1. Name

2. History

3. Climate

4. List of rulers

5. Modern Hatra
     Destruction by ISIL  

6. Gallery

7. See also

8. References

9. External links

Hatra was an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate of present-day Iraq. The city lies {{convert|290|km|mi|abbr=on}} northwest of Baghdad and {{convert|110|km|mi|abbr=on}} southwest of Mosul.

Hatra was a strongly fortified caravan city and capital of the small Kingdom of Araba, located between the Roman and Parthian/Persian empires. Hatra flourished in the 2nd century, and was destroyed and deserted in the 3rd century. Its impressive ruins were discovered in the 19th century.^[1]

Name

Hatra is known as al-Hadr ({{lang|ar|الحضر}} {{transl|ar|DIN|al-Ḥaḍr}}) in modern Arabic. Its is recorded as ḥṭrʾ (Ḥaṭrā) in Hatran Aramaic inscriptions, probably meaning "enclosure, hedge, fence". In Syriac it is usually recorded in plural form Ḥaṭrē. In Roman works it is recorded as Greek Átra and Latin: {{lang|la|Hatra}} and {{lang|la|Hatris}}.^[1]

The city was officially called Beit ʾElāhāʾ, literally "House of God", in Hatran Aramaic inscriptions^[2] and once recorded as "Hatra of Shamash" (ḥtrʾ d-šmš) on a coin.^[1]

History

Some believe Hatra may have been built by the Assyrians or possibly in the 3rd or 2nd century BC under the influence of the Seleucid Empire, but there is no reliable information on the city before the Parthian period.^[3] Hatra flourished under the Parthians, during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, as a religious and trading center.^[4] Later on, the city became the capital of possibly the first Arab Kingdom in the chain of Arab cities running from Hatra, in the northeast, via Palmyra, Baalbek and Petra, in the southwest. The region controlled from Hatra was the Kingdom of Araba, a semi-autonomous buffer kingdom on the western limits of the Parthian Empire, governed by Arabian princes.

Hatra became an important fortified frontier city and withstood repeated attacks by the Roman Empire, and played an important role in the Second Parthian War. It repulsed the sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199).^[5] Hatra defeated the Persians at the battle of Shahrazoor in 238, but fell to the Persia's Sassanid Empire of Shapur I in 241 and was destroyed.^[5] The traditional stories of the fall of Hatra tell of al-Nadirah, daughter of the King of Araba, who betrayed the city into the hands of Shapur as she fell in love with him. The story tells of how Shapur killed the king and married al-Nadirah, but later had her killed also after realizing her ingratitude towards her father.^[4][6]

}}Hatra was the best preserved and most informative example of a Parthian city. Its plan was circular,^[7] and was encircled by inner and outer walls nearly {{convert|2|km|mi}} in diameter^[8] and supported by more than 160 towers. A temenos (τέμενος) surrounded the principal sacred buildings in the city's centre. The temples covered some 1.2 hectares and were dominated by the Great Temple, an enormous structure with vaults and columns that once rose to 30 metres. The city was famed for its fusion of Greek, Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Aramean and Arabian pantheons, known in Aramaic as {{transl|sem|Beiṯ Ĕlāhā}} ("House of God"). The city had temples to Nergal (Assyrian-Babylonian and Akkadian), Hermes (Greek), Atargatis (Syro-Aramaean), Allat, Shamiyyah (Arabian), and Shamash (the Mesopotamian sun god).^[4] Other deities mentioned in the Hatran Aramaic inscriptions were the Aramaean Ba'al Shamayn, and the female deity known as Ashurbel, which was perhaps the assimilation of the two deities the Assyrian god Ashur and the Babylonian Bel—despite their being individually masculine.

Climate

Hatra has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh). Most rain falls in the winter. The average annual temperature in Hatra is {{convert|20.7|°C|1}}. About {{convert|257|mm|2|abbr=on}} of precipitation falls annually.

List of rulers

In inscriptions found at Hatra, several rulers are mentioned. Other rulers are sporadically mentioned by classical authors. They appear with two titles. The earlier rulers are titled mrjʾ (māryā, "lord"), the later ones mlkʾ (malkā, "king").^[1]

Modern Hatra

Hatra was used as the setting for the opening scene in the 1973 film The Exorcist,^[9] and since 1985 has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.^[10]

From 1987 the Italian Archaeological Expedition,^[13] directed by R. Ricciardi Venco (University of Turin), has worked at Hatra. The excavations were focused on an important house ("Building A"^[14]), located close to the Temenos, and on deep soundings in the Temenos central area.^[15] Now the Expedition is active in different projects regarding the preservation and development of the archaeological site.^[16]

In 2004, The Daily Telegraph stated "Hatra's finely preserved columns and statues make it one of the most impressive of Iraq's archaeological sites"^[17]

Destruction by ISIL

Actions by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which occupied the area in mid-2014, have been a major threat to Hatra. In early 2015 they announced their intention to destroy many artifacts, claiming that such "graven images" were un-Islamic, encouraged shirk (or polytheism), and could not be permitted to exist, despite the preservation of the site for 1,400 years by various Islamic regimes. ISIL militants pledged to destroy the remaining artifacts. Shortly thereafter, they released a video showing the destruction of some artifacts from Hatra.^[18][19] After the bulldozing of Nimrud on March 5, 2015, "Hatra of course will be next" said Abdulamir Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist from Stony Brook University.^[20] On March 7, Kurdish and Iraqi official sources reported ISIS had begun the demolishing the ruins of Hatra.^[21][22] A video released by ISIL during the next month showed the destruction of the monuments.^[23]

UNESCO and ISESCO issued a joint statement saying "With this latest act of barbarism against Hatra, (the IS group) shows the contempt in which it holds the history and heritage of Arab people."^[24]

The pro-Iraqi government Popular Mobilization Forces captured the city on 26 April 2017.^[25] A spokeswoman for the militias stated that ISIL had destroyed the sculptures and engraved images of the site, but its walls and towers were still standing though contained holes and scratches received from ISIL bullets. PMF units also stated that the group had mined the site's eastern gates, thus temporarily preventing any assessment of damage by archaeologists.^[26] It was reported on 1 May that the site had suffered less damage than feared earlier. A journalist of EFE had earlier reported finding many destroyed statues, burnt buildings as well as signs of looting. Layla Salih, head of antiquities for Nineveh Governorate, stated that most of the buildings were intact and the destruction didn't compare with that of other archaeological sites of Iraq. A PMF commander also stated that the damage was relatively minor.^[27]

Gallery

See also

• Aramaic of Hatra
• Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
• Taq-i Kisra, sharing architectural features with structures at Hatra

References

External links

• [https://www.academia.edu/987346/Between_Rome_and_Parthia_The_desert_city_of_Hatra Between Rome and Parthia: The Desert City of Hatra]
• http://lexicorient.com/e.o/hathra.htm
• http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9039509
• http://shezaf.net/english/Video/Video/Hatra.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/chronicle/8612.shtml BBC Chronicle "Lost Kings of the Desert"
• https://hatrasite.com/ Italian Archaeological Expedition at Hatra
• Iraqi forces seize ancient UNESCO site of Hatra from Islamic State as jihadis execute Mosul civilians

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