Bajadda

Bājaddā was a small town in the Balikh River valley inhabited during the early Islamic period.[1][2] It is identified with the present-day Khirbat al-Anbār, located a few kilometers south of the contemporary town of Hisn Maslama.[1][2]

Geography

The site measures 800x700 m in size and consists of a low mound with a flat top, which suggests that there was only one main building phase.[1][2] It has not been explored by archaeologists; the only monument visible from the surface is a large dome that may cover an underground cistern or well.[1][2]

History

The name "Bajadda" is Syriac, probably indicating a local Syriac-speaking population.[1][2] The town was the place of origin of the Banu Taymiyya family of Hanbali scholars.[1][2] According to Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi, who visited the Balikh valley in 884-5, Bajadda had originally formed part of the Umayyad general Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik's landed estates in the region.[2] Maslama then granted it to a lieutenant of his, Usayd al-Sulamī, who built the small town up and fortified it with a wall.[2] Sarakhsi wrote that there was a spring in Bajadda that provided water for drinking and agriculture; this spring may be under the dome.[1][2] Bajadda was probably flourishing in the 880s when Sarakhsi visited.[2] Some possible 12th/13th-century pottery fragments have also been found at the site, indicating that the town may have still existed then.[1][2]

See also

References
  1. Heidemann, Stefan (2009). "Settlement Patterns, Economic Development and Archaeological Coin Finds in Bilad al-Sham: the Case of the Diyar Mudar - The Process of Transformation from the 6th to the 10th Century A.D." (PDF). Orient-Archäologie. 24: 493–516. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  2. Heidemann, Stefan (2011). "The Agricultural Hinterland of Baghdad, al-Raqqa and Samarra': Settlement Patterns in the Diyar Muḍar". In Borrut, A.; Debié, M.; Papaconstantinou, A.; Pieri, D.; Sodini, J.-P. (eds.). Le Proche-Orient de Justinien aux Abbasides: Peuplement et Dynamiques Spatiales. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers. ISBN 978-2-503-53572-2. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
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