Diyar Mudar

Map of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), with its provinces, in medieval times

Diyār Mudar ("abode of Mudar") is the medieval Arabic name of the westernmost of the three provinces of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), the other two being Diyar Bakr and Diyar Rabi'a. According to al-Baladhuri, all three provinces were named after the main Arab tribes that were settled there by Mu'awiyah in the course of the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. The Diyar Mudar was settled by the Mudar tribe.

Diyar Mudar encompasses the region on both banks of the middle course of the river Euphrates, from the area of Samosata to the town of Anah, and includes the are of the river Balikh and the lower reaches of the river Khabur. Its main city was al-Raqqah, and other major settlements included Harran, Edessa (al-Ruha in Arabic), and Saruj. Geographically and politically, in early Islamic times the Diyar Bakr was usually part of the Jazira. In the mid-10th century, the region came under Hamdanid control, and under Sayf al-Dawla it was detached from the Jazira and subordinated to the Syria-based Emirate of Aleppo. In the same period, the region came under attack by the resurgent Byzantine Empire, who seized Edessa in the 1032. Thereafter the region became divided into a mostly Christian-ruled northern portion, subject to Armenian colonization, and an Arab-influenced south. Seljuq raids began in the 1060s and 1070s, but it was not until 1086 that the Seljuq sultan Malikshah unified the province under his control. The advent of the Crusades re-established the division between a Christian north (the County of Edessa) and a Muslim south, which lasted until the mid-12th century. The Ayyubids gained control of the region under Saladin, and kept it until the Mongol conquest in 1260.

Sources

• Canard, Marius; Cahen, Claude (1991). "Diyār Bakr". The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume II: C–G. Leiden, The Netherlands and New York, New York: Brill. pp. 343–345. ISBN 90-04-07026-5. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Canard, Marius; Cahen, Claude (1991). "Diyār Mudar". The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume II: C–G. Leiden, The Netherlands and New York, New York: Brill. pp. 347–348. ISBN 90-04-07026-5. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)