Author
It is not known although it is possible that the construction masters and craftsmen were transferred from the new capital, Baghdad, to Raqqa.
Author Original
غير معروفين على الرغم من أنه من الممكن أن يكون قد تم نقل معلمي البناء والحرفيين من العاصمة الجديدة بغداد إلى الرقة
Publication Date
158-155/5-771, additions in 180-92/796-809, renovations sometime during the 5th/11th century
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Record ID
monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;29;ar
Library Location
Raqqa, Syria
Date
158-155/5-771, additions in 180-92/796-809, renovations sometime during the 5th/11th century
Notes
In the year 155/772, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur ordered the construction of a new garrison city called Al-Rafiqa, which is the city adjacent to Raqqa, and assigned his son and successor Al-Mahdi (r. 58-169 / 75-785) to supervise its construction. As for other additions, such as the outer wall, they were added during the rule of the Mahdi’s son, Harun Al-Rashid, who ruled in the period 70-193/ 786-809. The place was used as a garrison on the border with the Byzantine Empire to protect the Abbasid lands. It was also located at the intersection of important caravan routes at the confluence of the Euphrates and Khabur rivers. The diameter of the wall surrounding Al-Rafiqa reaches 1,300 meters, and its thick mass reaches 5,000 meters in length, enclosing an area of 1.47 km2. The city's horseshoe-shaped plan was influenced by the shape of the famous new capital, Baghdad, which had been completed a few years earlier. The city's perimeter was fortified with several defensive layers, including a 15.9-meter-wide moat, an outer wall, and a thick inner wall founded on a stone base. The inner wall was constructed of raw brick in the middle with a layer of brick on each side, and was supported by 132 round towers distributed regularly over its entire perimeter. They are separated by a distance ranging between 25 and 28 meters. The circumference of each of these towers reaches 15-16 metres, and its depth reaches 5.35 metres. Its foundation height was about 18 metres, and the corner towers may be higher than the rest. The outer wall is lower and thinner, made of raw, sun-dried brick, and has no stone foundations. The city wall originally had three entrances: the small western gate, the huge northern gate, up to 4 m wide, in which the remains of the iron gate are still visible, and the gate located at the southwestern corner of the city wall, which is known as the Baghdad Gate. The city's southeastern walls are still preserved, reaching a height of 11 metres, and the Baghdad Gate is made of baked brick within the city's outer wall. If we assume that the façade of the Baghdad Gate was symmetrical, its dimensions must have been 18 x 14.5 m. The facade of the Baghdad Gate is divided into two parts: the lower one, which contains the great corridor covered by a dome and the shape of two closed openings, and the upper one, which reaches a height of 4.4 meters, and is decorated with a group of trefoil niches, frames with dense supports, and inverted arches, all resting on columns embedded in the wall. Of the eleven windows, eight are still in good technical condition. The artistic properties of the gate, the absence of any defensive elements, and its location within the weak outer wall, indicate that it was not built for its own protection, but rather was used as a show-off during celebrations in the city. It is not known when the Baghdad Gate was built, and by comparing the style, such as the shape of the pointed arches, which are not dated before the tenth century, and the style of decoration using bricks inspired by oriental techniques, which resembles eleventh-century Iranian architecture such as the towers of Khoraqan, it is unlikely that it was built. The Baghdad Gate dates back to an earlier period than the 4th/10th century.
Sample Text
Verena Daiber “The city wall of Rafiqa (Raqqa) and the Baghdad Gate” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;sy;Mon01;29;ar
