Dee Finney's blog August 24, 2014 page 734 HARRAN, MESOPOTAMIA

NOTE: THIS IS JUST ONE OF THE NAMES I'VE SEEN IN MY DREANS THE LAST FEW DAYS WHILE READING ABOUT THE ANUNNAKI. THAT MAKES ME THINK THIS IS ONE OF THE INPORTANT PLACES IN HISTORY

A few kilometers from the village of Altınbaşak are the archaeological remains of ancient Harran, a major commercial, cultural, and religious center first inhabited in the Early Bronze Age III (3rd millennium BCE) period. It was known as Ḫarrānu in the Assyrian period; possibly Ḫaran (חָרָן) in the Hebrew Bible;Carrhae (Κάρραι in Greek) under the Roman and Byzantine empires; Hellenopolis (῾Ελληνὀπολις 'Greek city') in the Early Christian period; and Ḥarrān (حرّان) in the Islamic period.

History

The earliest records of Harran come from Ebla tablets (late 3rd millennium BCE). From these, it is known that an early king or mayor of Harran had married an Eblaite princess, Zugalum, who then became "queen of Harran", and whose name appears in a number of documents.It appears that Harran remained a part of the regional Eblaite kingdom for some time thereafter.

Royal letters from the city of Mari on the middle of the Euphrates, have confirmed that the area around the Balikh river remained occupied in c. the 19th century BCE. A confederation of semi-nomadic tribes was especially active around the region near Harran at that time.

Merchant outpost

By the 19th century BCE, Harran was established as a merchant outpost due to its ideal location. The community, well established before then, was situated along a trade route between the Mediterranean and the plains of the middle Tigris. It lay directly on the road from Antioch eastward to Nisibis and Ninevah. The Tigris could be followed down to the delta to Babylon. The 4th-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (325/330–after 391) said, “From there (Harran) two different royal highways lead to Persia: the one on the left through Adiabene and over the Tigris; the one on the right, through Assyria and across the Euphrates.” Not only did Harran have easy access to both the Assyrian and Babylonian roads, but also to north road to the Euphrates that provided easy access to Malatiyah and Asia Minor.

According to Roman authors such as Pliny the Elder, even through the classical period, Harran maintained an important position in the economic life of Northern Mesopotamia.

Ruins of the University at Harran. It was one of the main Ayyubid buildings of the city, built in the classical revival style.

In its prime Harran was a major Assyrian city which controlled the point where the road from Damascus joins the highway between Nineveh and Carchemish. This location gave Harran strategic value from an early date. Because Harran had an abundance of goods that passed through its region, it became a target for raids. In the 18th century, Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I (1813 – 1781 BCE) launched an expedition to secure the Harranian trade route.

Assyrian period

In the 13th century BCE, Assyrian king Adad-Nirari I reported that he conquered the "fortress of Kharani" and annexed it as a province. It is frequently mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions as early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I, about 1100 BCE, under the name Harranu (Akkadian harrānu, "road, path; campaign, journey"). Tiglath-Pileser had a fortress there, and mentioned that he was pleased with the abundance of elephants in the region.

10th-century BCE inscriptions reveal that Harran had some privileges of fiscal exemption and freedom from certain forms of military obligations. It had even been termed as the "free city of Harran". However, in 763 BCE, it was sacked by a Harranian rebellion against Assyrian control that resulted in the loss of those privileges. Not until Sargon II restored order, in the late 8th century BCE, were those privileges restored.

Median period

During the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Harran became the stronghold of its last king, Ashur-uballit II, who had retreated from Nineveh when it was sacked by Nabopolassar of Babylon and his Median allies in 612 BC. Harran was besieged and conquered by Nabopolassar and Cyaxares in 610 BC. It was briefly retaken by Ashur-uballit II and his Egyptian allies in 609 BC before it definitely fell to the Medes and Babylonians. The last king of the Neo-Babylonian period, Nabonidus, also originated from Harran as substantiated by evidence from the temple of stele of his mother Adad-Guppi, who is suspected by some to be of Assyrian origin. The city became a bastion for the worship of the moon god during the rule of Nabonidus from 555-536 BC, much to the consternation of the city of Babylon in the south where Marduk remained the primary deity.

Persian period

Harran became part of the Median Empire after the fall of Assyria, and subsequently passed to the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in the 6th century BCE. It became part of the Persian province of Athura, the Persian word for Assyria. The city remained in Persian hands until 331 BCE, when the soldiers of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great entered the city.

Seleucid period

After the death of Alexander on June 11, 323 BCE, the city was contested by his successors: Perdiccas, Antigonus Monophthalmus, and Eumenes visited the city, but eventually it became part of the realm of Seleucus I Nicator, of the Seleucid Empire, and capital of a province called Osrhoene (the Greek rendering of the old name Urhai). For one and a half centuries the town flourished, and became independent when the Parthian dynasty of Persia occupied Babylonia. The Parthian and Seleucid kings were both happy with a buffer state, and the dynasty of the Arabian Abgarides, technically a vassal of the Parthian "king of kings", was to rule Osrhoene for centuries. The main language spoken in Oshroene was Aramaic.

Roman period

In Roman times, Harran was known as Carrhae, and was the location of the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE, in which the Parthians, commanded by general Surena, defeated a large Roman army under the command of Crassus, who was killed.

Centuries later, the emperor Caracalla was murdered here at the instigation of Macrinus (217). The emperor Galerius was defeated nearby by the Parthians' successors, the Sassanid dynasty of Persia, in 296 CE.

The city remained in Roman hands until 609/610 CE, when the Persian general Shahrbaraz completed conquering of Oshroene. The city returned to Roman control after the successful offensive of emperor Heraclius in 620s. A few years later, in AH 19 (640), it was conquered by the Muslim Arab general ′Iyāḍ b. Ghanm.

Early Islamic Harran

At the beginning of the Islamic period Harran was located in the land of the Mudar tribe (Diyar Mudar), the western part of northern Mesopotamia (Jazira). Along with ar-Ruha' (Şanlıurfa) and Ar-Raqqah it was one of the main cities in the region. During the reign of the Umayyad caliph Marwan II Harran became the seat of the caliphal government of the Islamic empire stretching from Spain to Central Asia.

It was allegedly the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun who, while passing through Harran on his way to a campaign against the Byzantine Empire, forced the Harranians to convert to one of the "religions of the book", meaning Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. The pagan people of Harran identified themselves with the Sabians in order to fall under the protection of Islam. Aramaean and Assyrian Christians remained Christian. Sabians were mentioned in the Qur'an, but those were a group of Mandaeans (aGnostic sect) living in southern Mesopotamia. The relationship of the Harranian Sabians to the ones mentioned in the Qur'an is a matter of dispute. The Harranians may have identified themselves as Sabians in order to retain their religious beliefs.

During the late 8th and 9th centuries Harran was a centre for translating works of astronomy, philosophy, natural sciences, and medicine from Greek to Syriac by Assyrians, and thence to Arabic, bringing the knowledge of the classical world to the emerging Arabic-speaking civilization in the south. Baghdad came to this work later than Harran. Many important scholars of natural science, astronomy, and medicine originate from Harran; they were non-Arab and non-Islamic ethnic Assyrians, including possibly the alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān.

The end of the Mandaeans

In 1032 or 1033 the temple of the Sabians was destroyed and the urban community extinguished by an uprising of the rural 'Alid-Shiite population and impoverished Muslim militias. In 1059–60 the temple was rebuilt into a fortified residence of the Numayrids, an Arab tribe assuming power in the Diyar Mudar (western Jazira) during the 11th century. The Zangid ruler Nur al-Din Mahmud transformed the residence into a strong fortress.

The Crusades

At the end of 12th century Harran served together with ar-Raqqah as a residence of Kurdish Ayyubid princes. The Ayyubid ruler of the Jazira, Al-Adil I, again strengthened the fortifications of the castle. In the 1260s the city was completely destroyed and abandoned during the Mongol invasions of Syria. The father of the famous Hanbalite scholar Ibn Taymiyyah was a refugee from Harran, settling in Damascus. The 13th-century Arab historian Abu al-Fida describes the city as being in ruins.

Modern Harran

Harran is famous for its traditional 'beehive' adobe houses, constructed entirely without wood. The design of these makes them cool inside (essential in this part of the world) and is thought to have been unchanged for at least 3,000 years. Some were still in use as dwellings until the 1980s. However, those remaining today are strictly tourist exhibits, while most of Harran's population lives in a newly built small village about 2 kilometres away from the main site.

At the historical site the ruins of the city walls and fortifications are still in place, with one city gate standing, along with some other structures. Excavations of a nearby 4th-century BC burial mound continue under archaeologist Dr Nurettin Yardımcı.

The new village is poor and life is hard in the hot weather on this plain. The people here are now ethnic Arabs and live by long-established traditions. It is believed that these Arabs were settled here during the 18th century by the Ottoman Empire. The women of the village are tattooed and dressed in traditional Bedouin clothes. The Assyrians who once occupied the area for thousands of years have moved to other areas, although there are some Assyrian villages in the general area.

By the late 1980s the large plain of Harran had fallen into disuse as the streams of Cüllab and Deysan, its original water-supply had dried up. But the plain is irrigated by the recent Southeastern Anatolia Project and is becoming green again. Cotton and rice can now be grown.

Religion

The city was the chief home of the Mesopotamian moon god Sin, under the Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians/Chaldeans and even into Roman times.

According to an early Arabic work known as Kitab al-Magall or the Book of Rolls (part ofClementine literature), Harran was one of the cities built by Nimrod, when Peleg was 50 years old. The Syriac Cave of Treasures (c. 350) contains a similar account of Nimrod's building Harran and the other cities, but places the event when Reu was 50 years old. The Cave of Treasures adds an ancient legend that not long thereafter, Tammuz was pursued to Harran by his wife's lover, B'elshemin, and that he (Tammuz) met his fate there when the city was then burnt.

NOTE: NIMROD WAS A MAJOR ANUNNAKI PERSONAGE - SON OF NOAH WHO HAD BEEN CONSCIOUSNESSLY

PERFECTED BY THOTH WHO WAS A GENIUS ANUNNAKI CREATOR OF HUMANITY

The pagan residents of Harran also maintained the tradition well into the 10th century AD, of being the site of Tammuz' death, and would conduct elaborate mourning rituals for him each year, in the month bearing his name.

However, the Islamic historian Al-Masudi in his Meadows of Gold (c. 950), as well as the Christian historian Bar Hebraeus (13th century), both recounted a legend that Harran had been built by Cainan (the father of Abraham's ancestor Shelah in some accounts), and had been named for another son of Cainan called Harran.

Sin's temple was rebuilt by several kings, among them the Assyrian Assur-bani-pal (7th century BCE) and the Neo-Babylonian Nabonidus (6th century BCE). Herodian (iv. 13, 7) mentions the town as possessing in his day a temple of the moon.

Harran was a centre of Assyrian Christianity from early on, and was the first place where purpose-built churches were constructed openly. However, although a bishop resided in the city, many people of Harran retained their ancient pagan faith during the Christian period, and ancient Mesopotamian/Assyrian gods such as Sin and Ashur were still worshipped for a time. In addition the Mandean religion, a form of Gnosticism, was born in Harran.

THE NIMROD - TAMMUZ CONNECTION

The Origin Of Easter

Easter is an event that is honored by nearly all of contemporary Christianity as the resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. This tradition is so well established that it is believed to have begun with the resurrection of our Saviour and instituted by His apostles in the first century in commemoration of that event.

However, the celebration of Easter has a long history going back to the time after the Flood. Ham, the grandson of Noah had a son named Cush who married a woman named Semiramis. Cush and Semiramis then had a son and named him "Nimrod." After the death of his father, Nimrod married his own mother and became a powerful King.

The Bible tells of this man, Nimrod, in Genesis 10:8-10. Nimrod became a god-man to the people and Semiramis, his wife and mother, became the powerful Queen of ancient Babylon. They developed what became the mystery religion of Babylon.

The Mystery Religion

Nimrod was killed because of his violence and iniquity against the true and living God and his body was cut in pieces and sent to various parts of his kingdom. His wife/mother told the people of Babylon that Nimrod had ascended to the sun and was now to be called "Baal", the sun god. Semiramis was creating a mystery religion, and with the help of Satan, she set herself up as a goddess. Semiramis claimed that she was immaculately conceived. She taught that the moon was a goddess that went through a 28 day cycle and ovulated when full and that she had come down from the moon in a giant moon egg that fell into the Euphrates River at sunrise at the time of the first full moon after the spring equinox, on a Sunday. Semiramis became known as "Ishtar" which is pronounced "Easter" referred to as Ashtoreth in scripture, and her moon egg became known as "Ishtar's" egg." One of her titles was the Queen of Heaven, and two of her fertility symbols were the rabbit and the egg. She soon became pregnant and claimed that it was the rays of the sun-god Baal (the ascended Nimrod) that caused her to conceive.

The son that she brought forth was named Tammuz. Tammuz was believed to be the son of the sun-god, Baal. Tammuz, like his supposed father, became a hunter. The day came when Tammuz was killed by a wild pig. Queen Ishtar told the people that Tammuz was now ascended to his father, Baal, and that the two of them would be with the worshipers in the sacred candle or lamp flame as Father, Son and Spirit.

Ishtar, who was now worshiped as the "Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven", continued to build her mystery religion. The queen told the worshipers that when Tammuz was killed by the wild pig, some of his blood fell on the stump of an evergreen tree, and the stump grew into a full new tree overnight. This made the evergreen tree sacred by the blood of Tammuz.

She also proclaimed a forty day period of time of sorrow for each year prior to the anniversary of the death of Tammuz. During this time, no meat was to be eaten - this is what became known as Lent" in Roman Catholic tradition. Worshipers were to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of Baal and Tammuz, and to make the sign of the "Tau" (a cross) in front of their hearts as they worshiped. They also ate sacred cakes with the marking of a "T" or a cross, on the top. Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. It was Ishtar's Sunday and was celebrated with rabbits and eggs. Ishtar also proclaimed that because Tammuz was killed by a pig, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.

Ishtar, (Semiramis, widow of Nimrod, mother of Tammuz) came to be represented as the bare breasted pagan fertility goddess of the east. The original pagan festival of "Easter" was a sex orgy that celebrated the return of life via the fertility of Ishtar's conception of Tammuz. Worshipers of the Babylonian religion celebrated the conception of Tammuz on the first Sunday after the Full Moon that followed the Spring Equinox. They celebrated it by baking cakes to Ishtar, getting drunk, engaging in sex orgies and prostitution in the temple of Ishtar. Women were required to celebrate the conception of Tammuz by lying down in the temple and having sex with whoever entered. The man was required to leave her money. Babies were sacrificed in the honor of these pagan gods and their blood was consumed by the worshipers. The priest of Easter would sacrifice infants (human babies) and take the eggs of Easter/Ishtar, as symbols of fertility, and die them in the blood of the sacrificed infants (human babies). The Easter eggs would hatch on December 25th (nine months later), the same day her son Tammuz the reincarnate sun-god would be born.

NOTE: DAVID ICKE MENTIONS SEMIRAMIS FREQUENTLY IN HIS LECTURES. SHE IS STILL VENERATED

HIGHLY BY THE SECRET GROUPS OF THE WORLD

This is where the practice of coloring "easter eggs" came from. Many babies would be born around Dec 25 from the sex orgies that began on the feast of Ishtar in the Spring and many of these babies would be sacrificed the following Easter/Ishtar feast .

It was also common for pagans to bake cakes to offer to her (the Queen of heaven) on the Friday before the Easter festival. This is where we gained the custom of 'hot cross buns', with the “cross” symbol indicating the female (the Babylonian symbol for the “female” was, and is, a circle with a crux/cross beneath). The cross also indicated the Equinox, when the Earth’s orbit “crossed” the celestial equator.

Jeremiah spoke against this practice and pronounced God's judgment against them for these practices (Jeremiah 7:17-19; 44:19-29). Ezekiel also speaks against the celebration of the rites of Ishtar which were taking place in the temple and the weeping for Tammuz (Ezek. 8:14) refers to the mourning process of the death/resurrection symbolism of Easter, Ishtar weeping for the death of her son Tammuz which the women were obliged to emulate.

The fertility rites were extended to agricultural processes and to ensure a prosperous growing season, Pagans rolled eggs decorated with the bright colors of Spring in their fields, hoping to imbue fertility. These eggs were then hidden from “evil spirits” in rabbits’ nests, another symbol of fertility.

The Easter or Ishtar symbolism of the Sunday resurrection of the spring fertility cult (Easter, the Anglo-Saxon form of Ishtar), is a pagan system of worship that first penetrated Christianity in the second century. The symbolism stems from the death of Tammuz (or Dumuzi) on Friday and his resurrection on Sunday. This mirrors the grain and new shoot symbolism of the corn harvest which occurred at this time of the year. The 40 days of Lent were picked as one day for each year of his life since he died at age 40. The rest of the traditions of Easter were "Christianized" into the story of the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah.

NOTE: THE HANGING ON THE CROSS DEATH SCENARIO OF BENJOSEPH/ JESUS WAS A PLANNED

DEATH / INITIATION AND ONCE HE HEALED FROM HIS SEVERE INJURIES, HE TRAVELED TO

TEACH IN INDIA - HE WAS A POWERFUL HEALER/TEACHER WHO ALSO WAS THE TEACHER

OF RIGHTEOUSNESS TO THE ESSENE SECRETIVE GROUP - HE WAS KNOWN IN INDIA AS ISSA.

SEE THE BOOK: "POWER OF THE MAGDALENE"

Harran in scriptures

Abraham departs out of Haran by Francesco Bassano

Main article: Haran (biblical place)

Harran is, by virtually all scholars, associated with the biblical place Haran (Hebrew: חָרָן, transliterated: Charan). Prior to Sennacherib's reign (704–681 BCE), Harran rebelled from the Assyrians, who reconquered the city (see 2 Kings 19:12 and Isaiah 37:12) and deprived it of many privileges – which King Sargon II later restored.

Biblical Haran was where Terah, his son Abram (Abraham), his grandson Lot, and Abram's wife Sarai settled en route to Canaan, coming from Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:26–32). The region of this Haran is referred to variously as Paddan Aramand Aram Naharaim. Genesis 27:43 makes Haran the home of Laban and connects it with Isaac and Jacob: it was the home of Isaac's wife Rebekah, and their son Jacob spent twenty years in Haran working for his uncle Laban (cf. Genesis 31:38&41).

Very little is known about the pre-mediaeval levels of Harran, especially for the patriarchal times. (Lloyd and Brice)

Archaeology

T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") surveyed the ancient Harran site. Decades later, in 1950, Seton Lloyd conducted a three-week archaeological survey there. An Anglo–Turkish excavation was begun in 1951, ending in 1956 with the death of D. S. Rice.

“The grand Mosque of Harran is the oldest mosque built in Anatolia as a part of the Islamic architecture. Also known as the Paradise Mosque, this monument was built by the last Ummayad caliph Mervan II between the years 744 -750. The entire plan of the mosque which has dimensions of 104x107 m, along with its entrances, was unearthed during the excavations led by Dr Nurettin Yardimer since 1983. The excavations are currently being carried out also outside the northern and western gates. The grand Mosque, which has remained standing up until today, with its 33.30 m tall minaret, fountain, mihrab, and eastern wall, has gone through several restoration processes”.

Notables

Al-Battani, Sabian astronomer and mathematician
Belshazzar, Nabonidus's son and regent
Hammad al-Harrani, Islamic scholar
Ibn Taymiyyah, Islamic scholar
Nabonidus, the last Neo-Babylonian king

Notes

Jump up^ "Area of regions (including lakes), km²". Regional Statistics Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. 2002. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
Jump up^ "Population of province/district centers and towns/villages by districts - 2012". Address Based Population Registration System (ABPRS) Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2013-02-27.
Jump up^ Tahir Sezen, Osmanlı Yer Adları (Alfabetik Sırayla), T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, Yayın Nu 21, Ankara, p. 223.
Jump up^ David Noel Freedman et al., Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible s.v. Haran
Jump up^ Encyclopedia of Islam, s.v. Ḥarrān
Jump up^ Holloway, Steven W. Aššur is King! Aššur is King! - Religion in the Exercise of Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, BRILL, 2002,ISBN 9-004-12328-8, p.391
Jump up^ G. Dossin, “Benjamites dans les Textes de Mari, “ ‘’Melanges Syriens Offerts a M. Rene Dussaud’’ (Paris, 1939), 986
Jump up^ Tamara M. Green,The city of the Moon god: religious traditions of Harran (ISBN 9004095136, ISBN 978-90-04-09513-7), 1992, p.19
Jump up^ Ammianus Marcellinus, R.G., XXIII.3.1
Jump up^ Pliny, ‘’Naturalis Historia’’, XII. 40
Jump up^ S. Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts (London, 1924), p.39
Jump up^ Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts, p.39
Jump up^ A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, New York, 1975, 96 (Fall of Nineveh chronicle).
Jump up^ G. Geatrex, S.N.C.Lieu (ed.). The Roman Eastern Frontiers and the Persian Wars - Part II AD 363-630, Rootledge, 2002, pp. 185-186
Jump up^ Kaegi, Walter (1992). Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests, Cambridge University Press, 2005 (digital edition), p. 172
Jump up^ "Geber".
Jump up^ H. W. F. Saggs, Neo-Babylonian Fragments from Harran, Iraq, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 166–169, 1969
Jump up^ C. J. Gadd, The Harran Inscriptions of Nabonidus, Anatolian Studies, vol. 8, pp. 35–92, 1958
Jump up^ Bienkowski & Millard. Dictionary of the ancient Near East (ISBN 0812235576, ISBN 978-0-8122-3557-9), 2000, p.140
Jump up^ Alexander & Baker. Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, (ISBN 0830817816, ISBN 978-0-8308-1781-8) 2003, p. 379
Jump up^ Seton Lloyd and William Brice, Harran, Anatolian Studies, vol. 1, pp. 77–111, 1951
Jump up^ David Storm Rice, "Medieval Harran. Studies on Its Topography and Monuments I", Anatolian Studies 2:36–84, 1952
Jump up^ Official noticeboard displayed on site

References

Chwolsohn, Daniil Abramovic, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, 2 vols. St. Petersburg, 1856. [Still a valuable reference and collection of sources]
Green, Tamara, The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran. Leiden, 1992.
Heidemann, Stefan, Die Renaissance der Städte in Nordsyrien und Nordmesopotamien: Städtische Entwicklung und wirtschaftliche Bedingungen in ar-Raqqa und Harran von der beduinischen Vorherrschaft bis zu den Seldschuken (Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and Texts 40). Leiden, 2002 .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harran, Şanlıurfa.

Harran in Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey

Ancient settlements in Turkey

UNESCO Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey