Ras al-Ayn

Ras al-Ayn takes its name, the Spring-head, from the many springs that feed the Khabur River. Known as Resaina in Roman times and Resh'ayna in Syriac, the town stood among gardens watered by clear streams. Medieval geographers admired the springs, whose water turned mills and irrigated orchards before joining the river. An important settlement of the Jazira, it also supported a Syriac bishopric and monasteries.

The town changed hands repeatedly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as Zengids, Ayyubids and Khwarazmians struggled over northern Mesopotamia. Timur's forces plundered it in the late fourteenth century. Despite these upheavals, the springs remained the defining feature of the place: Yaqut described their clear pools and recounted how small boats had once carried people from garden to garden and downstream along the Khabur.