View source for Arrapha

{{Short description|Archaeological site in Iraq}}
[[File:Meso2mil-English.JPG|300px|right|thumb|Arrapha and other cities of Mesopotamia in the second millennium BC]]

'''Arrapha''' or '''Arrapkha''' ([[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]: ''Arrapḫa''; {{langx|ar|أررابخا ,عرفة}}) was an ancient city in what today is northeastern [[Iraq]], thought to be located at [[Kirkuk|city of Kirkuk]].<ref name="Bryce">{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=Trevor|date=2009|title=The Routledge Handbook of The People and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1aF0hq1GR8C&pg=PA67|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-15908-6|pages=67–68|accessdate=27 October 2012}}</ref>

In 1948, ''Arrapha'' became the name of the residential area in Kirkuk which was built by the [[North Oil Company]] as a settlement for its workers.

==History==
The first written record of Arrapha is attested from the [[Neo-Sumerian Empire]] (c. 22nd to 21st century BC).<ref name="Bryce" /> Ancient Arrapha was a part of [[Sargon of Akkad]]'s [[Akkadian Empire]] (2335–2154 BC),<ref name=CAHipi433>{{Harvnb|Edwards|Charlesworth|Boardman|1970|p=433}}</ref> and the city was exposed to the raids of the [[Lullubi]] during [[Naram-Sin of Akkad|Naram-Sin's]] reign.<ref name=CAHipi443>{{Harvnb|Edwards|Charlesworth|Boardman|1970|p=443}}</ref>

The city was occupied around 2150 BC by the [[Gutian people|Gutians]] before that empire was destroyed and the Gutians driven from [[Mesopotamia]] by the [[Neo-Sumerian Empire]] c. 2090 BC.<ref name="William Gordon East 1961">{{cite book|last1=East|first1=William Gordon|last2=Spate |first2=Oskar Hermann Khristian|year=1961|title=The Changing Map of Asia: A Political Geography|page=105}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Roux|first=Georges|year=1992|title=Ancient Iraq|isbn=9780141938257|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klZX8B_RzzYC}}</ref>

Arrapha was an important trading center in the 18th century BC under Assyrian and Babylonian rule.<ref name="Bryce" /> However, during the 15th and early 14th centuries BC, it was again a largely [[Hurrian]] city, the capital of the small Hurrian kingdom of Arrapha, situated along the southeastern edge of the area under [[Mitanni]] domination.<ref name="Bryce" /><ref name="wood.army.mil" /><ref name="M. Chahin p. 77" /> This kingdom was a vassal of [[Mitanni]], which had units of chariots stationed in Arraphian cities such as [[Lubdu]], Arwa and Arn-apuwe.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Qader |first1=Asoss M. |title=Arrapḫa (Kirkuk) von den Anfängen bis 1340 v. Chr. nach keilschriftlichen Quellen |date=2013 |publisher=Universität Würzburg |location=Würzburg |pages=121, 124 |url=https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/opus4-wuerzburg/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/12664/file/Dissertation_Qader_Asoss.pdf |access-date=1 March 2024}}</ref> During the [[Middle Assyrian Empire]] (1365–1050 BC), it was fully incorporated into [[Assyria]], after the Assyrian forces had defeated the [[Hurrians|Hurrian]] kingdom of [[Mitanni]].<ref name="Bryce" /><ref name="wood.army.mil">Kimmons, Sergeant Sean. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20050518222030/http://www.wood.army.mil/ENGRMAG/PDFs%20for%20Oct-Dec%2004/Kimmons.pdf Soldiers Help Preserve Archeological Sites]".</ref><ref name="M. Chahin p. 77">M. Chahin. ''Before the Greeks'', p. 77.</ref>

The city reached great prominence in the 11th and 10th centuries BC as a part of Assyria. In 615 BC, seeing the Assyrians occupied with the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Babylonians]] and violent rebellions among themselves, the [[Medes|Median]] king [[Cyaxares]] successfully invaded Arrapha, which was one of the last strongholds of the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]].<ref>Martin Sicker. ''The Pre-Islamic Middle East'', Page 68.</ref><ref name="The Cambridge Ancient History' p. 178-179">I. E. S. Edwards, John Boardman, John B. Bury, S. A. Cook. ''The Cambridge Ancient History''. p. 178–179.</ref> The region later became part of the Persian ruled province of [[Athura]] ([[Achaemenid Assyria]]).

Arrapha then fell to the [[Macedonian Empire]], where it became a part of [[Seleucid Syria]] in its succeeding [[Seleucid Empire]] (''Syria'' being an [[Apheresis (linguistics)|aphetic]] form of ''Assyria''<ref>{{cite book|last=Joseph|first=John|author-link=John Joseph (historian)|date=2000|title=The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East: A History of Their Encounter with Western Christian Missions, Archaeologists, and Colonial Powers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79wj2hj4wKUC|access-date=7 May 2020|series=Studies in Christian Mission|volume=26|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|pages=20–21|isbn=9789004116412}}</ref>). Arrapha is mentioned as such until [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] times, at which point the settlement was refounded under the [[Syriac language|Syriac]] name '''Karka''' ({{lang|syc|ܟܪܟܐ}}).<ref name="Bryce" />

Between the mid 2nd century BC and mid 3rd century AD, during the [[Parthian Empire]] and early [[Sassanid Empire]] the site was mentioned in [[Syriac language|Syriac]] scripts of Christian priest as [[Beth Garmai]], apart from a brief interregnum in the early 2nd century AD when it became a part of the [[Corduene (Roman province)|Roman Province of Corduene]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Mohsen|first=Zakeri|title=Sasanid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of 'Ayyārān and Futuwwa|year=1995|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-03652-8|page=135|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfYnu5F20coC&pg=PA135}}</ref> The Sassanids conquered the patchwork of independent Assyrian states in the mid to late 3rd century AD, and Arrapha was incorporated into Sassanid-ruled [[Garmekan]] until the [[Arabs|Arab]] [[Spread of Islam|Islamic conquest]] of the mid 7th century AD, when Assuristan was dissolved and Arrapha-Karka eventually became [[Kirkuk]].

Arrapha has not been excavated yet, due to its location beneath modern Kirkuk.<ref name="Bryce" />

==See also==
*[[Cities of the ancient Near East]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book|last1=Edwards|first1=Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen|last2=Charlesworth|first2=Martin Percival|last3=Boardman|first3=John |title=The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol. 1, part 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HPPgAAAAMAAJ|access-date=3 January 2013|year=1970|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521077910}}

{{coord|35.4500|N|44.3833|E|source:wikidata|display=title}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC]]
[[Category:Ancient Assyrian cities]]
[[Category:Hurrian cities]]
[[Category:Sargon of Akkad]]
[[Category:History of Kirkuk]]