Qinnasrin

Qinnasrin
قنسرين
	Shown within Syria
Location	Syria
Region	Aleppo Governorate
Coordinates	35°59′15″N 37°2′34″E / 35.98750°N 37.04278°E

Qinnašrīn (

Latin: Chalcis ad Belum;^[3] Greek: Χαλκὶς, translit. Khalkìs), was a historical town in northern Syria. The town was situated 25 km (16 mi) southwest of Aleppo on the west bank of the Queiq (historically, the Belus) and was connected to Aleppo

with a major road during Roman times.

Some scholars propose that the ruins of Qinnašrīn are located at

Al-Iss, Aleppo Governorate to the west of the river.^[4] Others think that Qinnasrin has always been located at al-Iss from the Hellenistic to the Ayyubid period.^[5]

History

Hellenistic and Roman periods

Roman road connecting between Antioch

and Qinnasrin, then called Chalcis

According to

Baʿal.^[7] In 92 AD, Chalcis received the title "Flavia", in honor of Emperor Domitian, to be known as "Flavia of the Chalcidonese".^[8]

Late Roman and Byzantine period

The city was a Christian

Chosroes I.^[10]

In

Khosrau I appeared before the city and extracted 200 pounds of gold as ransom in return for sparing the city. This prompted the Emperor Justinian I to order its fortifications rebuilt, a work undertaken by Isidore the Younger (a nephew of Isidore of Miletus) in c. 550.^[11]

The Sassanids occupied the city in 608/9, during the

Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602–628, and kept it until the war's end.^[11]

Early Islamic period

Barely ten years later, in 636/7, it

conquered by the Arabs after a brief resistance.^[11] The Arab general Khalid ibn al-Walid took up residence in the city thereafter.^[12] The Umayyad caliph Yazid I (r. 680–683) ordered its walls to be demolished.^[13] He or his father and predecessor Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) made Qinnasrin the center of its own jund (military district), called Jund Qinnasrin, within the greater administrative region of Islamic Syria.^[14] They utilized the city as an important army headquarters, though until the mid-10th century there were no recorded events of significance relating to Qinnasrin.^[13]

By 943, during

Ikhshidids of Egypt in 945. During the second half of the 10th century, the city became a frequent conflict zone between the Byzantines and Hamdanids during the latter stages of the Arab–Byzantine wars.^[13] Upon news of an impending Byzantine assault, the inhabitants evacuated in 963 though they returned afterward.^[13] Three years later, Sayf al-Dawla made a stand against the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas at Qinnasrin, but ultimately retreated and evacuated its residents, after which the Byzantines set fire to its mosques.^[13] The inhabitants then made their abode partly in areas east of the Euphrates and partly in Aleppo.^[13] Within several years, Qinnasrin was repopulated but destroyed again by the Byzantines in 998.^[13] It was rebuilt, but once more sacked by the Byzantines in 1030.^[13]

The Persian geographer

Harim.^[13]