Harran

Harran lies on a plain south of Edessa, on ancient routes across upper Mesopotamia. Known as Carrhae to the Romans, it was a centre of worship of the moon god Sin and the scene of the defeat of Crassus by the Parthians in 53 BC. Its old religious traditions survived into the Islamic period, and scholars from Harran helped transmit Greek learning into Arabic. The city's stone walls, citadel and great mosque marked a prosperous medieval town.

The Ayyubids strengthened Harran, enlarging its mosque and citadel, but the Mongol invasion brought devastation in the thirteenth century. The population was deported and public buildings destroyed. Although the Mamluks regained the district early in the fourteenth century, the city did not recover its former standing. Its ruined fortifications and mosque remained prominent landmarks on the plain.

After the Ottoman conquest in 1516, Harran served for a time as the centre of a district of villages. The settlement that survived among the ruins was much smaller than the city known to medieval travellers. For a time the old castle continued to see occasional use, even after the loss of the bustling town it had defended. Its history nevertheless reached far beyond its diminished size, from the sanctuary of Sin and the ancient caravan roads to the scholars and rulers of the Islamic age.