Al-Resafa الرصافة | |
|---|---|
 Panoramic view of Resafa | |
  Al-Resafa Location in Syria | |
| Coordinates:35°37′40″N38°45′23″E / 35.62778°N 38.75639°E /35.62778; 38.75639 | |
| Country |  Syria |
| Governorate | Raqqa Governorate |
| District | Raqqa District |
| Control |  Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria[1] |
| Elevation | 300 m (1,000 ft) |
Resafa (Arabic:الرصافة,romanized: Reṣafa), sometimes spelledRusafa, and known in theByzantine era asSergiopolis (Greek:Σεργιούπολις orΣεργιόπολις,lit. 'city ofSaint Sergius') and briefly asAnastasiopolis (Αναστασιόπολις,lit. 'city of Anastasius'), was a city located in theRoman province ofEuphratensis, in modern-daySyria. It is an archaeological site situated southwest of the city ofRaqqa and theEuphrates.
Procopius describes at length the ramparts and buildings erected there byJustinian.[2] The walls of Resafa, which are still well preserved, are over 1600 feet in length and about 1000 feet in width; round or square towers were erected about every hundred feet; there are also ruins of a church with three apses.
Resafa corresponds to theAkkadianRaṣappa and the BiblicalRezeph (Septuagint;Koinē Greek:Ράφες), where it is mentioned inIsaiah 37:12;[3][4] cuneiform sources give Rasaappa, Rasappa, and Rasapi.[5][4]
Ptolemy calls itRhesapha (Koinē Greek:Ρεσαφα).[6] In the late RomanTabula Peutingeriana, it is calledRisapa.[4] In theNotitia dignitatum, it isRosafa.[4]
Procopius write that it was called Sergiopolis after theSaint Sergius.[7]
The site dates to the 9th century BC, when a military camp was built by theAssyrians.[8]
During Roman times, it was a desert outpost fortified to defend against theSasanian Empire and a station on theStrata Diocletiana.[8] It flourished as its location on the caravan routes linkingAleppo,Dura-Europos, andPalmyra was ideal.[9]
Resafa had no spring or running water, so it depended on largecisterns to capture the winter and spring rains.[9]
In the 4th century, it became a pilgrimage town for Christians coming to venerateSaint Sergius, a Christian Roman soldier said to have been martyred in Resafa during theDiocletianic Persecution. A church was built to mark his grave, the city was renamedSergiopolis and began to grow massively. Indeed, it became, after Jerusalem, "most important pilgrimage center in ByzantineOrientis in [the] proto-Byzantine period", with a special appeal to the local Arabs, especially theGhassanids.[8] Resafa was located in the area of theRoman–Persian Wars, and was therefore a well-defended city that had massive walls that surrounded it without a break.[10]
By the late 6th century, the Ghassanids' tribal Arab ally theBahra' were tasked with guarding Resafa and its shrine from nomadic marauders and theLakhmids ofMesopotamia.[11]
The city was lost by the Byzantines in the 7th century when the Arabs won the final victory at theBattle of Yarmouk in the year 636. In the eighth century, theUmayyad caliphHisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743) made the city his favoured residence, and built several palaces around it,[12] which are counted among theqasr or desert castle category.[13]
The city was finally abandoned in the 13th century when the Mongols invaded the area.
In theSyrian Civil War, the town was occupied by ISIS, before being liberated by Government forces on 19 June 2017 during theSouthern Raqqa Offensive.[14]
Sergiopolis's first bishop was appointed shortly after 431 byJohn of Antioch, in spite of the opposition of the Metropolitan ofHierapolis Bambyce, on whom that church had till then depended. Later, Marianus attended aCouncil of Antioch.
Sergiopolis obtained the title ofmetropolis from EmperorAnastasius I. With five suffragan sees, it figures in theNotitia episcopatuum ofAntioch in the sixth century. A bishop named Sergius or George was an envoy of Justinian to theLakhmids around 524. At the fifth general council (Second Council of Constantinople) in 553, Abraham signed as metropolitan. The favors of Anastasius obtained for the city the name of Anastasiopolis, which it still retained at the beginning of the seventh century. Bishop Candidus, at the time of theSassanian Persian siege of the city byKhosrau I (in 543), ransomed 1,200 captives for two hundred pounds of gold,[15] and, in 1093, Metropolitan Simeon restored the greatBasilica ("Échos d'Orient", III, 238); which attests to the continuing existence of Christianity in Rasafa.[16][17]
The (arch)diocese of Sergiopolis was nominally restored as aRoman Catholictitular bishopric, initially of the lowest (episcopal) rank, and under the curiate name Sergiopolis antea Resapha (having namesakes see Sergiopolis), and had the following incumbents as such:
In 1925, it was promoted totitular archbishopric of the highest, Metropolitan rank, and its name was shortened to Sergiopolis. As such, it has had the following incumbents, the first two however still only as titular bishop :
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