Arqa عرقا | |
|---|---|
City | |
 Remains of Crusader Castle, Arqa | |
  Arqa Location within Lebanon | |
| Coordinates:34°31′47″N36°2′24″E / 34.52972°N 36.04000°E /34.52972; 36.04000 | |
| Country |  Lebanon |
| Governorate | Akkar |
| District | Akkar |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| Dialing code | +961 |
Arqa (Arabic:عرقا,romanized: ʿArqā;Akkadian:𒅕𒋡𒋫,romanized: Irqata) is a Lebanese village[1] nearMiniara inAkkar Governorate,Lebanon, 22 km northeast ofTripoli, near the coast.
The town was a notable city-state during theIron Age. The city ofIrqata sent 10,000 soldiers to the coalition against theAssyrian king in theBattle of Qarqar. The former bishopric became a double Catholictitular see (Latin and Maronite). TheRoman EmperorAlexander Severus was born there. It is significant for theTell Arqa, an archaeological site that goes back toNeolithic times, and during theCrusades there was a strategically significant castle.[2]
It is mentioned in Antiquity in theAmarna letters ofEgypt-(asIrqata), as well as inAssyrian documents.[3]
TheRoman town was namedCaesarea-ad-Libanum (of Lebanon/Phoenicia) orArca Caesarea.[2]
In theEarly Bronze IV, the Akkar Plain had three major sites in Tell Arqa,Tell Kazel, andTell Jamous.[4] The cultural focus had been towards the south and southern Levant, but now changed with more influence from Inner Syria and the use of copper.
In the MB I the Akkar Plain still saw smaller settlements being added near Tell Arqa and the region reach its highest population density in MB II.[5]
Arqa has the distinction of being a city-state that wrote one of the 382Amarna letters to thePharaoh of Ancient Egypt.[6]
Thecity-state Irqata was the 3rd city of theRib-Hadda letters, (68 letters), that were the last hold-outs against the(H)Apiru invasion. Sumur(u)-(Zemar) was the 2nd hold-out city besides Rib-Hadda's Byblos, (namedGubla).[7] Eventually, the king of Irqata,Aduna was killed along with other city kings, and also the 'mayor' of Gubla, Rib-Hadda. Rib-Hadda's brother,Ili-Rapih, became the successor mayor of Gubla, and Gubla never fell to the Hapiru.
During Rib-Hadda's lengthy opposition to the Habiru, even the city-state of Irqata and its elders, wrote to theEgyptian PharaohAkhenaten for assistance. (EA 100,EA for elAmarna).
The letter is entitled: "Thecity of Irqata to theking".
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After the death ofAlexander the Great Arca came under the control first of theLagids then of theSeleucids. When theRomans gained control over this part of western Asia, they entrusted Arca as a clienttetrarchy or vassal principality to a certain Sohaimos, who died in AD 48 or 49. It was then incorporated in theRoman province ofSyria, but was soon entrusted toHerod Agrippa II.Pliny the Elder counts it among the tetrarchies of Syria. It was at this time that its name was changed to Caesarea,[10] distinguished from other cities of that name by being calledCaesarea ad Libanum orArca Caesarea. UnderSeptimius Severus (193–211) it was made part of the province ofSyria Phoenicia and so became known asArca in Phoenicia. Under his sonCaracalla (198–217) it became acolonia and in 208Alexander Severus was born at Arca during a stay of his parents there.[11]
At the time of theFirst Crusade, Arca became an important strategic point of control over the roads fromTripoli toTartus andHoms.Raymond of Toulouse unsuccessfullybesieged it for three months in 1099. In 1108, his nephewWilliam II Jordan conquered it and it became part of theCounty of Tripoli. It resisted an attack byNur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo, in 1167 and another in 1171.
It finally fell to Muslim forces of the SultanBaibars in 1265 or 1266. When Tripoli itselffell in 1289 to the army of SultanQalawun and was razed to the ground, Arca lost its strategic importance and thereafter is mentioned only in ecclesiastical chronicles.[12]
In 1838,Eli Smith noted the village, whose inhabitants wereGreek Orthodox, located west ofesh-Sheikh Mohammed.[13]
In 2014,Muslims made up 100% of registered voters in Arqa, all of them beingSunni Muslims.[14]
Arca in Phoenicia became the seat of a Christian bishop in theRoman province ofPhoenicia Prima, asuffragan of the capital'smetropolitansee of Tyre.
Of its bishops, Lucianus professed the faith of theFirst Council of Nicaea at a synod held inAntioch in 363, Alexander was at theFirst Council of Constantinople in 381, Reverentius became archbishop of Tyre, Marcellinus was a participant at theCouncil of Ephesus in 431, Epiphanius took part in a synod at Antioch in 448, and Heraclitus participated in theCouncil of Chalcedon in 451 and was a signatory of the letter that the bishops of the province of Syria Phoenicia sent in 458 toByzantine EmperorLeo I the Thracian to protest about the murder ofProterius of Alexandria.[15][16][17]
No longer a residential bishopric, Arca in Phoenicia is today listed by theCatholic Church as atitular see,[18] in two traditions: Latin and Maronite (Eastern Catholic,Antiochian Rite inSyriac).
The nominally restored diocese has had non-consecutive titular bishops as a Latin Catholictitular bishopric since the 18th century.
It is vacant, having had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank :
Established as Titular Episcopal See ofArca (Arca dei Maroniti in Curiate Italian); promoted in 1933 as Titular Archiepiscopal See ofArca in Armenia, in 1941 suppressed, but restored in 1950 as Titular Episcopal See of Arca in Phoenicia.
It has had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank :
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