Al-Raqqah

Al-Raqqah, town, northern Syria, on the Euphrates River just west of its confluence with the Balīkh River. Al-Raqqah is on the site of an ancient Greek city, Nicephorium, and a later Roman fortress and market town, Callinicus. It flourished again in early Arab times when the ʿAbbāsid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd built several palatial residences there and made it his headquarters against the Byzantines. For a time the town was called Al-Rashīd. The Arab astronomer al-Battānī (Albatenius) made his observations there in the 9th and 10th centuries. Mongol invasions in the 13th century destroyed much of the settlement. Gradually the town fell into decay and was replaced in importance by its suburb, Al-Rafiqah, which took over its name. After the Ṭabaqah Dam, just up the Euphrates from Al-Raqqah, began to be built in 1968, Al-Raqqah grew. It became a supply centre for the community at the dam site, where jobs were provided. Local cultivation increased, and Al-Raqqah again became an increasingly important market centre. The town has a small museum exhibiting finds from excavations in the area; a team of archaeologists from the Syrian Department of Antiquities excavated and restored buildings of the ʿAbbāsid period.

The Syrian Civil War saw a combination of secular and Islamist fighters seize control of Al-Raqqah in March 2013. By early 2014 it had fallen under the control of the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, for whom it served as an unofficial capital. Pop. (2003 est.) 260,000.