Old City of Raqqa (Ar-Raqqah)

 place with historical importance, neighborhood, old city

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Mixed Arab and Kurdish neighborhood.

Part of the modern city of Raqqa founded by the Abbassid Caliph al Mansour in 772 AC, as a garrison city for a detachment of his Khorasanian Persian army. It was named al-Rāfiqah (Arabic for "the companion") and was located 200m west of ancient Raqqa.

al-Raqqah and al-Rāfiqah merged into one urban complex, together larger than the former Umayyad capital Damascus. In 796, the caliph Harun al-Rashid chose al-Raqqah/al-Rafiqah as his imperial residence, greatly enlarging it. Raqqa was the centre of the islamic world for 12 years between 796 - 808.

The citadel was partially restored in 1683 and again housed a Janissary detachment; over the next decades the province of al-Raqqah became the centre of the Ottoman Empire's tribal settlement policy.

The 12th-century citadel was removed in the 1950s (today Dawwār as-Sā'a, the clock-tower circle). In the 1980s rescue excavations in the palace area began as well as the conservation of the Abbasid city walls with the Bāb Baghdād and the two main monuments intra muros, the Abbasid mosque and the Qasr al-Banāt.


For the Ancient city of Raqqa, check the polygon of Al-Mashalab neighborhood, where the ruins of the ancient city are buried.