Islamic Period Settlement in the Tell Leilan Region (Northern Jazira): the Material Evidence from the 1995 Survey

Islamic Period Settlement in the Tell Leilan Region (Northern Jazira): The Material Evidence from the 1995 Survey Valentina Vezzoli This paper provides an initial evaluation of the settlement dynamics in the area around Tell Leilan (Northern Jazira) during the Islamic period based on the study of the ceramic material collected during the 1995 survey campaign. It concentrates on the description of ceramic groups and diagnostics, and is thus able to give a reliable dating for the Islamic period occupation in the region and allows us to trace an outline of settlement development in this rural landscape. The resulting patterns are discussed in the wider context of archaeological investigations in Northern Mesopotamia and Syria generally, and compared with data derived from textual sources which have generally provided a partial and incomplete account. Keywords: Islamic pottery, Northern Jazira, Tell Leilan Region Project Introduction undulating extent of fertile soils. In the north, the The present contribution is a part of a research plain is essentially at the piedmont of the Tur ‘Abdin project which is being carried out by a team from where the local wadi systems have their origin. In the the Ca` Foscari University of Venice, under the south the plain terminates in the marshy depression responsibility of Professor Elena Rova, in co- of the Wadi Radd, which is also fed by streams operation with the Yale University Tell Leilan originating from the Jebel Sinjar in present-day Iraq. project, directed by Professor H. Weiss. It is based The main body of the plain is composed primarily of on the study of the pottery assemblage collected reddish-brown overbank flood deposits and sands. during the 1995 survey at Tell Leilan, now stored at Geomorphological work undertaken as part of the the Department of Sciences of Antiquity and of Tell Leilan project has included both a soil survey Near East (Ca` Foscari University of Venice), with a and exploration of regional hydrology in order to particular focus on the material of the Islamic characterize land-use potential (Besonen and period. The analysis of this assemblage allows us to Cremaschi 2002). It was possible to establish a make some preliminary remarks concerning the definite north-south landscape division based upon nature of human settlement in Northern Jazira differences in hydrology. Precipitation is highest in between the Early Islamic (7th–8th centuries AD) the north (c. 440 mm at present) due to the and the end of Ottoman period (19th century AD). orographic effect of the hills of the Tur ‘Abdin, but The article is based upon the writer’s MA thesis, rapidly decreases to 220 mm in the Wadi Radd basin L’insediamento di epoca islamica nell’area di Tell (Courty and Weiss 1997, 112). In the north, soils are Leilan (Jazira settentrionale): studio del materiale calcic (red and brown Mediterranean soils), while ceramico (Vezzoli 2003–04). those to the south are gypsic. The geology of Northern Mesopotamia and The Tell Leilan Region microenvironmental differences in hydrology, soil The site of Tell Leilan is located in North-east Syria, type and precipitation, influence the fertility of this in the northern half of the Khabur plain, an area (Ristvet 2005, 45–46). In antiquity and in the middle ages the region was a centre for extensive wheat and barley cultivation and it currently pro- Valentina Vezzoli, Ca` Foscari University of Venice, Department of duces one quarter of Syria’s annual cereal crop, Eurasian Studies, Ca` Cappello San Polo 2035, Venezia, Italy; e-mail: [email protected] without the aid of irrigation. ß Council for British Research in the Levant 2008 Published by Maney DOI 10.1179/175638008X348052 Levant 2008 VOL 40 NO 2 185 Vezzoli Islamic Period Settlement in the Tell Leilan Region Archaeological Data and Written Sources: Two Abbasid road (Fiey 1964, 107–17) nameley: Ra’s Distinct Voices al-‘Ayn, Balad, Ba’aynatha, Barqa’id, Adhrama and Textual and archaeological sources provide different, Bajadda (Yaqut 1977; Al-Muqaddasi 1967; Ibn at times contrasting, information concerning the Hawqal 1964). Some of these centres have now been history of human settlement in this part of the identified with modern villages or towns. At the Jazira during the Islamic period. The documentary beginning of the 20th century Adhrama was tenta- sources generally present a partial description of the tively identified with Tell Leilan. This however is area. Arab authors of the Islamic period have mainly unlikely, as little evidence of Islamic period occupa- commented upon the most important sites of North tion has been found at the site. However, working on Syria, such as al-Raqqa or Tell Sheikh Hasan, which the distances between the different stations, it is were once interregional centres (Bartl 1993–94, 30), nevertheless possible that Adhrama was located in or regional centres like Ra’s al-‘Ayn and Qarqisiya. the region around Leilan. Except for those centres However, they provide little information on small located along the Abbasid road, settlements in the centres and villages; the area surveyed around Tell Tell Leilan region, the Khabur Valley in general, are Leilan is a case in point. The kind of information we not usually mentioned by the Islamic sources, can extract from texts refers mainly to important presumably because of the lack of major centres in historical events, or to geographical descriptions. the area. While in the latter case they provide a quite useful The Arabic-language historical and geographical overview of cultivation practices and the landscape of literature — for example, Ibn Khurradadhbih’s Kitab the Jazira, they do not allow us to tackle the al-masalik wa al-mamalik (1967); al-Hamdani’s Sifat problematic issue of the dynamics of rural settlement Jazirat al-‘Arab (1968), Ibn Hawqal and the Kitab at different points within the Islamic period (e.g. the ahsan al-taqasim fi ma‘rifat al-aqalim of al-Muqaddasi impact upon rural communities of changes in rulers, (1967), the Tuhfat al-nuzzar fi ghara’ib al-amsar by the relationships between villages and central autho- Ibn Battuta (1957) and Yaqut’s Mu‘jam al-buldan rities, even the size and the location of smaller (1977) — provides information about the adminis- settlements). At times documentary sources provide a trative structure of the caliphate, agricultural produc- distorted vision of reality, because they often tion and the main centres of the Jazira. However, its represent the concerns of dominant political groups. value for the reconstruction of the historical and For these reasons it is necessary to integrate the geographical context of this peripheral area is limited. evidence of documentary sources with archaeological Medieval geographers do, however, provide a general data that can provide evidence relating to Islamic description of the rural landscape of North Jazira. period settlement. Ibn Shaddad (1964, 44), writing in the 13th century AD, provides a list of regional products such as wheat The Historical and Geographical Context Based on Textual (qumh), rice (aruzz), sesame (simsim), grapes (a‘nab), Evidence cotton (qutn) and sugar cane (qasb as-sukkar). It is necessary at this point to offer brief, critical According to such sources, North Mesopotamia account of the documentary evidence examined in the was a rich agricultural land, but a difficult political course of this project. Two different types of written situation and the presence of tribal groups rendered sources can be identified: its role somewhat peripheral. The period between the 10th and 11th centuries AD a. primary Arabic-language sources from medieval was marked by political instability caused by stronger authors; particularistic tendencies in the area of North Syrian/ b. the secondary sources from Europeans travellers North Mesopotamian. This fact at least partially who visited Syria at the beginning of the 19th explains the apparent decrease in settlement activity. century and who attempted to reconstruct the During the Ayyubid period (12th–late 13th centuries historical topography of this region. AD) and the subsequent rule of the Mamluks, from The Khabur Valley formed an important connection late 13th century AD to the second half of the 14th between west Syria and Southern Mesopotamia. In century AD, the area witnessed a period of political the Islamic period the area was traversed by the stability and economic development. While medieval Euphrates trade route (Fig. 1) which connected authors suggest that the Jazira was completely Aleppo to Mosul across the North Mesopotamian destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1260 AD, the plateau (Ra’s al-‘Ayn). Yaqut and other medieval archaeological evidence does not appear to confirm geographers mention centres located along the this situation (see below). 186 Levant 2008 VOL 40 NO 2 Vezzoli Islamic Period Settlement in the Tell Leilan Region Figure 1 The area of the 1995 Survey at Tell Leilan and main trade routes of Northern Mesopotamia The situation worsened after the 14th century AD. tribes. When the first European travellers visited this By the fall of the Mamluk dynasty, the region was region, in the 18th century AD, it was recorded as a overrun by tribal groups, who threatened the steppe or deserted area intermittently occupied by security of commercial traffic and agriculture. The Kurds, Arabs and Yezidis. Although largely unin- tension caused by the rival tribal groups was one habited in the 19th century, North Jazira is today reason for a marked reduction in sedentary commu- populated by a sprinkling of villages, the inhabitants nities, a point confirmed by both written sources and of which can claim either Arabic and/or Kurdish as archaeological evidence. This same is true for the their mother tongue, a development that is due in entire Ottoman period, as Ottoman rulers were part to the agrarian reforms of the earlier 20th unable to reach a political agreement with the local century.

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