,000 BC). Later known as the ancient Aramean city of Sikkan, the Roman city of Rhesaina, and the Byzantine city of Theodosiopolis, the town was destroyed and rebuilt several times, and in medieval times was the site of fierce battles between several Muslim dynasties. With the 1921 Treaty of Ankara Ras al-Ayn became a divided city when its northern part, today's Ceylanpınar, was ceded to Turkey.

With a population of 29,347 (as of 2004),[1] it is the third largest city in al-Hasakah Governorate, and the administrative center of Ras al-Ayn District. The city is inhabited predominantly by Arabs, with significant minorities of Kurds, Syriacs/Assyrians and a smaller number of Armenians and Chechens.

During the Syrian Civil War of the 2010s, it was captured by the Free Syrian Army, then captured by the People's Protection Units in 2013. It was later captured by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Syrian National Army in 2019.[3][4][5][6]

Etymology

The first mention of the town is in Akkadian Rēš ina[7] during the reign of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari II (911-891 BC).[7] The Arabic name Ras al-Ayn derives from the Akkadian and has the same meaning; "head of the spring",[7] or idiomatically, "hill of the spring", indicating a prominent mountain formation close to a well.

Map of the medieval Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), showing Ras al-Ayn as part of Diyar Rabi'a administrative division

The ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy (d. 168) names the town Raisena.[8] The town, as part of the Roman Empire, was called Ressaina/Resaina.[9] Another name was Theodosiopolis, after emperor Theodosius I, who enlarged the town in 380.[8] The 11th century Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi visited the town, mentioning its name as Ras al-'Ayn, and assigning it to Diyar Rabi'a (abode of the Arab tribe Rabi'a). He also described it as a big city with plenty of water, around 300 springs from which most of al-Khabur river starts. [10] In addition to Ras al-Ayn, medieval Arab Muslim sources refer to the town sometimes as Ain Werda.[8] Nineteenth-century English sources refer to the town as Ras Ain, Ain Verdeh (1819),[11] or Ras el Ain (1868).[8]

The Kurdish name Serê Kaniyê also means "head of the spring" or "head of the fountain", referring to water source areas. This name is probably a modern literal translation of the ancient Semitic name. A 1977 decree, as part of an Arabisation campaign, banned non-Arabic place names.[12][13]

Historical accounts and maps of the area have only used the Arabic name Ras al-'Ain (in its different variations).[14][15]

Ottoman map from 1893 showing Ras al-Ain in Ottoman Turkish language (in red circle, top center)

Geography and climate

Ras al-Ayn is located in the Upper Khabur basin in the northern Syrian region of Jazira. The Khabur, largest tributary of the Euphrates, crosses the border from Turkey near the town of Tell Halaf, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to the southwest of the city. The overground feeders, originating on the headwaters of the Karaca volcano in Şanlıurfa Province, usually do not carry water in the summer, even though Turkey brings in water from the Atatürk reservoir to irrigate the region of Ceylanpınar. While more than 80% of the Upper Khabur's water originates in Turkey, this mostly comes as underground flow.[16] So rather than the overground streams, it is the giant karstic springs of the Ras al-Ayn area that is considered the river's main perennial source.[17]

Ras al-Ayn springs

Ras al-Ayn has more than 100 natural springs. The most famous spring is Nab'a al-Kebreet, a hot spring with a very high mineral content, containing calcium, lithium, and radium.

Water supply

The Allouk water pumping station, which distributes water to the Hasakah Governorate, is close to Ras al-Ayn. Since the Turkish occupation began, the water supply has been interrupted several times.[18] Previously, the station supplied about 460,000 people in Al-Hasakah, Tell Tamer, and the Al-Hawl refugee camp, but not since the last interruption in March 2020, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.[19]

History
Two Neolithic figurines (9000–7000 BC), gypsum with bitumen and stone inlays, excavated in Tell Fekheriye.
Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago, USA.

Neolithic and ancient history

The area of Ras al-Ayn was inhabited at least since the Neolithic age (c. 8.000 BC). Today's Ras al-Ayn can be traced back to a settlement existing since c. 2000 BC, which in the early 1st millennium BC became the ancient city of Sikkan, part of the Aramaean kingdom of Bit Bahiani. The archaeological site is located on the southern edge of the mound Tell Fekheriye, around which today's Ras al-Ayn is built, just a few hundred meters south of the city center. During excavations in 1979, the famous Tell Fekheriye bilingual inscription was found. The nearby town of Tell Halaf is also a former site of an Aramean city.

Classical era

In later times, the town became known as "Rhesaina", "Ayn Warda", and "Theodosiopolis", the latter named after the Byzantine emperor Theodosius I who granted the settlement city rights. The latter name was also shared with the Armenian city of Karin (modern Erzurum) making it difficult to distinguish between them.[20]

The Sasanians destroyed the city twice in 578 and 580 before rebuilding it and constructing one of the three Sassanian academies in it (the other two being Gundishapur and Ctesiphon) in it.

Medieval history

The city fell to the Arabs in 640 who confiscated parts of the city which were abandoned by their inhabitants.[20] The Byzantines raided the city in 942 and took many prisoners. In 1129, Crusader Joscelin I managed to hold the city briefly, killing many of its Arab inhabitants.[20]

At its height the city had a West Syrian bishopric and many monasteries. The city also contained two mosques and an East Syrian church and numerous schools, baths, and gardens.[20]

Ras al-Ayn became contested between the Zengids, Ayyubids, and the Khwarazmians in the 12th and 13th centuries. It was sacked by Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century, ending its role as a major city in al-Jazira.[20]

Ottoman history

In the 19th century a colony of Muslim Chechen refugees fleeing the Russian conquest of the Caucasus were settled in the town by the Ottoman Empire.[8] The Ottomans also built barracks and a fort for a thousand soldiers to control and protect the refugees.[8]

During the Armenian Genocide, Ras al-Ayn was one of the major collecting points for deported Armenians. From 1915 on, 1.5 million Armenians were deported from all over Anatolia, many forced on death marches into the Syrian desert.[21] Approximately 80,000 Armenians, mostly women and children, were slaughtered in desert death camps near Ras al-Ayn.[22] As well as the Deir ez-Zor Camps further south, the Ras al-Ayn Camps became "synonymous with Armenian suffering."[23]

Modern history

As a result of the 1921 Treaty of Ankara, Ras al-Ayn became a divided city when its northern neighborhoods, today's Ceylanpınar, were ceded to Turkey. Today, the two cities are separated by a fenced border strip and the Berlin–Baghdad Railway on the Turkish side. The only border crossing is located in the western outskirts of Ras al-Ayn.

During the Syrian Civil War, Ras al-Ayn was engulfed by the long Battle of Ras al-Ayn. In late November 2012, rebels of al-Nusra Front and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) attacked positions of the Syrian Army. During the following eight months, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), who were present from the outset, gradually took over and approached the more moderate FSA rebels. On 21 July 2013, the YPG expelled the jihadists after a night of heavy fighting. The town was attacked and captured by the Turkish army and allied Syrian Rebels in October 2019 during the Second Battle of Ras al-Ayn of Operation Peace Spring.[24][4] After 11 days of clashes and being besieged in the town, the SDF retreated from Ras al-Ayn within a cease fire agreement.[25]

Demographics

In 2004 the population was 29,347.[1] The population of the town and its area is mostly of Arabs[26] although minorities such as Kurds, Assyrians, and a smaller number of Armenians and Chechens also exist.

  • People in the city center
  • Orthodox church
  • A view in October 2013. The city fell under SDF control during the Syrian Civil War

See also

References
  1. "2004 Census Data for Nahiya Ras al-Ayn" (in Arabic). Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics. Also available in English: UN OCHA. "2004 Census Data". Humanitarian Data Exchange.
  2. Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Reshʿayna — ܪܝܫ ܥܝܢܐ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified December 9, 2016, http://syriaca.org/place/172.
  3. "Sdf Recaptures Town Ras Al Ain Pro Turkish Forces in Northern Syria" Middle East Eye 15 October 2019 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sdf-recaptures-town-ras-al-ain-pro-turkish-forces-northern-syria
  4. "Turkey claims capture of key Syrian border town as offensive continues". NBC News. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  5. http://www.syriahr.com/en/?p=144313
  6. https://tass.com/world/1084181
  7. Dominik Bonatz (1 April 2014). The Archaeology of Political Spaces: The Upper Mesopotamian Piedmont in the Second Millennium BCE. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-3-11-026640-5.
  8. Taylor, John George (1868). "Journal of a Tour in Armenia, Kurdistan and Upper Mesopotamia, with Notes of Researches in the Deyrsim Dagh, in 1866". In Royal Geographical Society (ed.). The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. London. pp. 281–360, here: 346–350.
  9. J. B. Bury (18 July 2012). History of the Later Roman Empire. Courier Corporation. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-0-486-14338-5.
  10. Muhammad al-Idrisi (1154). نزهة المشتاق في اختراق الآفاق: Or, Tabula Rogeriana. عالم الكتب. pp. vol. 2, 661.
  11. Abraham Rees (1819). The Cyclopædia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. pp. 449–.
  12. Gunter, Michael (2014). Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War. London: Hurst. p. 21. ISBN 9781849044356.
  13. Tejel, Jordi (2008-08-29). Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society. Routledge. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-134-09643-5.
  14. BECKER, J./NOVÁK, M. ( 2012). Zur Siedlungsgeschichte »am Kopf der Quelle«: Synchronisation der Stratigraphie auf dem Tell Halaf und eine Periodisierung in der Region von Ra’s al-‘Ain, in: in: BAGHDO, A.M.H. et al., ed. (2012), p.221–233.
  15. R. L. Melka. (1973). Max Freiherr von Oppenheim: Sixty Years of Scholarship and Political Intrigue in the Middle East. Middle Eastern Studies, 9(1), 81-93. Retrieved April 16, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/4282456
  16. Greg Shapland (1997). "The Tigris–Euphrates Basin". Rivers of Discord: International Water Disputes in the Middle East. London: Hurst & Company. pp. 103–143, here: 127. ISBN 1-85065-214-7.
  17. John F. Kolars; William A. Mitchell (1991). "A critical pressure point: The Ceylanpinar/Ras al-Ayn Area". The Euphrates River and the Southeast Anatolia Development Project. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. p. 222. ISBN 0-8093-1572-6.
  18. "Turkish-backed group's disruption of water puts 460,000 people at risk, UNICEF warns". www.kurdistan24.net. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  19. "Interruption to key water station in the northeast of Syria puts 460,000 people at risk as efforts ramp up to prevent the spread of Coronavirus disease". www.unicef.org. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  20. Gibb, Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen (1995). The Encyclopaedia of Islam: NED-SAM. Brill. pp. 433 f.
  21. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/24/armenian-genocide-survivors-stories-my-dreams-cannot-mourn
  22. Sondhaus, Lawrence (2011). World War One: The Global Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 390. ISBN 978-0-521-51648-8.
  23. Jones, Adam (2006). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (PDF). Routledge/Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 0-415-35385-8.
  24. "turkey-claims-capture-key-syrian-border-town" Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/turkey-claims-capture-key-syrian-border-town-191012194413335.html
  25. "Kurdish forces depart border city of Ras al-Ayn as part of cease-fire with Turkey". Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  26. "Turkey's Syria offensive explained in four maps". BBC. Retrieved 13 October 2019.

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