Harran
Harran, also known as Carrhae, is a district of Şanlıurfa Province in the southeast of Turkey.
A very ancient city which was a major Mesopotamian commercial, cultural, and religious center, Harran is a valuable archaeological site. It is often identified as the place in which Abraham lived before he reached Canaan.
The city was the chief home of the Mesopotamian moon-god |Sin, under the Babylonians and even into Roman times.
Carrhae is a defunct ancient town on the site, and gave its name to the Battle of Carrhae (53 BC), fought between the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire.
Harran's ruins are from Roman, Sabian, and Islamic times. T. E. Lawrence surveyed the site, and an Anglo-Turkish excavation was begun in 1951.
References
- Chwolsohn, Daniil Abramovic, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, 2 vols. St. Petersburg, 1856. [Still a valuable reference and collection of sources]
- Green, Tamara, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran. Leiden, 1992.
- Heidemann, Stefan, Die Renaissance der Städte in Nordsyrien und Nordmesopotamien: Städtische Entwicklung und wirtschaftliche Bedingungen in ar-Raqqa und Harran von der beduinischen Vorherrschaft bis zu den Seldschuken (Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts 40). Leiden, 2002 .
- Rice, David Storm, "Medieval Harran. Studies on Its Topography and Monuments I", Anatolian Studies 2, 1952, pp. 36-84.
