THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM NEW EDITION PREPARED BY A NUMBER OF LEADING ORIENTALISTS EDITED BY C.E. BOSWORTH, E. VAN DONZEL, W.P. HEINRICHS AND G. LECOMTE ASSISTED BY PJ. BEARMAN AND MME S. NURIT UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF ACADEMIES VOLUME VIII NED — SAM LEIDEN EJ. BRILL 1995 This material is presented solely for non-commercial educational/research purposes. RUFUS AL-AFSISI — AL-RUHA 589 they were noted down by "Rufus and other ancient The monarchy in Edessa had ended ca. 242, af- and modern physicians" (ed. Ullmann, Rufus von fected adversely by the appearance on the scene in the Ephesos, Krankenjournale, Wiesbaden 1978). The editor Near East of the aggressive and expansionist Sasanid tried to prove that the 21 pieces form a unity and that Persian empire and the Roman withdrawal from no other physician than Rufus can be considered as an much of the Mesopotamian countryside, although the author. F. Kudlien (in Clio Medica, xiv [1979], 148-9, Romans and the Byzantines retained dominion over and xv [1981], 137-42) is, however, of a different the city until the Arab invasions. Edessa now became opinion. a major centre for Syriac-language literary activity All these writings show Rufus as an all-round physi- and for Christian religious life, becoming, like most of cian, who deals with many pathological questions and Mesopotamia and Syria, Monophysite in theology who attaches special importance to dietetic prescrip- during the course of the 6th century. When the Arabs tions. As can be inferred from many a remark which appeared, there were in the city a small community of he interwove into his representations, he had strong Nestorians, a Melkite hierarchy and community, and cultural-historical interests. Like Galen he stood in the the two ethnic elements of Monophysites, the Syrian tradition of Hippocrates, but in contrast to the former Jacobites (the majority in Edessa) and the Armenians. he was not apparently interested in current 2. The Islamic period up to the Ottomans. philosophical questions. His attitude was less Abu cUbayda in 16/637 sent clyad b. Ghanm to al- speculative, but rather, closer to the facts; yet the Djazlra. After the Greek governor Joannes Kateas, Middle Ages gave preference to Galen's system, who had endeavoured to save the region of Osrhoene which had a philosophical basis. by paying tribute, had been dismissed by the emperor Bibliography: Oeuvres de Rufus d'Ephese, publica- Heraclius and the general Ptolemaius put in his place, tion commencee par Charles Daremberg, continuee al-Ruha5 (Edessa) had to surrender in 18/639 like the et terminee par Charles-Emile Ruelle, Paris 1879 other towns of Mesopotamia (al-Baladhurl, 172-5; (repr. Amsterdam 1963); J. Ilberg, Rufus von Ibn al-Athir, ii, 414-17; Yakut, s.v. al-Djazira; Ephesos, ein griechischer Arzt in trajanischer Zeit, inAbh. Khwarazmi, ed. Baethgen, Fragmente syr. u. arab. d. Sdchsischen Akad. d. Wiss., phil-hist. Kl., xli Historiker, Leipzig 1884, 16, 110 = Abh. KM, viii, no. (1930), no. 1, Leipzig 1930; Sezgin, GAS, iii, 64-8; 3; Theophanes, ed. de Boor, 517, 521). The town M. Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam, Leiden-Cologne now lost its political and very soon also its religious 1970, 71-6; idem, Die arabische Uberlieferung der significance and sank to the level of a second-rate pro- Schriften des Rufus von Ephesos, in Aufstieg und vincial town. Its last bishop of note, Jacob of Edessa, Niedergang der Romischen Welt, ed. H. Temporini and spent only four years (684-7) and a later period again W. Haase, Berlin, Teilband II, 37, 2 (forth- of four months in his office (708). The Maronite coming). (M. ULLMANN) Theophilus of Edessa (d. 785) wrote a "Chronicle of RUH [see NAFS]. the World" and translated into Syriac the "two Books RUH B. HATIM [see RAWH B. HATIM]. of Homer about Ilion". RUH ALLAH [see KHUMAYNI in Suppl.]. Al-Ruha°, like al-Rakka, Harran and Karkisiya, AL-RUHA or AL-RuHA0, the Arabic name of a city was usually reckoned to Diyar Mudar (Ibn al-Athir, which was in early Islamic times in the province of viii, 218; al-Yackubi, i, 177; M. Hartmann, Bohtdn, Diyar Mucjar [q.v. ] but known in Western sources 88, no. 2 and3=MK4G [1897], i, 28; Canard, as EDESSA (Syriac Orhay, Armenian Urhay). It is now Wamdanides, 91-2). In 67/686-7 al-Ruha3, Harran in the province of Diyarbakir in the southeast of and Sumaysat formed the governorship which modern Turkey and is known as Urfa, a name for the Ibrahim b. al-Ashtar granted to Hatim b. al-Nucman city which is not clearly attested before the coming of (Ibn al-Athlr, iv, 218). the Turks to eastern Anatolia. The "old church" of the Christians was destroyed 1. In pre-Islamic times. by two earthquakes (3 April 679 and 718). In 737 a The city is probably an ancient one, though efforts Greek named Bashlr appeared in Harran and gave to identify it with the Babylonian Erech/Uruk or with himself out to be "Tiberias the son of Constantine"; Ur of the Chaldees cannot be taken seriously. Its site, he was believed at first, but was later exposed and ex- at the junction of ancient highways from Armenia ecuted in al-Ruha3 (Barhebraeus, Chron. syr., ed. Bed- southwards and east-west from the fords across the jan, 119). In 133/750-1 the town was the scene of Euphrates to Mesopotamia and Persia, must have fighting between Abu Djacfar, afterwards the caliph made it strategically valuable when it was founded or al-Mansur, and the followers of the Umayyads, Ishak re-founded by the Seleucids. Orhay now received new b. Muslim al-cUkaylI and his brother Bakkar, who names, such as "Antioch by the Callirrhoe", i.e. "by only gave in after the death of Marwan (Ibn al-Athir, the beautiful, flowing [water]", a reference to its v, 333-4). But continual revolts broke out again in al- famed fish-ponds or to the river of Orhay, and Djazlra (Ibn al-Athlr, v, 370 ff.); in the reign of al- Edessa, originally the name of the Seleucids' own Mansur, for example, the governor of al-Ruha3 of the capital in Macedonia. same name, the builder of Hisn Mansur, was ex- The names of the local rulers, called by the Greeks ecuted in al-Rakka in 141/758-9 (al-Baladhuri, 192). Phylarchs or Toparchs, are known. The early ones When Harun al-Rashld passed through al-Ruha°, an were vassals of the Parthians, in whose political and attempt was made to cast suspicion upon the Christ- cultural sphere Edessa lay, but in the 2nd century ians and it was said that the Byzantine emperor used A.D. it came sporadically under Roman rule, with its to come to the city every year secretly in order to pray kings therefore as Roman vassals. These kings seem in their churches; but the caliph saw that these were to have been of Arabic stock, although their regnal slanders. The Gumaye (from al-Djuma, the valley of names included Iranian as well as Semitic ones. In the cAfrm in Syria), who, with the Telmahraye and early 3rd century they are said to have adopted Chris- Rusafaye, were one of the leading families of al- tianity, and certainly, by the early 4th century the Ruha3, suffered a good deal, however, from his whole of the city was Christian and famed as the first covetousness (Barhebraeus, Chron. syr., 130). In kingdom officially to adopt Christianity as its state 196/812 the Christians were only able to save the un- religion, a prominent role being assigned to King protected town from being plundered by the rebels Abgar V, who was said to have acknowledged Jesus Nasr b. Shabath [q. v. ] and cAmr by a heavy payment; Christ as the Son of God before His crucifixion. Abu Shaykh therefore fortified al-Ruha3 at the ex- 590 AL-RUHA pense of the citizens (Barhebraeus, 136-7). At the be- which the town, which was still inhabited by many ginning of his reign, al-Ma5mun sent his general Christians, was sacked and burned (winter of 1030-1), Tahir Dhu '1-Yammayn [q.v.] to al-Ruha°, where his Maniakes again occupied the citadel and the town Persian soldiers were besieged by the two rebels, but (Ibn al-Athir, ix, 281 bis; Michael Syrus, ed. Chabot, offered a successful resistance supported by the in- iii, 147; Barhebraeus, Chron. syr., 214; Aristakes habitants among whom was Mar Dionysius of Lastivertcci, c. 7, pp. 24-5; Matthew of Edessa, ed. Tellmahre (Barhebraeus, 139). Tahir, who himself 1898, c. 43, pp. 58-62 = tr. Dulaurier, 46-9; hacl fled from his mutinous soldiers to Kallinikos, won Cedrenus-Seylitzes, ed. Bonn, ii, 500; the accounts of the rebels over to his side and made cAbd al-Acla the events preceding the surrender differ very much). governor of al-Ruha°; he oppressed the town very Edessa under Maniakes seems to have enjoyed a cer- much (ibid., 139-40). Muhammad b. Tahir, who gov- tain amount of independence from Byzantium, as he erned al-DjazIra in 210/825, persecuted the Christians sent an annual tribute thither (Cedrenus-Seylitzes, in al-Ruha0, as did the governors under al-Muctasim 502). and his successors. In Radjab 427/May 1036, the Patricius of Edessa In 331/942-3 the Byzantines occupied Diyarbakr, became a prisoner of the Numayri Ibn Waththab and Arzan, Dara and Ras al-cAyn, advanced on Naslbln his many allies; the town was plundered but the for- and demanded from the people of al-Ruha3 the holy tress remained in the hands of the Greek garrison (Ibn picture on linen of Christ called (iav8uXtov (al-Ikona al- al-Athir, ix, 305; Barhebraeus, Chron.