جولة ١ : الضفة اليمنى لنهر الفرات ٢_a .. كتاب في ربوع سورية

From it was a second capital for his caliphate, from which he managed its affairs during his stay there, which extended for several months every year. Caliph Hisham introduced several reforms in the city, and outside the wall he built several Arab palaces of adobe (mud) that he decorated with colorful wall decorations and ornate frames. However, the Abbasids demolished the Umayyad facilities, leaving them for a period of time without care, so that life could return to them in a limited manner between the tenth and thirteenth centuries AD, until they were devastated and destroyed during the Mongol invasion in the second half of the thirteenth century AD, to remain so to date.

To the east of the town of Mansoura, about 5 km, the village of Al-Hamam is located on the third terrace of the Euphrates Valley, and its age dates back to more than 100 years, and the asphalt road passes through it, and its population is estimated at about 1200 people. Traces dating back to the Roman and Byzantine eras were found there. Shortly after passing the hammam, we will pass by Mazraat al-Yaroudah (350 people) and the two farms of Abu Qubai’ Gharbi (540 people) and Abu Qubai’ Sharqi (270 people), which are separated only by Wadi Abu Qubai’. And it is only 13 km to the east from Abu Qubai’ until we reach the road heading to Raqqa, which is located on the left bank of the Euphrates River. However, we will continue to our destination along the right bank of the Euphrates River through the asphalt road that leads us to Deir Ezzor, and we will pass about 29 villages and 13 farms in the lands of Raqqa Governorate before we leave. We enter the lands of Deir ez-Zor, with a distance of about 2 km between each human settlement and another. The villages are as follows: Al-Sahel, Kasrat Sheikh Juma’a, Kasrat Faraj, Kasrat Afnan, Ratlah Kasra, Surur Kasra Muhammad Ali Al-Akreshi, Al-Dalha Hawija Shanan, Al-Rahbi Al-Sabkha, the center of Al-Sharida sub-district. Al-Jabali (Al-Qibli), Zur Shamr Al-Assih, Al-Musharifa Ghanem Ali Al-Nazza Al-Bu Hamad, Al-Atshanah, Al-Dama, Mughal Saghrah Mughal Kabirah Al-Namsiyeh, Sixth of Tishreen (Ajam),

Al-Jaber, Al-Khamisiya, Maadan, Jadid, Suwayda, and most of the previous villages are located north of the main road, close to the bank of the Euphrates River, connected to the main road by asphalt secondary roads. Near some of these human settlements, there are ruins and ancient ruins indicating human habitation in the past, as is the case in the ruins of Al-Karih near the village of Al-Namsiyeh, and Khirbet Al-Jazla near the village of Al-Bu Hamad, which includes ruins from the Umayyad era, as well as the ruins of its site Siffin, to the southeast of Al-Akir, about 500 AD that occurred between Imam Ali bin Abi Talib and the Kharijites. Between Al-Rahbi and Al-Sabkha there are the ruins of Al-Nakhila, in which Imam Ali bin Abi Talib stayed. To the south of the village of Al-Jabali, there is an archaeological hill known as Tal Hammadi, in which pottery vessels dating back to the Neolithic era were found. 6

It should be noted that some of the current villages located on the right bank of the Euphrates were once in the past on the left bank, as they were located within a river elbow that was cut off in a previous era, as in the village of Al-Dalha. Social life and economic activity are almost along the right bank of the Euphrates in Al-Raqqa governorate is one, because the vast majority of the population belongs to the Al-Walda clan of the Abi Shaban tribe, especially the villages that lie to the west of the village of Kasra Muhammad Agha, while the population who belong to the Al-Sabkha clan increases between Al-Raqqa and the village of Al-Suwaida, and both clans belong to the Abi Shaban tribe. They all work in agriculture and animal husbandry, especially sheep. They settled and built their homes about 50 years ago, and their cultivation is irrigated in the Euphrates Valley, represented in cotton, sesame, beets, wheat, and vegetables. The total number of people living in the right Euphrates Valley in Raqqa Governorate is about 125 thousand people (106 thousand people according to the 1981 census), with the exception of the city of Ath-Thawra.

With modern urbanization, the villages scattered in the valley have a modest urbanization that is dominated by the old style, whose material is made of mud and stones. Flat roofs of wood and reeds covered with a layer of mud with the spread of concrete houses since the mid-seventies. In most villages, the population still eats bread made from thrud (thrud al-mansaf on saj and tandoor, and their popular food is still the thrud of okra).

As soon as we pass the crossroads of the secondary road that leads us to the village of As-Suwayda al-Raqawiyah by about three kilometers, we enter within the lands of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, and by that we have left the lands of the valley and walked through a flat land that forms the western and southwestern margins of the volcanic Mount Kulaib Hama, and it is only about seven kilometers until it encounters us. A branching road towards the north to the village of Maadan Ateeq, which is close to the course of the Euphrates River, and opposite it from the west, there is an automatic ferry that serves as a ship that transports people, cars and animals from one bank to the other from the banks of the river. From Maadan Ateeq, an asphalt road extends westward for a distance of 6 km, to pass the farms of Tartha and Al-Bouissa, which belong to the village of Maadan Ateeq, and to meet that road with the Sweida road. After the junction of Maadan Atiq Road, about a kilometer away, there is another secondary road that extends towards the riverbed, where the village of Kasabi stands on its right bank, from which it is possible to walk east along the riverbed to the historic city of Halabiya, whose current ruins consist of a wall built of limestone stones that takes a triangular shape, with its head starting from a high peak. Its two sides descend to the Euphrates. The third side is next to the Euphrates. It is located at the head of the triangle, at an altitude of 376 meters, the majestic castle, and the ruins of several buildings and churches appear from the wall. There is an outer neighborhood that extends between the wall and another wall, 400 meters away. Most of the buildings in the city of Aleppo are made of stone